There is no arguing or denying the fact that the election of Barack Obama in 2008 changed the face of American politics. However, this is not a political science paper and, unlike the Bush/Gore race of 2000, the Obama/McCain election night passed by with relatively little scandal. So why is it worth mentioning in a paper about corruption? Although no actual fault can be attached to the newly-elected President of the United States, Obama’s election set the stage for one of the most public political corruption cases since the Nixon/Watergate Scandal in the 1970s. This case centered on the activities of the then-Governor of Illinois, Rob Blagojevich.
In 2011, Blagojevich was sentenced to fourteen years in prison after being convicted of seventeen felony counts of corruption, related to three main schemes. These schemes are referred to by various Chicago newspapers as the “Senate Seat” scheme, which accounted for nine of his seventeen charges, the “Children’s Hospital Scheme” and the “Raceway Executive” scheme, for each of which he was found guilty on three separate counts (Turner, 2011, p. 1-4).
To provide some background on the man himself, Rod Blagojevich was first elected Governor of Illinois in 2003, after serving quite honorably and with some distinction in the fifth district of the U.S House of Representatives and the thirty-third district in the Illinois House of Representatives (Ballotpedia, 2014, p.2-3). He was considered by many to be a hopeful presidential candidate in a future race for the big leagues. These hopes were obviously dashed when his corrupt activities came to light.
We will begin with an analysis of the most notorious of the three schemes, the Senate Seat scheme. President Obama’s election left an open seat ...
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Financial statement fraud makes up a marginal (less than 10%) percentage of occupational fraud cases, but the median loss is significantly higher at $975,000. A fraud scheme occurring over a significant amount of time will likely result in much higher median losses. For example, a fraud scheme lasting more than five years could result in median losses of $850,000. Larger companies are more likely able to implement strong anti-fraud controls due to size and finances, therefore, smaller companies become more susceptible to fraud schemes due to lack of proper preventive controls. Preventive controls include: implementing internal controls, continually updating the company’s Code of Conduct, rotating jobs/duties, and
Corruption is an individual and institutional process where there is a gain by a public official from a briber and in return receives a service. Between the gain and the service, there is an improper connection, (Thompson p.28). The two major categories of bribery is individual and institutional corruption. Receiving personal goods for the pursuit of one’s own benefit is personal fraud. An example of individual distortion is the financial scandal involving David Durenberger. Organizational corruption involves “receiving goods that are useable primarily in the political process and are necessary for doing a job or are essential by-products of doing it,” (Thompson p.30). An instance of institutional fraud is the Keating Five case. There are also times where there is a mixture of both individual and organizational corruption in a scandal. An example of this diverse combination is James C. Wright Jr. actions while he was the Speaker of the House.
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The term “fraud” is commonly used to describe the use of deception to deprive, disadvantage or cause loss to another person or party. This can include theft, the misuse of funds or other resources, or more complicated crimes such as false accounting and the supply of false information. This case study of Mountain State Sporting Goods is an excellent example of individuals acting on the opportunity to financial benefit by committing what they thought was harmless adjustments, but in reality was fraud. In this case study there are is just so much wrong with this company and how it operates. We noticed multiple areas of concern before even seeing the financial statements and my concerns were confirmed upon further investigation.
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At the young age of 16 he left his house in Bronxville, New York and went to New York City. He started off with a job, but he was not paid enough. Thinking it was his age that was the problem, he altered his driver's license so that he was then 26, though it was not the age that was the problem, but the fact he was a high school dropout (Abagnale Catch 21-23). He started living off of checks to his bank account that was empty (Abagnale Catch 25). After realizing that the police will catch him soon, he got a co-pilot's uniform, fake copies of all the credentials, a new ID’s, and went around as a co-pilot riding the jump for flights around the world, and rooming with his many flight attendant girlfriends whenever he needed to lay low (Abagnale Catch 28-44). After almost being caught (Abagnale Catch 71), he became a pediatrician and stayed as one for a year before worrying that he could cause great harm to those who were under his care (Abagnale Catch 86-96). It should be said that he let his interns and nurses do all the work, and was not the one doing the life threatening work (Abagnale Catch 93). Abagnale then saut a law degree. The high school dropout who never went to college passed the bar exam, though he did fail the first two times he took it, and became a lawyer for nine months (Abagnale Catch 104-109). Posing as a college professor was next and he did that for 3 months (Abagnale Catch 113-114). After a mishap with a check, he had to pose as an FBI agent who was looking for him for a day, and abruptly left the position. (Abagnale Catch 125-127). After he went to several different countries, he was caught and served his time in many different jails across the world before being released. (Abagnale Catch
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