White-collar crime

White-Collar Crime In Canada

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When it comes to protecting its citizens from white-collar crime and predatory practices within the investment industry, Canada resembles a third-world country.

Although most Canadians are oblivious to this situation, sophisticated players know all too well and are leery of investing here – while fraudsters and scam artists are drawn to Canada by the attraction of weak laws and virtually non-existent enforcement.

Canadian stimulus money goes to some implicated in Quebec scandals

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Jonathan Montpetit – May 14, 2012

Some of the public money set aside for Canada's economic recovery has ended up in the hands of companies and individuals accused of taking part in an elaborate collusion scheme in Quebec.

An investigation by The Canadian Press of stimulus funding in three municipalities recently raided by police revealed three separate cases where companies tied to criminal charges received contracts under the multibillion-dollar federal-provincial infrastructure plan.

SEC Kowtows to Fortune 500, Whistleblower Says

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Matt Reynolds – April 27, 2012

The SEC allows the nation's richest firms and financial institutions - and only the biggest and richest firms - to handpick the lawyers investigating them for corruption, a whistleblower claims in Federal Court.

Rodolfo Michelon claims that the SEC runs an exclusive "outsourcing program" for Wall Street, neutering incentives and protections for whistleblowers under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Global organisations lose 5% of revenue to fraud

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Iheanyi Nwachukwu – May 17, 2012

Organisations around the world lose an estimated 5 percent of their annual revenues to fraud, according to a survey of Certified Fraud Examiners (CFEs) who investigated cases between January 2010 and December 2011.

Applied to the estimated 2011 Gross World Product, this figure translates to a potential total fraud loss of more than $3.5 trillion. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) published the results of the survey in its highly-anticipated 2012 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud & Abuse. The report includes global data amongst the 1,388 cases of fraud that were studied.

Documents reveal hundreds of ‘high-risk misconduct’ cases at CRA

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Daniel Leblanc – April 29, 2012

Allegations of corruption that have rocked the Montreal offices of the Canada Revenue Agency are just a fraction of the total instances of “high-risk misconduct” reported at the federal tax agency every year, records show.

The CRA has dismissed seven officials from its Montreal offices in connection with an RCMP investigation into allegations of fraud and corruption involving senior team leaders and auditors at the tax-collection agency.

TD Bank Faces Sanctions Request After Losing $67 Million Verdict

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David Voreacos and Susannah Nesmith – Apr 19, 2012

Toronto-Dominion Bank, after losing a $67 million verdict over claims it aided a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme, should be sanctioned for “altering” a document used at trial, an investor said in court papers.

Coquina Investments, which won the verdict on Jan. 18 in federal court in Miami, seeks sanctions after a trial over whether TD Bank should have detected money laundering that supported a Ponzi scheme that disbarred attorney Scott Rothstein ran out of his law firm.

What will it take for finance workers to report wrongdoing?

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Gary M. Stern – April 11, 2012

Half of all observed misconduct goes unreported, and a majority of managers said they'd only divulge information to a senior executive if the impact of the case exceeded $1 million, according to a recent study.

Turning a blind eye to the wrongdoing of colleagues has become the norm at many financial services firms. Despite the MF Global debacle, the rogue traders at UBS and Societe Generale, the subprime mortgage mess, and Goldman Sachs' tarnished reputation, most corporate employees continue to withhold information about misconduct by colleagues on issues they know are wrong, until it turns into a major financial imbroglio, according to a recent study.

Interview with Bruce Livesey: Thieves of Bay Street

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The Current – April 13, 2012

Bruce Livesey

Are we immune from a Wall Street style meltdown? A controversial book raises doubts that our banking and financial system is somehow morally superior and more secure than our American neighbours. It suggests that not only are Canada's Captains of the money industry capable of corruption, the system does little to protect you from them.

When the financial and real estate markets melted down in 2008, Canada's banks became super heroes. They were the envy of the world celebrated models of responsibility and prudence. It seemed to suggest the worst economic crisis in half-a-century demonstrated how lucky we were to have our financial futures invested in this country.

Book Review: Thieves of Bay Street, by Bruce Livesey

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Thieves of Bay Street

Alex Good – April 13, 2012

Thieves of Bay Street: How the Banks, Brokerages and the Wealthy Steal Billions from Canadians, by Bruce Livesey (Random House, 313 pages, $32 hardcover)

One thing we can thank the recent credit crisis and global financial meltdown for is the way it lifted the lid on a sector of the economy we hadn’t been giving enough attention.

That sector is the financial industry. In Thieves of Bay Street, investigative journalist Bruce Livesey looks at how Canada’s banks, brokerages, funds, and financial advisers have been ripping off Canadians for years. And while headline makers like Conrad Black and Earl Jones dominate Livesey’s chronicles of white collar crime, the not-so-few bad apples aren’t as important as the rotten barrel he describes.

Alleged misconduct at SNC-Lavalin and RBC: Where was the Board?

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Richard Leblanc – April 9, 2012

If the CEO of SNC-Lavalin allegedly overrode his own CFO and breached the company’s code of ethics in authorizing $56 million of questionable payments to undisclosed agents that the RCMP are now investigating, did the board of directors of SNC-Lavalin have a role to play?

If RBC made 'material false statements' in connection with non-arms length trades, which is being alleged by a U.S. regulator, did the board of directors of RBC have a role to play?

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