Handbook of Frauds, Scams, and Swindles: Failures of Ethics in Leadership

ISBN-13: 9781420072853 / Angielski / Miękka / 2008 / 414 str.

Matulich, Serge

Opis

It has been said that scammers and swindlers often display characteristics commonly attributed to good leadership. These include setting a vision, communicating it clearly, and motivating others to follow their lead. But when these skills are used by unconscionable people to satisfy greed, how can the average person recognize that foul play is afoot? Providing a unique account of frauds throughout modern history, Handbook of Frauds, Scams, and Swindles: Failures of Ethics in Leadership compiles narratives from around the world, including a number of highly-publicized cases. Leading financial and investigative experts have authored the individual chapters, yet the book maintains a reader-friendly style. The result is a text that is highly engaging and most importantly, provides regulators and investigators with an understanding of the motivations and behavior common to the individuals behind these life-damaging crimes. The book includes a wealth of stories, including famous cases such as Ponzi, ZZZZ Best, Enron, Parmalat, and Vivendi, along with lesser-known scandals involving both corporations and individuals. There is also a section on frauds perpetrated for motives other than financial rewards, including instances when the government performed experiments on humans without their knowledge or consent, as well as stories on frauds involving science and religion. A section detailing the Arthur Anderson debacle discusses the compounding of a fraud when the supposed watchdog plays a complicit role. And recognizing that not every issue is black or white, the book also explores whether a hoax perpetrated in the name of a noble cause can ever be justified. By reviewing the tactics used by swindlers and the motivations that turned good people crooked, investigators and others will come to recognize the red flags that accompany unscrupulous behavior. In doing so, they may well learn how to head off potential disaster.

Spis treści

Survival of the Fittest and Smartest
The Nature of Honesty: Exploring Examples of the Literary Hoax in America, N. M. Shelton
Price Adjustments under the Table, D. Levy
Greedy Individuals
Charles Ponzi, S. Pressman
Farm-Town Boy to International Fugitive, P. Kuhse, J.A. Ostrosky, L.M. Leinicke, and W.M. Rexroad
Oscar Hartzell and the Estate of Sir Francis Drake, S. Pressman
A Concrete Example of Fraud at the Fort Worth Independent School District, A.I. Barkman
My (S)old Kentucky Home: The Erpenbeck Homebuilder Case, J. Cashell, B. Ballou, and D.L. Heitger
ZZZZ Best: Taking Investors to the Cleaners, T. Isaacs
The City Slickers Share Price Scam,P. Barnes
Martin Frankel, S. Pressman
Scientific Cheating
Human Experimentation Involving Radiation, Syphilis, and Scurvy,M.T. Lee and J.A. Gailey
Doctoring the Data: Ethical Failures in Medical Research,K.L. Sisemore
From Fraud to Holocaust: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,C.J. Ferguson
Slimy Behavior
The China Aviation Oil Scandal,K.T. Jackson
The SH Oil and Gas Exploration Scandal,P.R. Murray
The Spanish Cooking Oil Scandal: Toxic Oil Syndrome or Cover-Up?, J.P. Johnson
Fraud in the Corporate World
Adelphia Communications: The Public Company That Became a Private Piggy Bank
A Case of Fraud in the Rigas Family Firm,R.E. Kidwell
High Stakes and High Energy at Enron: The Meteoric Rise and Fall of the “Crooked E”,S.F. Hallam and R.C. Mayer
The Inside Story of the Parmalat Scandal: Family Leadership Gone Wrong in a Multinational Group,B. Soltani and F. Soltani
Royal Ahold: Leadership Failure and “Big Bath” Accounting,B. Soltani and F. Soltani
The Vivendi Debacle: The Fallen Superstar,B. Soltani and F. Soltani
Watchdogs Caught Napping
The Fall of a Giant: The Case of Arthur Andersen & Co., B.K. Peterson Kramer and C.W. Johnson
The Fall of San Diego, D.V. Denison and J.L. Burke
United Airlines: Pensions, Profits, and Ethics,R.H. Fern and J.W. Spain
Unhealthy Developments
The HealthSouth “Family”,F.L. Malone and R. Pitre
Richard Scrushy: The Rise and Fall of the “King of Health Care”,  S.A. Solieri, A.J. Felo,
and J. Hodowanitz
See No Evil; Hear No Evil; Speak No Evil: Ernst & Young’s Ethical Responsibility for the HealthSouth Fraud,S.A. Solieri, A.J. Felo, and J. Hodowanitz

O autorze

Serge Matulich, David M. Currie