Archive | Dec 2007
Today on WalletPop
Festivus for the rest of us - The holiday made famous by George Kostanza on Seinfeld makes its way to the real world.
Continue reading...Today on WalletPop
21 Dec 2007
Budgeting woes: Where did all the money go? - A couple discovers they “lost” $10,000 this year. What Americans are buying - The 2008 Statistical Abstract of the United States, compiled by the Census Bureau. Changes coming to credit scores in 2008 - The credit agencies have a new way to rate your delinquencies in the coming [...]
Continue reading...Today it was The Tracy Coenen Show on WalletPop
20 Dec 2007
Today was an unusual day on AOL’s consumer finance blog WalletPop. We’ve got almost 20 people writing for the site, but today it seemed that no one was writing. I wrote several posts last night, and they ended up all going live today to fill the queue. So here’s the list of what I was [...]
Continue reading...Today on WalletPop
20 Dec 2007
Abusive debt collectors sent a loud (and expensive) message - A collection agency using illegal threats and racial slurs is handed a huge judgment against it by a court. A new and improved ‘Do Not Call’ coming soon to a dinnertime near you? - Proposed changes to the list could make it so that consumers don’t [...]
Continue reading...Fraud prevention podcast
19 Dec 2007
I recently recorded a podcast for AllBusiness on fraud prevention in small businesses. Chris Bjorklund and I sat down and talked about some of the risks and ways to prevent fraud in small companies. The podcast covers these issues, in addition to others: Simple internal controls that are often overlooked Components to be included in a code of [...]
Continue reading...Apparently, our government isn’t very accountable
18 Dec 2007
The Government Accountability Office has issued its 2007 report on the U.S. Government. In short, it appears that the government isn’t doing real well at keeping track of its assets nor of the money it spends. Just imagine if the U.S. Government was a public company subject to Sarbanes-Oxley rules. Yikes! In part the report states: A [...]
Continue reading...Notice to Americans: Slavery has been outlawed for a few years now
18 Dec 2007
A millionaire couple in New York has been convicted on charges related to keeping two slaves in their home. Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani and Varsha Mahender Sabhnani were both convicted of 12 federal counts of forced labor, conspiracy, involuntary servitude, and harboring aliens. The Sabhnanis apparently kept these women as slaves, paying them $100 to $150 a [...]
Continue reading...School administrator is quitting and wants a $230,000 going away gift
17 Dec 2007
Ummm… NO. It’s not in your contract. Buh-bye. But unfortunately, the school board is actually entertaining her request. Karen Petric, the 54 year-old superintendent of Witnall Schools wants to retire early. Her contract says that if she stays until summer 2010, she gets free health insurance until she’s eligible for Medicare. She wants that [...]
Continue reading...Woman gets a huge judgment against Equifax
14 Dec 2007
Equifax, one of the three big credit bureaus thought they could mess with Angela P. Williams. She said she spent over ten years trying to fix her credit records after her identity was confused with someone else. Williams took Equifax to court, and a jury awarded her $219,000 in actual damages plus $2.7 million in punitive [...]
Continue reading...It’s a sad, sad day
13 Dec 2007
Over on WalletPop, I posted about the story of Trig’s Minocqua Shell. This week, an employee made a mistake when closing the store. He was supposed to change the price of gas to $3.30. Instead, he changed it to 33 cents a gallon. He closed the store for the night, but the gas pumps were [...]
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.
21 Dec 2007
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