Fraud and White-Collar Crime Paper Example

1) Introduction

What: Fraud is an attempt at deceiving an individual, institution or an organization for financial benefit. This deceitful practice entails misrepresentation of material information greatly relied on by another party resulting in harm. Fraud is also the concealment of the material facts for the perpetrator to gain an advantage over the victim which results in the victim surrendering a valuable item or a legal right, causing loss and detriment to the victim.

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Who: an estimation done indicates that 85% of people in any given population would engage in fraud if they acquired the motivation that is pressure, opportunity and ability to do it. A lesser 5% would do it regardless of the situation or capacity; they would do it anyway. That leaves 10% of a population that would not involve themselves in fraud. In a 2011 KPMG study examining 348 fraud investigations in 69 countries, most perpetrators were individuals with a great understanding of their workplace, and were holders of senior management positions.

Where: this covers the aspect of the areas of fraud, location or means of communication and method of interaction. Fraud is carried out through an online advertisement, physical interaction between the parties which is glammed up to show professionalism by the perpetrator. Online commercials are an eye catcher for most victims of fraud. Communication via telephone as well as social media has been an avenue for fraudulent activities. Artifice is common in offices, supermarkets, malls, stores especially when purchasing a new product.

When: this addresses the time when swindling is mostly carried out. People are most vulnerable when they don't have money and are desperate. People will most certainly fall prey to a scam when they are in need to achieve a financial bout. Treachery is indulged when individuals have been laid off, fired or have retired from work. Retired individuals tend to be more vulnerable to scams. Businesses and companies are prone to being devious in their dealings when they are about to do a financial account of a fiscal year and have the motive to impress the shareholders in reporting profits (Policastro & Payne, 2015).

Why: 1) pressure. Compulsion is the need to fulfill a financial goal, to meet a necessity, to tackle a non-shareable problem. Problems will provide the much-needed motivation for violation of trust. Perpetrators are in need of status seeking, status maintenance as well as a sense of obligation to engage in fraud.

2) Opportunity. Only individuals in a position of control can circumvent the rules. The culprits are trained in the routine duties of the position of trust to exercise their authority and as a result violate the trust.

3) Rationalization. The violator's justify their logic for the crime by making their actions look legitimate and for the greater good, thus antagonizing any thought or person against their argument in a bid to solve their problems.

We can conclude that regardless of why the violator commits the crime, the stimulus and motivation based on selfish interests and greed.

2) Part of fraud

A federal judge in Las Vegas sentenced Michael Rossi to 63 months of prison time and three years of supervised release after that for managing a telemarketing scam involving committing mail and wire fraud. Evidence is portrayed in his role of executing the fraud operation aimed at afflicting elderly victims. His management role aided in defrauding the gullible elderly people in taking away their money. He steered the deed for Glen Burke who controlled the undertaking. The federal judge also sentenced Glen Burke to 87 months in prison on March 12. The telemarketers of the operation enticed the victims by misrepresenting information to enable them to defraud the victims.

The operators of the scam falsely enticed the victims with information about winning one of their five valuable prizes as stated in the documents filed in court included; a Boston Whaler boat, a Chevy Camaro, $3000 cash, a cruise that they could exchange with $2300 and a diamond and sapphire bracelet (Policastro & Payne, 2015). They would avail the prize after payment of money worth hundreds of dollars and some instances thousands of dollars which eventually turned out to being awarded nearly a worthless piece of jewelry and at times they were not granted any prize or item at all. The criminals led the victims to believe that they would bag possessions or a large sum of money upon compliance with the demands of the telemarketers. The text indicates that the fraudsters not only had the opportunity but the ability as well and considering the vulnerability of the elderly, the task was undemanding. The victims relied upon information that was doctored to harm them using trickery to make them surrender their money. The victims' losses as reflected in an order by U.S District Judge Jennifer A. Dorsey to pay in restitution was in excess of $ 2,785,508.36. Depicting that the amount of money collected illegally by the fraudsters was indeed a load of money which when averaged amounted to thousands of dollars from each individual.

In this context and fraud case, the perpetrators are people who have the opportunity and capability to pervert the truth for personal gains which cannot be necessarily pointed out. The motive and the necessary stimulus is evident especially in targeting the most culpable and gullible individuals in the society, the elderly. The material point, in this case is the winning of one of five of the valuable prizes but on condition that the victims must pay an amount of money to have the award availed, and later on they would contact them to mislead them that they could win a better prize by adding more money. The victims fell prey to the demands by believing they could win and as a result, surrendered their money only to realize that they would not be rewarded at all. The chapter 6 of the book provides ample information.

This case illustrates that fraud is detrimental not only to the victims but the perpetrators as well since the operation was shut down, and the perpetrators were convicted.

References

Department of Justice. Office of Public Affairs (25 June 2018).the Second defendant sentenced in multimillion-dollar telemarketing scam targeting elderly victims. https://www.justice.gov

Hahn, W. Miller, L. Rufus, R. (2015). Fraud and white-collar crime. 1st edition. Forensic Accounting. Pearson Education Inc.

Policastro, C., & Payne, B. K. (2015). Can you hear me now? Telemarketing fraud victimization and lifestyles. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 40(3), 620-638.