Mid Term Review Flashcards
E. H. Sutherland is the individual credited with having first coined the term “white collar crime.”
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Businessmen who committed exploitative acts were labeled criminaloids by E. A. Ross in Sin and Society.
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The book White Collar Crime by Sutherland focused on corporate crimes.
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Sutherland’s general theory of crime is known as differential association theory.
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Friedrich’s multistage approach to defining white collar crime consists of the polemical, typological, and operational stages.
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The primary victims as well as the context in which a crime occurs are criteria in the Typological stage of Friedrichs’ multistage approach to defining white collar crime.
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Holding a legitimate position or occupation is most closely associated with a status-related meaning of respectability.
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Garfinkel called the circumstances under which people are stripped of status and respectability degradation ceremonies.
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The concept of moral risk refers to the practice of facilitating risky behavior on the part of parties who do not fully appreciate the risks.
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White collar crime offenders are more likely to be middle-aged or older.
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Occupational crime offenders are often middle class, but sometimes lower-class.
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Crucial evidence in white collar crime cases is most likely to come from informers.
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The False Claims Amendment Act encouraged whistleblowing.
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Early 20th century journalists who exposed corruption in high places were known as muckrakers.
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The general public is least likely to be aware of the role of criminologists in exposing white collar crime.
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The positivistic approach to the study of white collar crime is associated with the use of the scientific method.
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Since the 1970s, the unit of analysis in white collar crime studies has increasingly shifted from the individual to the organization.
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Problems of objectivity may be intensified in the study of white collar crime if researchers are drawn to the field by moral outrage.
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The case study is the methodology that provides a concrete, rich understanding of the dynamics and realities of a particular white collar crime case.
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Control is the principal value of the experimental method.
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The results of Milgram’s experiment on authority suggested that ordinary people will do something harmful or unethical if ordered to do so by legitimate authority.
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Tracy and Fox’s study of fraudulent claims to insurance companies submitted by auto-body repair shops is an example of a field experiment.
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Archival data is often obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
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The pattern of media coverage of antitrust cases at different points in time calls for a content analysis research method.
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According to the victimization survey conducted by the National White Collar Crime Center in 2005, one third of the individuals surveyed reported having been victims of some form of white collar crime in the previous year.
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Government sources estimated that criminal activity was involved in approximately 70-80% of the 1980s savings and loan insolvencies.
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The economic cost of white collar crime is roughly 10 to 50 times greater than that of conventional crime.
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Losses to ordinary workers and investors as a consequence of the collapse of Enron alone were estimated at up to $10 billion.
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The lowest level of total economic loss in a given year is most likely to be associated with burglary and robbery.
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More than 30,000 Americans die each year as a result of work-related diseases and accidents.
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The concept of “crime victim” has been most readily applied to victims of conventional predatory crime.
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The earliest proto-corporations or “trusts” were churches, towns and universities.
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The South Sea Bubble Act (1720) was inspired by a fraudulent trading company.
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The Sherman Antitrust Act was partly inspired by the rise of the Standard Oil Company.
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Approximatley 1% of the U.S. population owns about half of the outstanding stock and trust equity in the United States and two-thirds of its financial securities.
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A conglomerate is a combination of centrally owned firms operating in different fields.
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An oligopoly is the domination of a market by several large corporations.
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Large corporations are best positioned to maximize profits with harmful corporate practices in Third World countries.
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In 2008, American taxpayers were effectively bailing out financial corporations that had lost billions of dollars on subprime mortgages.
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It has been estimated that improper disposal of deadly wastes occurs 90% of the time.
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Twenty-four years after the Bhopal toxic waste case, many victims remain uncompensated and hundreds of tons of hazardous waste remain not cleaned up.
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According to the text, the air pollution problem in Los Angeles can at least partially be attributed to the deliberate efforts of automobile companies to limit the growth of public transportation.
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The text suggests that the Buffalo Creek dam break, and the earlier Johnstown Flood, would both be most accurately characterized as an outcome of willful corporate negligence and disregard for safety standards.
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Upton Sinclair’s 1905 novel The Jungle helped inspired legislation pertaining to meat market standards.
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In 2007 Eli Lilly agreed to pay half a billion dollars to settle18,000 lawsuits claiming that the users of its product Zyprexa developed diabetes.
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The primary concern with the Nestle Corporation’s marketing of infant formula in Third World countries is that mothers in these countries do not have the knowledge, means or conditions to use it safely
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Safety features were not a priority of auto manufacturers for much of their history primarily because safety features were not regarded as enhancing sales and profit potential for automobiles
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Ralph Nader was the author of Unsafe at Any Speed, the landmark 1965 critique of automobile industry safety standards.
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The use of tobacco, described as the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., results in approximately 440,000 premature deaths a year.
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The most unusual feature of the Film Recovery Systems case was the criminal conviction of corporate executives.
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Energy giant Enron, while claiming massive profits, paid taxes in only one year between 1990 and 2000, but collected hundreds of millions in tax refunds from the government.
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Medical fraud accounts for between 3% and 10% of the annual $1 trillion U.S. health care bill.
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“Parallel pricing” refers to the practice whereby industry leaders set inflated prices and supposed competitors adjust their own prices accordingly.
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The major response to false advertising has taken the form of requiring a modification or discontinuation of a misleading advertisement campaign.
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Wal-Mart has allegedly engaged in economic exploitation of employees, corporate stealing from employees, and unfair labor practices.
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In September 2001, the U.S. Justice Department announced that it would no longer seek to break up computer giant Microsoft because the Bush administration had declined to do so.
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Fraudulent claims in connection with research grants and student aid is the unethical activity of universities most likely to lead to legal action.
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According to the text, there have been some concerns over certain parallels in the fraudulent practices of the subprime mortgage loans and student loan markets.
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Corporate crime is the primary focus of the contemporary scholarly literature on white collar crime.
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“Predatory pricing,” is pricing certain items below cost to destroy smaller competitors:1
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“Caveat emptor” - Let the buyer beware.
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Approximately 70% of the CUNY students involved in Blumberg’s study The Predatory Society reported observing deceptive practices at work.
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Misleading advertising is the deceptive retail practice which is likely to be regarded as most minor and commonplace.
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In Caplowitz’s landmark 1960 study in New York City it was discovered that poor consumers pay more for the same or inferior products than do middle class consumers.
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The Reader’s Digest study of auto repair shops found that most overcharged or performed unnecessary repairs.
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that American consumers lose billions of dollars to faulty or unnecessary repairs.
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It is probably easiest to cheat on pricing if you are selling prescription drugs.
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The claim of the professions to have a “calling” is principally associated with the idea that they have an obligation to use their specialized knowledge on behalf of the common good.
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The “structural contradiction” in the physician role is the conflict between the physician’s obligations to the patient and role as a profit-seeking entrepreneur
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According to an estimate cited in the text, sixteen thousnd Americans die annually after an unnecessary operation.
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The annual dollar losses due to fraudulent or abusive medical billing have been estimated to be in the tens of billions.
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Ping-ponging is the term asociated with referring patients to several different practitioners when their symptoms do not warrant such referral.
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The “power of attorney” granted to lawyers provides lawyers with unusual opportunities to steal from their own clients.
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The two major types of legal crime are fraud and collusion.
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Richard Nixon’s Vice President Spiro Agnew, a lawyer, was forced to resign from the Vice Presidency following charges that he evaded paying taxes.
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Plagiarism is best defined as theft of the ideas or work of others.
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According to the text, Madonna Constantine, a professor of psychology at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College, explained the plagiarism charges against her as institutional racism.
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In 2007, directors of financial aid at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California were found hold shares in student loan companies which students were referred.
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The text identifies cheating as the clearest example of student white collar crime.
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According to the text, the employees who account for the largest proportion of employee crime losses are likely to be managers.
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Expense account padding is the form of high-level employee activity which is most likely to be unauthorized, and therefore illegal.
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The estimated percentage of inventory shrinkage caused by employee theft is as high as 75%.
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The most appropriate term for theft through misrepresentation is fraud.
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Sabotage is best defined as an employee purposely destroying their employer’s product, facilities, machinery, or records.
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Among conventional lower-level employees, those who commit theft are most likely to be young, male, and unmarried.
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According to Horning’s study of employee crime, it was company property most likely to be stolen.
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According to Mars’ typology of employee theft “donkeys” and “hawks” are most likely to steal time and engage in creative accounting.
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Clark & Hollinger’s major study of employee crime identified the opportunity to steal as a major determinant of employee theft.
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Income tax evasion and insurance fraud are the two major forms of avocational crime.
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In the United States, the IRS estimates that about one fifth of individual income tax due to the federal government is not paid.
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Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison in 2008 after being convicted of three misdemeanor charges of failing to file income tax forms.
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By some estimates three hundered fifty million people died in the 20th century worldwide, , as a result of deliberate state actions.
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Political white collar crime is the term which applies to illegal activities carried out by officials and politicians for direct personal gain.
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Governmental crime, as distinct from the traditional notion of political crime, is exemplified by state-agency illegal surveillance.
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The broadest term associated with governmental crime is abuse of power.
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The view of anarchists is best characterized as holding that the state is by its very nature a criminal enterprise.
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The term My Lai refers to a massacre of Vietnamese civilians by American troops.
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The notion of a “nuclear winter” refers to the environmental impact of an exchange of nuclear weapons.
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Genocide is a term which most commonly refers to a deliberate state policy of mass killing directed at some identifiable group of people.
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The most famous trial for war crimes, and crimes against humanity, took place in Nuremberg.
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According to the text, many repressive countries impose odious debt on their citizens: i.e., debts from foreign loans that were knowingly made to repressive regimes.
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The United States historically tolerated or supported repressive right-wing regimes while condemning repressive left-wing regimes.
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After Suharto, who allegedly acquired $73 billion during his 32 years as president of Indonesia, was forced out of office in 1998, he and his family were believed to have still been in control of some $15 billion.
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Since World War II the claim of corruption at the core of the state has been especially directed at Third World nations.
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A negligent state is best defined as a state which fails to prevent human suffering which it could in fact prevent.
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Nonfeasance is best defined as failing to do something you are required to do.
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Malfeasance is best defined as doing something you are prohibited from doing.
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Misfeasance is best defined as performing a permissible act in an improper manner.
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The “White House Plumbers Unit” were a group of White House-based operatives who engaged in illegal investigations.
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The principal illegality alleged in the Iran-Contra arms scheme was a violation of the Boland Act, which had expressly prohibited covert aid to the Contras.
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The special FBI unit which engaged in the extralegal and illegal disruption and destabilizing of dissident political groups was known as COINTELPRO.
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The most comprehensive list of police crime would include violations of constitutional rights, excessive use of force, and related illegal acts to fulfill state or department directives.
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The “Dirty Harry” problem refers to the use of improper means by the police to achieve crime control ends.
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The Lexow Commission, the Knapp Commission, and the Mollen Commission all found significant evidence of corruption among New York City police officers over a hundred year period.
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According to the text, the extraordinary hypocrisy of the HUD scandal during the Reagan Administration is exemplified by the fact that an administration which campaigned against big government and government waste engaged in large scale waste, and programs intended to assist poor Americans were milked by wealthy individuals.
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William Marcy Tweed was the 19th-century leader of New York City’s Tammany Hall who went to prison after conviction on charges involving massive fraud,
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A major factor contributing to the New York City corruption scandals of the 1980s was a city fiscal crisis which led to a considerable expansion of private contracting for goods and services.
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The Credit Mobilier case principally involved corruption of Congressmen in connection with the westward expansion of the Union Pacific railroad.
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A prominent corruption case in which Congressmen were videotaped accepting bribes in an FBI “sting” was known as Abscam.
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Criminal prosecutions of judges are rarest on the federal level.
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State-corporate crime is characterized as a hybrid form of white collar crime.
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The fatal explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 is attributed in the text to the mutual interests of a state agency and a private contractor in seeing a launch through despite adverse weather conditions.
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Crimes of globalization are a result of policy decisions of high-level officials of major financial institutions and government agencies who are attempting realize positive outcomes or avoid losses.
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The World Bank Which has been charged with complicity in genocidal policies, exacerbating ethnic conflict, increasing economic inequality, and displacing indigenous people in developing countries.
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The Dam at Pak Moon in Thailand are global crimes partially financed by the World Bank.
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The term “finance crime” is used in this text to refer to a large-scale illegality which occurs in the world of finance.
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American banks have been implicated in tax evasion, money laundering, and predatory lending.
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According to a recent California Savings and Loan Commissioner, “The best way to rob a bank is to own one.”
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In 2003 and 2004, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae—as the two government-sponsored mortgage giants are known—were investigated for various forms of accounting fraud.
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Total S & L thrift failure losses due to criminal fraud and waste have been estimated at $250 billion;, and with interest payments over several decades, the cost of resolving the crisis may eventually exceed $1 trillion.
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The practice of violating laws and regulations which, even in the deregulated 1980s, were prohibited for S & Ls, is referred to as unlawful risk-taking.
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Collective embezzlement is defined by Calavita & Pontell as crime by a corporation against a corporation.
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The bailout program for the failed S & Ls, initiated in the early 1990s, resulted in new opportunities for suspect profiting by developers, speculators, and investors.
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The 23,000 people who bought some $200 million of Lincoln Savings bonds from Charles Keating’s outfit were misled into believing the bonds were guaranteed by the government or absolutely safe.
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The five U.S. Senators, among them John McCain, who intervened with federal regulators on behalf of Keating and Lincoln S & L were recipients of large campaign contributions from Keating.
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By the U.S. Justice Departments own guidelines, the appropriate jail time for those convicted in S & L cases was less than that imposed for conventional bank robbery.
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With regard to the criminal prosecution of S & L cases, most of those convicted were minor players.
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Ivan Boesky exemplified a class of investors engaged in buying up stock in companies which were take-over targets, sometimes on the basis of insider information, known as a risk arbitrageur.
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Executing his insider trades through an off-shore bank was a key element in Dennis Levine’s insider trading scheme.
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The willingness of insider traders, once caught, to provide information about others in return for some consideration was a principal factor in the government’s ability to successfully prosecute a series of insider trading cases.
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The “junk bonds” so closely associated with Michael Milken were bonds issued by smaller, less established companies, but paying a higher interest rate.
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Martha Stewart was found guilty of obstruction of justice in 2004.
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The term “churning” refers to the practice of trading in client accounts without authorization to increase brokers’ commissions.
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Fraud that occurs in connection with the sale of stocks can be classified as finance crime and contrepreneurial crime.
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Short-term trading, done in connection with fraudulent conduct in the mutual fund and hedge funds industries, is also known as “Market timing.”
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In January 2005, New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer reported that his office had uncovered evidence of systematic fraud and market manipulation in the insurance industry.
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