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Results for embezzlement

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Author: U.S. Government Accountability Office

Title: Guardianships: Cases of Financial Exploitation, Neglect, and Abuse of Seniors

Summary: As individuals age, some become incapable of managing their personal and financial affairs. To protect these individuals, state laws provide for court appointment of guardians, who may be professionals or family members, to protect the incapacitated person's personal and/or financial welfare. State and local courts are responsible for overseeing guardians. In addition, federal agencies may appoint a representative payee, in some cases, the guardian, to manage federal benefits on behalf of incapacitated adults. Previous GAO reports have found that poor communication between state courts and federal agencies may allow guardians to continue abusing their victims. GAO was asked to (1) verify whether allegations of abuse by guardians are widespread; (2) examine the facts in selected closed cases; and (3) proactively test state guardian certification processes. To verify whether allegations are widespread, GAO interviewed advocates for seniors and reviewed court documents. To examine closed criminal, civil or administrative cases with a finding of guilt or liability in the past 15 years, GAO reviewed court records, interviewed court officials, attorneys and victims, and reviewed records from federal agencies. To test state guardian certification, GAO used fictitious identities to apply for certification in four states. GAO's results cannot be projected to the overall population of guardians or state certification programs. GAO could not determine whether allegations of abuse by guardians are widespread; however, GAO identified hundreds of allegations of physical abuse, neglect and financial exploitation by guardians in 45 states and the District of Columbia between 1990 and 2010. In 20 selected closed cases, GAO found that guardians stole or otherwise improperly obtained $5.4 million in assets from 158 incapacitated victims, many of whom were seniors. In some instances, guardians also physically neglected and abused their victims. The guardians in these cases came from diverse professional backgrounds and were overseen by local courts in 15 states and the District of Columbia. GAO found several common themes. In 6 of 20 cases, the courts failed to adequately screen potential guardians, appointing individuals with criminal convictions or significant financial problems to manage high-dollar estates. In 12 of 20 cases, the courts failed to oversee guardians once they were appointed, allowing the abuse of vulnerable seniors and their assets to continue. Lastly, in 11 of 20 cases, courts and federal agencies did not communicate effectively or at all with each other about abusive guardians, allowing the guardian to continue the abuse of the victim and/or others. Using two fictitious identities--one with bad credit and one with the Social Security number of a deceased person -- GAO obtained guardianship certification or met certification requirements in the four states where we applied: Illinois, Nevada, New York, and North Carolina. Though certification is intended to provide assurance that guardians are qualified to fulfill their role, none of the courts or certification organizations utilized by these states checked the credit history or validated the Social Security number of the fictitious applicants. An individual who is financially overextended is at a higher risk of engaging in illegal acts to generate funds. In addition, people with criminal convictions could easily conceal their pasts by stealing a deceased person's identity. The tests raise questions about the effectiveness of these four state certification programs.

Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2010. 53p.

Source: Internet Resource: GAO-10-1046: Accessed October 29, 2010 at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d101046.pdf

Year: 2010

Country: United States

URL: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d101046.pdf

Shelf Number: 120124

Keywords:
Elder Abuse
Elderly Victims
Embezzlement
Financial Crimes
Fraud
Restitution

Author: Fan, C. Simon

Title: Embezzlement Versus Bribery

Summary: Corrupt officials can use their positions to enrich themselves in two ways. They can steal from the state budget-embezzling or misspending funds-or they can demand extra payments from citizens in return for services-bribery. In many circumstances, embezzlement is less distortionary than bribery. We analyze the tradeoff for governments in deciding how strictly to monitor and punish these two kinds of bureaucratic misbehavior. When bribery is more costly to economic development, governments may tolerate some embezzlement in order to reduce the extent of bribery-even though embezzlement is generally easier to detect. Embezzlement serves as a parallel to the "efficiency wage." This logic appears to hold in China, where misappropriation of public funds by officials appears to be ubiquitous.

Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2010. 38p.

Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper Series; Working Paper 16542: Accessed December 3, 2010 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w16542.pdf

Year: 2010

Country: International

URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w16542.pdf

Shelf Number: 120372

Keywords:
Bribery
Corruption
Economics and Crime
Embezzlement

Author: King, Chris

Title: Spotlight On: Malicious Insiders and Organized Crime Activity

Summary: The term organized crime brings up images of mafia dons, dimly lit rooms, and bank heists. The reality today is more nuanced; especially as organized crime groups have moved their activities online. This article focuses on a cross-section of CERT’s insider threat data, incidents consisting of 2 or more individuals involved in a crime. What we found is that insiders involved in organized crime caused more damage (approximately $3M per crime) and bypassed protections by involving multiple individuals in the crime. As organized crime has made its way online, it has become a significant source of fraud and embezzlement. Several recent news articles have raised awareness of this threat. The online crimes are often committed by individuals inside the organization who are attempting to bypass increasingly sophisticated fraud prevention controls. Analysis of multiple cases of insiders and organized crime has shown that the incidents fall into two primary categories: insiders either formed their own groups to bypass controls, or were recruited by established organized crime groups for a particular task in the commission of a crime.

Details: Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute, 2012. 20p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 27, 2012 at: www.cert.org/archive/pdf/12tn001.pdf

Year: 2012

Country: United States

URL:

Shelf Number: 126469

Keywords:
Cybercrime
Embezzlement
Fraud
Insider Threats
Organized Crime

Author: Asian Development Bank

Title: Denying Safe Haven to the Corrupt and the Proceeds of Corruption

Summary: International cooperation among law enforcement agencies and prosecutorial authorities is a key in the fight against corruption. Corrupt officials hide and launder bribes and embezzled funds in foreign jurisdictions. Bribers often keep secret slush funds in banks abroad and launder the proceeds of their crimes internationally. Mutual legal assistance and extradition in corruption cases to gather evidence and bring fugitives to justice has become critical. States need to work together to use these tools more effectively. At present, international judicial cooperation is insufficient. This book captures the legal and practical challenges of mutual legal assistance and extradition, as well as solutions for improvement, discussed during a March 2006 training seminar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Experts from 26 Asia-Pacific countries and countries party to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention attended this ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific seminar on "Enhancing Asia-Pacific Cooperation on Mutual Legal Assistance, Extradition, and the Recovery and Return of the Proceeds of Corruption".

Details: Manila: ADB/OECD, 2006. 167p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 16, 2015 at: http://www.oecd.org/site/adboecdanti-corruptioninitiative/37574816.pdf

Year: 2006

Country: Asia

URL: http://www.oecd.org/site/adboecdanti-corruptioninitiative/37574816.pdf

Shelf Number: 137285

Keywords:
Corruption
Embezzlement
Proceeds of Crime

Author: Pattison, Deborah

Title: Safeguarding Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse: Whistleblower Protections and Tips Hotlines in Special-Purpose and Local Governments

Summary: Savvy and opportunistic fraudsters increasingly target smaller governmental organizations. Insufficient transparency and disjointed accountability over controls nurture the hidden nature of occupational fraud and allow wrongdoing to escalate during decades of routine operations. Criminal sentencings confirm local government and education officials misusing their positions and placing their own interests above those of their communities. Both primary case studies - a municipal crime in the City of Dixon, Illinois and corruption inside Roslyn, New York's Union Free School District - illustrate how embezzling more than $65 million remained undetected over thirty years until tip disclosure. The extension of unmerited trust created insufficient segregation of duties among employees and low monitoring left public resources vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption. The project holds ternary importance for risk management since one-third of small entities experience fraud, traditional external auditing identifies fraud in less than five percent of instances, and receiving anonymous tips through reporting hotlines improves detection by up to 20% and reduces losses (ACFE, 2016). The project examined stakeholder speak-up strategies including whistleblower protections and tips hotline (WP&TH) initiatives to understand how organizational context, willful blindness, information access, and citizen engagement affect local government’s focus on fraud detection and remediation. Case studies show WP&TH initiatives to be financially and operationally superior in identifying risk and promoting transparency in small local governments. Third-party, 24/7 call centers and anonymous, two-way dialog web/text are underutilized tools for recognizing fraud precursors and stopping them before they aggregate, escalate, or become institutional norm.

Details: New York, NY: Utica College, 2017. 134p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 11, 2019 at: https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/1985001622.html?FMT=ABS

Year: 2017

Country: United States

URL: https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/1985001622.html?FMT=AI

Shelf Number: 154134

Keywords:
Abuse of Authority
Accountability
Corruption
Embezzlement
Fraud
Risk Management
Tips Hotline
Waste
Whistleblower