Many of us love optical illusions. It’s a safe thrill to know we’re being tricked, and yet are still unable to tell our brains to “get real” and stop the illusion.
When you’re doing an investigation, the same kind of thing can take over
Specializing in financial investigations as we do, I am always fascinated when new financial frauds come to light, and I always want to know how the person got caught.
In the case of the recent Yale School of Medicine fraud in which an administrator took more than $40 million in fake computer purchases (desbribed in
For anyone who has ever tried to play pool, it quickly becomes obvious that the best way to get the ball in the pocket isn’t always the most direct.
If there’s another ball in the way or the angle doesn’t work, redirecting the ball off one of the cushions can be the best option. Even
The New York Times published in interesting piece this week that was among its most popular: I Shared My Phone Number. I Learned I Shouldn’t Have.
In it, the paper’s personal tech columnist Brian X. Chen explained how much information people can get about you with just your phone number. This includes “my current
Not for the first time, the most compelling piece of information in an investigation is what isn’t there.
We’ve written often before about the failure of databases and artificial intelligence to knit together output from various databases and I discussed the idea of what isn’t there in my book, The Art of Fact Investigation.
Get ready for college admissions scandals phase II, and maybe III, IV and V.
The reason I think so? Because of the way it was discovered.
Prosecutors didn’t break up the ring of bribing college coaches and exam proctors by using vast computing power, databases and algorithms, but by interviewing somebody. According to multiple reports,
Another EB-5 visa fraud, more burned investors. For people outside the United States trying to pick a reputable investment that will get them permanent residency in the U.S., sorting through hundreds of projects is often the hardest part of the job.
There is plenty written about what you should do before you invest, one of
We pretty regularly find ourselves blogging about small business owners that draw people into scams. We’ve seen the would-be movie executive, the sweet-talking investment solicitor, the landscaper and the produce company owner. Too often, we find that defrauded consumers and investors could have avoided their losses by doing some basic due diligence.
According to the Sacramento Bee, a would-be movie studio executive, Carissa Carpenter, pleaded not guilty last week to defrauding investors of at least $5 million during her failed 17-year attempt at creating a movie studio in Northern California. Over the 17-year period, she shifted 
the location of her planned studio several times. Her last
One of the best ways to learn how to detect fraud is to look at people who have been caught and then analyze what you could have done to avoid being taken in as others were.
News from Germany here about a man jailed recently for rape and fraud after pretending to be German royalty