Chris And Alison Weston Case

The case study Chris and Alison Weston describes how Chris and Alison committed mail fraud. The case is recorded from their recollection of events in an interview style format. Chris enlisted his wife Alison to set up a business that would provide the company with research services and identifying potential possible candidates for open positions at the company Chris worked. The Westons then started to overbill Alison’s business with each invoice. According to Chris, he saw opportunities with what he was doing, but he did not see the risks involved. The opportunity he saw from his actions was to make more profits. Unfortunately, the risks he didn't foresee was that he was cutting into the profits of his employer, and if caught, he and his wife

These three factors contribute the most towards the actions taken by Chris and Alison Weston. As previously stated, the result of Chris and Alison’s actions was jail time for mail fraud. According to the legal dictionary, mail fraud refers to any scheme carried out in a fraudulent manner, with the intent of depriving another person of his or her property, or “honest services,” via the U.S. Postal Service, or any other interstate mail carrier (1). In Chris and Alison’s case, they committed the fraud, which resulted in the loss of profit for the company Chris was employed in. When Chris and Alison used their side business as a third party hiring firm, they slowly began to overbill the invoices. They were careful not to overbill at too high of a cost, as to not draw unnecessary attention. With each invoice, that meant more profit. However, instead of the company earning the profits, the third party hiring firm created by Alison got most of the profit, which meant that the Westons were the ones earning the profit, thereby committing the

Nepotism is the practice among those with power or influence favoring relatives or friends, primarily by giving them jobs. However, according to Chris, his company did not have any written policy about using family members in the business. However, he did not want there to be any issues, so Chris told Alison to open her business using her maiden name instead of her married name. Nepotism is not usually an issue in the private sector as it would be in the public sector. However, nepotism does potentially increase the risk of favoritism towards the family member, or makes them and their interests superior (2). In Chris’s case, he hired Alison, and used her to benefit their family instead of the interests of the