Archive | Feb 2008
Got the blogging blues?
Blogging can be great fun when you’ve got something to say and someone to say it to. My friends and family know that I love blogging. I like sharing info in (almost) real time with readers. I blog mostly about fraud and consumer scams, but I also like to write about entrepreneurship and how I [...]
Continue reading...Overstock.com: The “turnaround” that wasn’t
11 Feb 2008
2006 was a bad year for Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK). (As if any year isn’t bad for them?) Jason Lindsey even said that the 2006 numbers were “bad on purpose”: “All of the things we have talked about before as far as classifying all of our SKUs as either red and green and 80% of our — excuse [...]
Continue reading...You ask Google, I answer you.
11 Feb 2008
Here are some recent questions my readers posed to Google, with answers from me for quick reference. Is Eddie Antar still in prison? No. What happened to Flip This House? Richard Davis and A&E had a big fight and now they don’t do the show together anymore. Wesley Snipes punishment? He hasn’t been sentenced yet. He could get up to three [...]
Continue reading...Is fraud ever immaterial?
11 Feb 2008
A search that brought someone to my blog over the weekend gave me the idea for this post. Immateriality is a concept in accounting that amounts to “too small to matter.” Think of a company with $100 million in sales each year. If they made a mistake in recording their sales last year, and the [...]
Continue reading...Overstock.com: What are you hiding?
10 Feb 2008
The “Black Ops” train at Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) has been chugging full steam ahead over the last month, so that can only mean one thing… Patrick Byrne and his minions have something to hide. And indeed, the fourth quarter financial results were not so good. So in order to deflect your attention from the numbers and the [...]
Continue reading...Productivity Tip: Sign up for Stamps.com
10 Feb 2008
A couple of years ago, I didn’t understand why a friend of mine used Stamps.com. Who wants to pay $16 a month just for the privilege of printing their own postage, when you can go to the post office for free??? I quickly realized that going to the post office isn’t really free. How much time [...]
Continue reading...The Fair Tax explained
08 Feb 2008
This comment was posted earlier this week on WalletPop, in response to a discussion about loans from 401(k) plans. I generally advise against taking loans from your 401(k) or other retirement plan, because before you know it, that loan could turn into a distribution. (Example: The company you work for shuts down. You have [...]
Continue reading...My incredible book writing journey
07 Feb 2008
My first book, Essentials of Corporate Fraud, is not even done printing yet, and I am already starting to write my second book for John Wiley & Sons. How did I do it Well that’s all a bit of a mystery to me. You see, the process was all so easy. There was none of this [...]
Continue reading...Answering tax questions on WalletPop
06 Feb 2008
AOL is featuring me as their tax expert this season, and I’m answering all kinds of questions about income taxes on WalletPop. Below is the promotional piece from the AOL Money tax page. Feel free to run over to WalletPop and ask me a tax question… [...]
Continue reading...A Blackerry blackout?
05 Feb 2008
Are you sick of seeing people on their BlackBerrys??? Writing emails with their thumbs all day and all night… even during meetings or while they’re having lunch with you? Companies and individuals are trying to do something about it by having Blackouts… periods of times during which you have to turn off the device. If you’ve ever [...]
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.
12 Feb 2008
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