Archive | Aug 2007
Mortgage fraud moving up the priority ladder for prosecutors
Mortgage industry professionals are facing increased scrutiny by federal prosecutors in Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and New York, according to the Wall Street Journal. The FBI reports that 1,200 mortgage fraud cases are currently under investigation, compared with only 436 in 2003 and 818 in 2006. The Bureau wants to make it clear that mortgage [...]
Continue reading...Ladd McNamara still referring to himself as “Dr.” and “M.D.” after Fraud Discovery Institute reveals he has no license to practice medicine
19 Aug 2007
Ladd McNamara apparently has no regard for the rules of agencies that license physicians. Yesterday he opened a brand new blog, which he titles “Dr. Ladd McNamara’s Blog.” Too bad that on May 31, 2007, Barry Minkow and Fraud Discovery Institute released a report indicating that Mr. McNamara does not have a license to practice medicine. [...]
Continue reading...Milwaukee County needs forensic accountants again
19 Aug 2007
Last time it was the public museum. This time it’s the pension scandal. Revisited. Again. How many times do the taxpayers have to get screwed by the Milwaukee County Pension Board? The Pension Board has approved an “independent” investigation into the “pension buybacks,” and has acknowledged that the investigator will likely need the help of a forensic [...]
Continue reading...Book Publishing: How to write a book?
18 Aug 2007
I found this post about writing a book on Scott Berkun’s website. Scott is an author and consultant in the software industry. Apparently since he’s written a successful book, a lot of professionals come to him for advice about book writing. But the truth is that anyone can write a book, as Scott points out. But [...]
Continue reading...Millions of dollars stolen from federal government via “shipping fees”
18 Aug 2007
Twin sisters Charlene Corley and Darlene Wooten bilked the federal government out of millions with their company, C&D Distributors of Lexington, SC. The fraud totaled $20.5 million over six years and exploited a weakness in the Defense Department purchasing system. Bills for shipping items marked “priority” to combat areas or U.S. military bases were automatically [...]
Continue reading...New Usana insider post on Yahoo
16 Aug 2007
One more in a series of posts by the Usana insider on a Yahoo message board: on august 10 when we first got news of the nasd delisting and bought 130,000 shares through d a davidson. we spent exactly 4,793,659.00 on the august 10 to settle the account. can’t do that because we knew about the [...]
Continue reading...Another National Business Review article on Usana
16 Aug 2007
Helen Malmgren has written another article on Usana Health Sciences. The article says that Mr. Ladd MacNamara (not Dr.) sent NBR a letter regarding their reporting of his Usana situation:
Continue reading...Barry Minkow is hitting the big screen
15 Aug 2007
That’s right, folks. The scammer-turned-fraud-buster Barry Minkow is going to be hitting the big screen. The Hollywood Reporter says that IMG Film has acquired the rights to make a movie about Barry’s life. He was the youngest person ever to take a company public in the United States, but eventually spent over 7 years in [...]
Continue reading...Broker profits illegally from public offerings by banks
15 Aug 2007
Bert Fingerhut, a former Wall Street broker, is going to prison for two year for illegally obtaining stock in 65 public offerings by banks and profiting over $11 million from it. One such instance related to stock in Bank Mutual, from which Fingerhut allegedly profited $700,000. The Securities and Exchange Commission says Fingerhut engaged in his [...]
Continue reading...How Usana reports its NASDAQ delisting letter
14 Aug 2007
Reported to the public via a press release: USANA Health Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:USNA - News) today announced that the company has received an automated notice from the NASDAQ indicating that the Company’s recent quarterly report on form 10-Q is considered incomplete, because the financial information in the Form 10-Q was not reviewed by an independent [...]
Continue reading...- A new pyramid scheme: United First Financial
- Mary Kay Cosmetics: Destroying half a million women a year
- Ufirst Money Merge Account: Resistance is futile
- Vendor talks, Usana squawks
- United First Financial agent compensation plan
- The Sarah Palin pregnancy cover-up that wasn't (updated)
- Why can't I pee on my neighbor's lawn?
- $3,500 wasted with United First Financial, per Dave Ramsey
- What does Dave Ramsey think about United First Financial
- Searching for Shop to Earn scam
- Tracy Coenen: Detecting fraud is not an objective of audits. In fact, the...
- Craig Hansen: Joe beat me to it. If you really can cut your mortgage from 24...
- JoeTaxpayer: How’s that? Without even looking at a calculator, I can...
- Charles: Tracy - detecting fraud is one objective of an audit. I agree it is...
- Howard: You have no idea what u are talking about. I signed up for UFF and...
- Tracy Coenen: Charles - You may not go so far as to say that, but I will and...
- Charles: Tracy - I would not go as far as saying audits do “little to...
- Tracy Coenen: Here’s a good sample engagement letter:...
- Tracy Coenen: Thanks for your insightful comments Charles. The peer reviews...
- Tracy Coenen: No, they are not. I will post a letter or two.
- Planned Parenthood violating Indiana’s sexual abuse laws
- More public company executives with falsified credentials
- MPS spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants who will tell them they suck
- Milwaukee Public Schools wasteful spending exposed
- The Overstock.com train wreck continues
- United First Financial broker numbers and earnings
- No Surprise: The “bailout bill” is falling apart
- More gifts from the government for the financially irresponsible
- Credit card company bailout next?
- Election fraud and the future of America
About the Author
Tracy Coenen is a forensic accountant and fraud examiner who investigates white collar crimes, including cases of financial statement fraud, embezzlement, tax fraud, and insurance fraud. She is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud and more than 100 articles on fraud featured in industry publications.
20 Aug 2007
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