Criminals

Is Bubba ever going to get out of prison?

April 29, 2010, 4:13am   Comments

This is a red flag check list for all you mothers and fathers out there. This might explain a lot!

I had the unfortunate experience of serving a little over a year in federal prison. I took notes and have come up with what I believe to be a pretty accurate profile of a would-be inmate.

His name is Bubba
This one can easily be avoided. There are literally tens of thousands of other names to choose from. All you have to do is pick one of these other names. Caution: think twice about choosing a girl’s name – just in case. If you’ve named your daughter Bubba – why?

Has a hairy back
Sorry to say folks but its true. Prisons are full of hairy backed men. I don’t know if children with hairy backs grow up full of anger from the years of ridicule, and then work through the resentment by committing crimes? I’m just not sure. But you’d swear the Federal Bureau of Prisons has rounded up all of the “missing links” and locked them up.

He murders a lot
This one may seem like a no-brainer, but you might be surprised at how many people commit crimes and avoid prison.

He is loud
If your boy enjoys communicating at between 110 and 120 decibels during normal conversation, beware. Look on the bright side – he’ll get to kick it up a few notches once the cell slams shut. They like LOUD there.

He snores
We’re not just looking for a light rumbling snore. Here’s a little test: Assemble two 24 oz. slabs of raw prime rib (2 inches thick, min.). Take them to the car wash and pull up to the car vacuum area. Insert the hose halfway in between the two cuts of meat. Then, turn it on. The loud, percussive flapping sound that will be created as the air is sucked through the meat sounds exactly like that of an inmate snoring. Compare this with the timbre of your son’s snoring. Check!

He is an idiot
I’m not saying that your kid is doomed if he gets Ds or even Fs. I’m talking about the complete and utter morons. I’m talking about the stumped-for-an-answer-when-you-say-hello type of idiot. I know that this sounds harsh, but if you think your son might actually be a stupid idiot – just get it over with and call the cops. Tough love people.

I’m not suggesting that we pre-judge our children. I took advantage of a rare opportunity to conduct this research and now I’m sharing it with you. For me, only one of the above held true – I think.

For more, visit - www.fraudcon.com

February 12, 2010, 9:23am   Comments

The National Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) compiled a list of behavioral red flags from almost 1,000 case studies. Their research indicates that, to varying degrees, these behaviors were present in the fraud cases that they studied. If you exhibit some or all of these behaviors, you just might be a would-be felon.

Use your best Jeff Foxworthy voice and say each one of these aloud to see if they apply to you. Start by saying, “If you (insert red flag), you might be a criminal.”

* are living beyond your means
* have financial difficulties
* have a wheeler-dealer attitude
* have problems with control issues and are unwilling to share duties
* have had a divorce or other family problems
* have an unusually close association with vendor/customer
* are irritable, suspicious or defensive
* have addiction problems
* have past legal problems
* have past employment-related problems
* complain about inadequate pay
* refuse to take vacations
* have excessive pressure from within your organization
* your life circumstances are unstable
* have excessive family or peer pressure for success
* complain about lack your of authority
* have a roommate named Bubba

Ok, now take it easy, that last one was mine. These are red flags only! The ACFE is a great organization - I’ve had a chance to speak at a few of their events and have met some of their members. They have unbelievable training and resources.

To see the ACFE 2008 Report to the Nation, go here.

February 03, 2010, 3:33pm   Comments

Fraud finds a home as the US fools itself - The National Newspaper: http://bit.ly/7Iu9SF - Best article on fraud !!!!!!

December 14, 2009, 6:40am   Comments

In James Doran’s article in this morning’s National he makes reference to the “worse than junk” [mortgage] loans that were taken out by people who couldn’t repay them. This portion of the article is worth expanding upon.

Some would have us believe that these loans existed because lenders’ loan programs allowed for practically anyone with a heart beat to get a loan. This, however, is only part of the truth.

While the loan program guidelines were lenient, many of those in charge of enforcing the lending guidelines, or the loan originators) were negligent and reckless in their administration of them. The stated income loan for example, was insane from the standpoint of a secure investment but to many loan officers offering this loan to their would-be customers, it was a dream come true. It was often referred to as a “liar loan.” Stated income - meaning you didn’t have to provide any documentation to back up your statement of your own income.

In heated debates with loan officers I would often defend that just because the customer didn’t have to prove their income didn’t mean that they could lie about it. The general attitude was of the flavor, “Well, if they’re not going to ask for proof, what do you THINK they [the lenders] expect from us.” Which is sad since the statement implies that dishonesty from a loan officer is something that can be expected.

I’ll take this moment to state that I do not view all loan officers or mortgage originators as dishonest. Most of them that I’ve met in my nearly 20 years in this profession have been nothing but honest and professional.

That said, I don’t think that the origination of the loan products with the seemingly lax guidelines can be ignored as a contributing factor in the sub-prime problems of this decade.

http://ping.fm/M7Ii8

December 14, 2009, 6:32am   Comments

But it was the best non-delivery pizza out there.

December 13, 2009, 7:36am   Comments

I received a phone call from Tom Balko in May of 2009. He had heard of me and my past association with mortgage fraud, and wanted to chit chat. I COMPLETELY understood.

Tom had just plead guilty and was sentenced to 7 years in federal prison for his involvement, as an appraiser, in a mortgage fraud scam. He was to report to the federal prison in Duluth, MN in June to begin his sentence.

We spoke for a while and he gave me the abridged version of his story. I agreed to meet him for coffee the next day, because he had some questions.

At our meeting the next day, Tom gave me the whole story as well as some other things that were on his mind. Specifically, he wanted to know what prison was going to be like. I could have talked to him about this for hours. Based on my experience in prison, there was no short way to answer this question. For now, suffice it to say, I told him that he would be fine.

Ive been doing some speaking engagements with Hank Shea, a former federal prosecutor, a couple times a year. Hank is associated with the The Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions at St. Thomas Law School in Minneapolis. Hank is a great guy and has now devoted his life to this whole ethics and leadership movement that is so important now in Corporate America.

I called Hank after I met with Tom Balko to see if he would want to sit down and talk. You see, Hank works with quite a few white collar criminals. He helps the community by teaming up with ex-felons to tell their story in the hopes of having an impact on the attitudes of business professionals.

Here is a link to an interview Hank did with Tom Balko. It is an edited version. I’ll try to get permission from Hank to get the full version up on Ustream or YouTube. http://ping.fm/ykKMI

I hope you get something out of it. Come back to see more interviews later.

November 13, 2009, 11:53am   Comments

I recently read Gary Vaynerchuk’s book called Crush It, http://crushitbook.com  It deals with how to really bust your butt on pulling all the social networking tools together to work for you.  By “work for you” he means doing the thing that you’re passionate about.

The idea being - you have to be passionate about what you do or else it won’t be authentic, honest, true and if you are doing something that you are truly passionate about, it won’t feel like work.  Which increases your chances of continuing and not giving up.

Well, I had to think for a while about what my true passion is.  It wasn’t easy because I like to do, and have had good success at a lot of different things.

I am a public speaker. I speak on ethics, fraud and my experience in prison for being involved in a few sleazy real estate deals back in the 1990’s.  I like speaking because I get a chance to connect with people, help them see a what their careers and lives could be like if they make the wrong decisions.  And I also like to  make them laugh.  You’d be surprised at the comedy that just writes itself when you’re behind bars.  My speaking web site is at www.fraudcon.com

And, lets face it, I am always starving for attention - always have been and I probably always will be.  As such, I am a performer.  I love being in front of people; connecting.

I am a musician. I’ve been a singer, a songwriter and a pianist for most of my life (I’m 42 now).  I’ve written about 60 songs.  I’ve recorded about half of them - half of the recorded songs are decent quality recordings, half of the songs that are of decent quality are recorded professionally.  You can listen to them here on CD Baby http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jeromemayne More on my old MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/jeromemaynemusic  You can also find some of my songs on iTunes.

I like the law.  My first career in life was as a litigation paralegal.  I truly loved that job and the challenges one faces while putting together one side of a case.  Trying to work one set of facts into the “book of laws” is cool. Then of course years later I got to trouble and trembled my way through a pre-trial and an eventual guilty plea.  Not fun, but fascinating - and I was truly a big help to my attorney.

In addition to these passions, I really dig putting together business ideas.  I’ve got one at www.generationethix.com.  It will be the ethics movement for youth in America.  The ideas I have for this are incredible!  It will take a lot of work and a lot of people to make this project come together to be what I envision.  So, we’ll see how that goes.

So why Tumblr?  Why today and why criminals.fraudcon.com?

This will be my blog, maybe even a video blog, about criminals.  I want to talk to and write about criminals I think are interesting.  I may even follow their progress from the time they get arrested to the time they get released - maybe even follow their progress once they get back out into society.

How could this be my passion? Well, it incorporates a few of the things I am passionate about. 1) If I can pull this off as a video blog, it will allow me to perform (there’s me getting attention - front and center).  2) I have a pretty good understanding of the legal system and laws and such.  While interviewing criminals about what they did, what they are going through and how they feel, I can exercise my legal, analytical mind, and give you my opinion.  I was one of them once.  I’ll definitely have a unique perspective and strong opinions.

I probably won’t be able to incorporate much music into this endeavor unless I write into and outro music to the video taped interviews.  That’s not my musical style so, I guess I’ll have to leave that passion out for now.

At this time, I am still assembling the pieces of what I need.  I have my Twitter account (www.twitter.com/fraudcon) I have a blog at www.fraud4thought.blogspot.com.  I’ll probably incorporate that into this site or keep it going on it’s own.  I have a personal Facebook page but am trying to set up a Fraudcon fan page - it’s quite complicated.  I now have a Tumblr account though I haven’t set up the subdomain from my primary fraudcon.com.  The sub “criminal” is still pending from my host GoDaddy.  I’ll point GoDaddy at this Tumblr IP address as soon as it stops pending over there.  I still have a few other components to put in place.

So that’s the start - this is the start.  I’ll keep you posted on the progress.  Hopefully we’ll have our first criminal interview within a few weeks.  Oh, and make sure you share this with your friends.

November 12, 2009, 1:33pm   Comments