Burns William J

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Burns William J

Fraud
According to Reuters, on February 1, 2012, two former Credit Suisse (“CS”) traders plead guilty to conspiring to falsify books and records and to commit wire fraud stemming from the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market ( http://ca.news.yahoo.com/ex-credit-suisse-traders-admit-cooking-subprime-books-005027132.html ). On the same day, the SEC filed a 32-page complaint in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against the traders and others (Docket No. 12CIV0796). The SEC Complaint alleges that the traders manipulated CS’s mark-to-market mechanism to hide losses in a mortgage-backed securities portfolio. To hide losses, the traders manually overrode CS’s market-pricing tools. According to the Complaint, CS had a Price Testing unit “responsible for reviewing the prices assigned by traders, but in practice the unit lacked the expertise to adequately challenge pricing by traders and Price Testing personnel were often deferential to the views of traders.” In the end, CS had to write-down the value of its portfolio by $2.6 billion with an earnings effect of $650 million.

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Burns William J ESQ

William J Burns ESQ CPA

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http://www.wjburnsesqcpa.com

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Phone: (781) 848-1010

Address: 400 Washington St Ste 310, Braintree, MA 02184

Website: http://www.wjburnsesqcpa.com

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Burns William J

Fraud
According to Reuters, on February 1, 2012, two former Credit Suisse (“CS”) traders plead guilty to conspiring to falsify books and records and to commit wire fraud stemming from the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market ( http://ca.news.yahoo.com/ex-credit-suisse-traders-admit-cooking-subprime-books-005027132.html ). On the same day, the SEC filed a 32-page complaint in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against the traders and others (Docket No. 12CIV0796). The SEC Complaint alleges that the traders manipulated CS’s mark-to-market mechanism to hide losses in a mortgage-backed securities portfolio. To hide losses, the traders manually overrode CS’s market-pricing tools. According to the Complaint, CS had a Price Testing unit “responsible for reviewing the prices assigned by traders, but in practice the unit lacked the expertise to adequately challenge pricing by traders and Price Testing personnel were often deferential to the views of traders.” In the end, CS had to write-down the value of its portfolio by $2.6 billion with an earnings effect of $650 million.
Theft
Embezzlement
On July 13, 2010, the Montreal Gazette.com reported a detailed scheme of “pre-billing” and “embezzlement. (See http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Suit+alleges+details+billing+scam/3269876/story.html ). The scheme allegedly involved a high-ranking city-government employee, an outside businessman and companies involved with providing the city with goods and services. The government employee purportedly told certain city vendors that in order to help the city balance its budget, the vendors should bill the city for services the vendor had not yet provided in order to ensure the invoice fell within a certain city-budget period. To pay back the pre-billed invoice, the vendor had to pay services the vendor received from other participants in the scheme. The independent businessman worked as a contractor to the city government and the independent businessman purportedly billed the vendors for goods and services never provided to the vendor. Vendors also had to reportedly pay a “tax” on the value of the actual contracts received in order to “help the city balance certain budgets.” The scheme for some vendors came to an end when a city employee asked for evidence of service for pre-billed invoices. A scheme such as that described relies on collusion which may makes it more difficult to detect. Several failures occurred, however. First, most cities have internal auditors which appear to have failed to detect the scheme. Second, most cities have external auditors which appear to have failed to detect the scheme. Finally, the vendors themselves appear to have turned a blind eye to this most unusual form of transferring cash: paying back a pre-billed invoice through paying vendors for goods and services never received. To detect this scheme, the city only had to perform a simple test: substantiate invoices received prior to paying. This simple and prudent procedure would not only detect the scheme, but also deter it. Such a lack of fundamental procedures may indicate a weak internal control environment such that more schemes may exist.
Identity Theft
On January 11, 2012, the Folsom Telegraph reported that a 29-year old man from Folsom, CA, plead guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft related to a $19 million fraud scheme. According to a complaint filed in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of California, Docket No. 2:09 MJ00046KJM, one part of the scheme involved offering investors a real estate vehicle in which the investors served as nominees for the purchase of real estate. The Complaint specifically references Citimortgage and the falsification of mortgage materials Citi relied upon to fund three mortgages. The investors did not serve as nominees, but actually owned the real estate and Citi thought the mortgagees intended to occupy the home whereas the investors thought they had simply invested in real estate managed by another. The most interesting part of the Complaint, however, concerns the attachment the government included in which the writer discusses how the writer: (a) became a fraudster; (b) beat the regulatory system; and (c) how to change the system to prevent people like the writer from beating it. The fraudster proposes combining Freddie, Fannie and other governmental entities as well as creating an information verification center. The writer also notes that investors like Citi did not verify the data that supported the loans such as credit reports, W-2’s and paystubs. When an investor did catch a fraudulent loan, the writer claimed the loan an anomaly, fired the person that generated the mortgage and replaced the fraudulent loan with another loan. Investors, in turn, packaged these loans into mortgage-backed securities. According to the writer, the writer’s firm generated $810 billion dollars in mortgage-backed securities in which most of the underlying mortgages had some sort of material fraud made in order to fund the loan. The writer also asserts “[t]hese investors, who were securitizing these assets as AAA rated were not even verifying anything in the files? I am sure that their investors were assured everything from correspondents was being audited.” As a stakeholder, investors needs to conduct its own due-diligence. Firms like WJ Burns, Esq., CPA can help in this regard.

Trusts and Estates

Power of Attorney
On February 16, 2010, the Montreal Gazette reported that Bertram Earl Jones pleaded guilty to defrauding 158 clients of $50 million in a Ponzi scheme he operated for more than two decades. A judge handed him an 11-year sentence. ( http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Earl+Jones+gets+years+Ponzi+scheme/2567329/story.html ). In one instance, according to the Montreal Gazette, it appears that Mr. Jones used a power of attorney to take out a loan in one of his victim’s names, secured with the victim’s home. The victim sued the creditor and a notary. What makes the case interesting is an argument the notary’s attorney made. On February 3, 2012, the Gazette reported that the attorney questioned the victim’s credibility arguing that the victim "put all her eggs in one basket with Earl Jones." ( http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Victim+Earl+Jones+wants+loan+annulled/6095091/story.html ). In effect, the lawyer argues that you need an expert to investigate your expert or else you had better diversify. Incredible! The lawyer blames the victim for not being an expert. Before giving anyone a significant amount of cash, a power of attorney with authorization to borrow money and take mortgages, or even buy a home, stakeholders should obtain an independent attorney’s opinion. For about $1,000, this particular victim could likely have avoided the imbroglio in which she now finds herself had she performed her due diligence prior to giving a reprobate access to her assets.

Foreclosure
Fraud Seen as a Driver in Wave of Foreclosures, Wall Street Journal, December 21, 2007 at A1. The article outlined a scam in which a fraudster recruits borrowers with good credit to apply for loans using false income and asset statements. Then the fraudster finds an appraiser to inflate a home’s value. A lender then loans the borrower an amount that allows the borrower to purchase real estate and split with the fraudster the excess of the cash borrowed and the price paid for the real estate. The article described a ring in Atlanta that defrauded lenders of almost five million dollars. This kind of scam illustrates fundamental weakness in the underwriting of real estate loans.

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