Litigation

?Whistleblowers? barred from testifying as witnesses in State Farm Insurance Hurricane Katrina case

Posted on April 05, 2008
Back in August 2006, I reported on Kerri Rigsby and Cori Rigsby, sisters who worked as independent adjusters for State Farm. The sisters were deemed “whistleblowers,” for their allegations of corruption at State Farm Insurance. The sisters came forward, claiming that there was fraud in the  Biloxi and Gulfport field offices related to the processing of [...

Bar Stool Economics (A commentary on the American tax system)

Posted on April 04, 2008
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3...

Helmut?s Remodeling: Why consumers hate contractors (Part 2)

Posted on April 04, 2008
Last week I posted a rant about Helmut’s Remodeling and my horrible customer service experience with them. Shortly thereafter I removed it, after Helmut asked me to give the company a chance to make things right for me. The chance came and went, so here goes my rant again...

Important political races won by the right people yesterday

Posted on April 02, 2008
Mike Gableman - Loophole Louie Butler was knocked off the Wisconsin Supreme Court yesterday. He can take his love of criminals and legal loopholes somewhere else. This is the first time in 40 years that a justice running for re-election has lost. But it was the perfect time…...

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Stop taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood

Posted on April 01, 2008
The taxpayers don’t need to give money that increases the reserves of Planned Parenthood, and we certainly don’t need to financially support baby killers. Proof that Planned Parenthood doesn’t need tax money, from the American Life League: SHARETHIS...

Carnival of Fraud - March 31, 2008

Posted on March 31, 2008
Welcome to the March 31, 2008 edition of carnival of fraud. Note: Welcome back Wenchy! Happy to have you, as I love your blog. And you’re making up for lost time… thanks! Wenchypoo presents Universal Health Care Blues: Patient Stacking posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket, saying, “It’s good to see you back in [...

Some of my articles from last week on AOL?s personal finance blog WalletPop

Posted on March 31, 2008
Last week on WalletPop, I was blogging about… Can you get rich by blogging? - You can make money blogging, but the big bucks are reserved for group blogs run as businesses. Condo market questionable for the near future - If you’re in the market for a condo, you might do better with a new condo...

I never, ever want to hear that teachers are underpaid again.

Posted on March 31, 2008
Quite by accident, I came across a database listing teacher salaries and benefits for the metro Milwaukee area. The database allows you to enter any teacher or administrator’s last name, and see the value of their salary and benefits for the 2006-07 school year...

One of my articles was cited in a book!

Posted on March 31, 2008
My article, Financial Statement Fraud in the Katrina Aftermath: A Whirlwind of Opportunities, was quoted on page 278 of the book Scientific Evidence in Civil and Criminal Cases. That’s kind of cool, especially since I don’t think that’s ever happened before...

Support the Milwaukee Police Department

Posted on March 30, 2008
Yesterday there was a shameful protest in support of a man who, while drunk, stepped on the gas pedal of his car and dragged a Milwaukee police officer with the car. That police officer is lucky to be alive. But the Hmong community feels sorry for the criminal, Koua Moua, who got a black and swollen [...

Essentials of Corporate Fraud featured in ?The People Pro? Newsletter

Posted on March 28, 2008
Barb Bartlein is known nationally as “The People Pro“… offering advice and strategic assistance in dealing with people issues. She assists clients with management training, professional mentoring, and employee management issues. She’s a nationally syndicated columnist for The Business Journal, a successful author, and one funny lady...

Scott Walker is the clear choice for County Executive

Posted on March 28, 2008
Lena Taylor is an embarrassment in her current political job. She wants to raise all sorts of taxes, and wants to spring a bunch of criminals from jail. She wants to waste zillions of dollars on light rail that no one will use. She wants more sales taxes… effectively driving out even more businesses...

Working with the Google Ad Review Center

Posted on March 28, 2008
I just got the ?Ad Review Center? option on my Google AdSense account, and I decided to give it a whirl. I have Google ads on two sites: this one, and Pink Truth (my public awareness campaign against Mary Kay Cosmetics and similarly abusive multi-level marketing companies and pyramid schemes)...

More on Lena Taylor?s plans to stick it to the taxpayers if elected as County Executive

Posted on March 28, 2008
Hat tip: Badger Blogger. SHARETHIS.addEntry( { title: "More on Lena Taylor’s plans to stick it to the taxpayers if elected as County Executive", url: "http://www.sequence-inc.com/fraudfiles/2008/03/28/more-on-lena-taylors-plans-to-stick-it-to-the-taxpayers-if-elected-as-county-executive/" } );

Usana insider sales occur (curiously) between the big numbers back then, and the little numbers (the real ones) now

Posted on March 27, 2008
From February 6, 2008 Usana Health Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:USNA) conference call, comments by CFO (who lied about being a CPA) Gil Fuller: Now before I turn the time over to Dave, I’ll comment on our guidance. Yesterday in our press release we provided first quarter and full year guidance of 2008...

I thought it was all Barry Minkow?s fault?

Posted on March 27, 2008
Usana Health Sciences (NASDAQ: USNA) just took a huge dump. We’re a year out from the report by Barry Minkow and Fraud Discovery Institute about the company’s failure to disclose material information and data about its business model. Usana executives Gil Fuller (CFO who lied about being a CPA) and Dave Wentz always referred to the [...

Helmut?s Remodeling: Why consumers hate contractors

Posted on March 26, 2008
In less than one year, I’ve been screwed by two contractors who were supposed to do work on my home. And they wonder why consumers hate them and cringe every time we have to do business with them? Almost a year ago, I began my escapade with a wayward carpenter who was too busy with his [...

When your business is struggling, should you make it harder for your customers to use your services?

Posted on March 26, 2008
Tim Sykes posted about this on his blog (and gave the cool graphic here that I conveniently stole from his site) …. Let’s face it. Yahoo’s business model is failing on many levels. They simply haven’t kept up with web trends and are being pummeled so hard by sites like Google, that there’s a chance their [...

Help rid the blogosphere of bad blogs?

Posted on March 25, 2008
Have you ever noticed how many bad blogs there are out there? There are the “splogs” (spam blogs) that are nothing more than sites that want you to visit so they can get advertising dollars. They don’t offer any content… at least not any that they didn’t steal from someone else...

Check out my AOL articles

Posted on March 25, 2008
Credit problems aren’t just for consumers - Businesses are filing bankruptcy too, and the impact is wide-reaching Tax Tips: Cashing out your 401(k) early - Why it’s a horrible, horrible idea to cash out a 401(k) early (not that it stops a lot of young consumers from doing it) Debt consolidation might be the worst move you’ve [...

Loophole Louie lying about his record?

Posted on March 25, 2008
Judge Louis Butler is running for re-election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. And those who have followed his legal career know him as Loophole Louie, because he is so pro-criminal, looking for any loophole or technicality that will allow the criminal to get off scott free...

Student loan market changing

Posted on March 25, 2008
Experts are worried about the future of the student loan market and whether or not enough money will be available in the coming years for all who want to attend college. The Wall Street Journal reports that colleges and universities are shying away from private lenders (which had been utilized pretty aggressively in the last [...

Another big thank you!

Posted on March 22, 2008
This one goes out to my friend Andrea who was kind enough to mention my book on her blog. She’s spending eight months in France as part of her International MBA degree program, and has been kind enough to set up the blog to allow family and friends to follow her adventure...

I wanted you to love my book?

Posted on March 22, 2008
Michael Good at Goode Value Investing did a review of my book Essentials of Corporate Fraud, but I didn’t realize it until tonight! I admit it - I want everyone to love my book. But everyone won’t. Michael is a great example… his knowledge is way beyond that of the target market for my book...

Wondering why I love Timmay?

Posted on March 20, 2008
Okay, I admit it… I love Tim Sykes. I really do. He says some crazy things, but who doesn’t. I think that sometimes he comes awfully close to jeopardizing his long-term career opportunities. But who am I to criticize if Timmay wants to take his life into his own hands? He tells it like [...

Police on the beat, trying to catch?. a blogger

Posted on March 20, 2008
The Whitewater, Wisconsin police chief James Coan has sent two police detectives on a mission. They (and several other city employees, including the director of public works, the information technology officer, and the city clerk) are to spend their paid time trying to find out the identity of an anonymous blogger...

Blogging for business

Posted on March 19, 2008
Are you interested in blogging to help you grow your client base and promote the online presence of your business? So are lots of people! But the key to actually achieving these goals is doing it right. Blogging is part art and part science, and to make it effective, you’ve got to have both parts [...

Tim said it would happen like this

Posted on March 17, 2008
My buddy Tim Sykes promised me that I’d become addicted to watching my Amazon.com page for my book Essentials of Corporate Fraud… checking my rankings to see if I’ve moved up or down. He was right. And I am excited because I have gotten below 10,000 for the overall rank...

Prostitution: It?s not just for governors anymore

Posted on March 17, 2008
Move over Eliot Spitzer. There seems to be a few gents lining up behind you to publicly embarrass their families. The latest is Edward Nottingham, the chief federal judge in Denver, Colorado. There is an investigation of a prostitution ring called Denver Sugar/Denver Players, being done by the IRS and Denver police...

AOL features a fraud post today to help promote my book

Posted on March 17, 2008
From the AOL Small Business welcome screen: The actual post is on WalletPop today - When employees steal: Five reasons your business could be vulnerable to fraud. And the post links to my book, Essentials of Corporate Fraud. There are already a couple of interesting comments...

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