Unit 4 DB: Finance Crimes

Of all the forms of finance crimes discussed, which do you consider the most serious, and why?  Are there any forms of finance crime that you do not think should be considered a crime?  If so, why? 300 word minimum

Unit 4.1 Discussion: New Initiatives

Aside from your project, what other NEW criminal justice/law enforcement initiatives can you think of.

· What type of research is supporting the new initiatives?

· Why do you feel that is important?

· How do you think this new initiative could change the criminal justice world?

Unit 4.2: Peer Review Article

With your research, you will be reviewing a total of four (4) peer reviewed articles. For this discussion board, attach 1 of your articles and summarize it briefly for your peers. Please make sure this is a different article than your Unit 3 submission.

· What key data will you be using for your research?

· How do you think this article will play a role in your final research?

· What are the 3 most important facts do you think this article covers?

Running head: CRIME ANALYSIS 1

CRIME ANALYSIS TECHNOLOGY 5

Crime Analysis Technology

Crime analysis is a function that usually involves the systemic analysis in identifying as well as analyzing the crime patterns and trends. Crime analysis is very important for law enforcement agencies as it helps law enforcers effectively deploy the available resources in a better and effective manner, which enables them to identify and apprehend suspects. Crime analysis is also very significant when it comes to arriving at solutions devised to come up with the right solution to solve the current crime problem and issues as well as coming up with the right prevention strategies. Since the year 2014, crime rates in the USA have increased steadily as per a study done by USAFacts, which is a non-partisan initiative (Osborne & Wernicke, 2013). With this increase in crime rates, which has majorly resulted in massive growth in technology, it is essential to come up with better means and ways of dealing with the increased crime rates. With the current advancement in technology, better law enforcement tools developed, which has enabled better crime deterrence in better and efficient ways. All this has been facilitated by the efforts of crime analysts who have come up with better tools and thus enabling the law enforcers to better deal with the crimes (Osborne & Wernicke, 2013). In this paper, I will consider the application of crime analysis technology and techniques in fighting crimes. Application of crime analysis technology and techniques used to make crime analysis more accurate and efficient.

Currently, the two technological tools that are used in predictive policing software have enabled security agencies to effectively use predictive policing (“Crime Analysis: Fighting Crime with Data,” 2017). Application of this software has enabled better crime prevention as with data obtained in the previous crimes have been used to predict possible future severe crimes in a specific area.

Through the adoption and use of crime analysis, law enforcement agencies have been able to fight against crimes as when compared with the past effectively. The use of crime analysis comes at the right time, where there has been an increase in crime rates in the current digital error. In a survey done by Wynyard group in 2015, the study revealed that for every 10 law enforcement officials 9 of them believe that the use of current technology in crime analysis has had positive effects in helping the agencies in solving crimes as they can identify essential links and trends in crimes (“Crime Analysis: Fighting Crime with Data,” 2017). In the same way, other sectors have benefited from data analysis with spreadsheets, databases, and mapping, law enforcers have been able to use data analysis to come up with a better decision. Crime analysis has had many positive impacts in different areas, which includes robberies and arsons with pattern examining as well as reviewing events sequence (Santos, 2012).

Use crime analysis technology is very useful in fighting terrorism activities through analysis of previous crimes and thus predicting any intended cyber-attacks. One of the most important federal agency mandated to deal with terrorist activity is the FBI. Therefore, be essential to implementing the initiative to the FBI agent. FBI is a U.S. domestic security and intelligence service. The FBI operates under the United States department of justice jurisdiction and usually reports to the director of national intelligence and attorney general. FBI is the United States leading organization when it comes to matters aimed at countering terrorist activities as well as investigation of criminal activities. The FBI formed in 1908, the organization currently has about 35,204 employees and its headquarters are in Washington, D.C. Having being involved in both law enforcing responsibilities as well as intelligence, the FBI is unique as it has dual responsibilities and thus significant agency in the U.S. Some of the vital roles includes ensuring the United States has protection from terrorist activities as well as foreign threat activities. In addition, it mandates upholding and enforcing criminal laws of the U.S. as well as providing criminal justice services and leadership to both federal, state, international agencies as well as municipal. Implementing a better law enforcement initiative in the FBI is therefore very important, as it will strengthen the ability of the FBI when it comes to dealing with the terrorist as well as ensuring the nation has protection from other foreign threats. To ensure the success of the initiative, most of the stakeholders will be technological companies. Technological companies will ensure the success of the action reaches achievement. The target audience will be the leaders of the FBI agents, as this will ensure that the information reaches the rest of the FBI fraternity.

References

Crime Analysis and Patterns. (n.d.). The International Crime Drop. doi:10.1057/9781137291462.0014

Crime Analysis: Fighting Crime with Data. (2017, June 12). Retrieved from https://www.floridatechonline.com/blog/criminal-justice/crime-analysis-fighting-crime-with-data/

Crime Analysts Fight Crime From Behind a Keyboard. (2019, July 29). Retrieved from https://online.campbellsville.edu/criminal-justice/crime-analysts/

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): History, Role & Purpose. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/federal-bureau-of-investigation-fbi-history-role-purpose.html

Osborne, D., & Wernicke, S. (2013). Introduction to Crime Analysis: Basic Resources for Criminal Justice Practice. London, England: Routledge.

Santos, R. B. (2012). Crime Analysis With Crime Mapping. SAGE.

The United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d.). The FBI Story.

Thekey data I will be using in my research is what is most and least common to society in the technology era. Anything from mobile phone technology, social media investigation and safety, to computer analyst software and safety, also how law enforcement uses the same tools and more to prevent, investigate, and catch an offender. The three most important facts this article will provide is information on the devices, tools, and techniques that is most important to the research

O, U. S. D. (2007). Investigative Uses of Technology: Devices, Tools, and Techniques. Retrieved January 30, 2020, from https://www.crime-scene-investigator.net/investigative-uses-of-technology-devices-tools-and-techniques.html

For my Capstone Project I choose Crime Analysis Technology and techniques of fighting crimes. There is so much crime solving, current or cold case based on ever-evolving technology and the access it gives crime fighters. I believe extensive research and knowledge of this topic is researchable as well as presentable. The current technology and social media craze, law enforcement needs to take advantage of it and to society needs to be knowledgeable of how safe or dangerous it can be.

Unit 4 DB: Finance Crimes

Of all the forms of finance crimes discussed, which do you consider the most serious, and why?  Are there any forms of finance crime that you do not think should be considered a crime?  If so, why?

300 word minimum

Unit 4.1 Discussion: New Initiatives

Aside from your project, what other NEW criminal justice/law enforcement initiatives can you think of.

· What type of research is supporting the new initiatives?

· Why do you feel that is important?

· How do you think this new initiative could change the criminal justice world?

Unit 4.2: Peer Review Article

With your research, you will be reviewing a total of four (4) peer reviewed articles. For this discussion board, attach 1 of your articles and summarize it briefly for your peers. Please make sure this is a different article than your Unit 3 submission.

· What key data will you be using for your research?

· How do you think this article will play a role in your final research?

· What are the 3 most important facts do you think this article covers?

WHITE COLLAR CRIME IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY 4TH ED.

CHAPTER 6
STATE-CORPORATE CRIME,
CRIMES OF GLOBALIZATION,
AND FINANCE CRIME
Trusted Criminals
Designed by: Jordan Land, M.S.

State-Corporate Crime
Much illegal governmental activity has connections with private enterprise
Many linkages exist among the “power elites”
State-corporate crimes are illegal or socially injurious actions that occur when one or more institution of political governance pursues a goal in direct cooperation with one or more institutions of economic production and distribution

State-Corporate Crime
A theory of state-corporate crime focuses on how state and corporate managers engage in cooperative endeavors that “result in death, injury, ill health, financial loss, and cultural destruction, all while being insulated from the full weight of criminalization for these actions”

This concept has been applied to industrial fires, nuclear weapons production, oil spills, treaty violations, and pre-emptive war

State-Corporate Crime
The U.S. government has been involved in the overthrowing of regimes in various countries around the world
Because transnational corporations have used their influence to promote such regime change when a government in some country has been viewed as threatening the interest of such corporations

Environmental crimes committed in conjunction with U.S. nuclear weapons production are a form of state-corporate crime because they are a collective product of interaction between a government agency and private corporations

State-Corporate Crime
State-corporate crime reflects the fulfillment of mutually agreed-on objectives of a public agency and a private entity achieved through cooperative illegal activity

The concept of state-corporate crime compels us to recognize that some major forms of organizational crime cannot be easily classified as either corporate or governmental and that these cross-organizational forms of crime may be especially potent and pernicious

Crime of Globalization
Sutherland’s classic White Collar Crime made little reference to illegal corporate or business activity of an international scope

If we accept the premise that we live in an increasingly globalized world, we must also focus on the global character of some white collar crime, as some criminologists recognize

Crime of Globalization
The anti-globalization movement contends that large-scale crimes are being carried out in the name of globalization
The U.S. was a strong supporter of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993

The U.S. has also promoted global free trade, but has been accused of causing harm to farmers, merchants, and consumers in many countries when it protects its own interests against free trade

Crime of Globalization
International financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are alleged to be complicit in major crimes against large numbers of people in developing countries
Crimes of globalization are consequences of policy decisions of high-level officials of major financial institutions and government agencies who are attempting to realize positive outcomes
Globalization refers to the dramatic compression of time and space across the globe

Crime of Globalization
Globalization contributes to an overall increase in economic inequality, fostering poverty and unemployment for many

It has been characterized as a new form of the ancient practice of colonization

Globalization clearly has many different dimensions

The Role of the World Bank in a Global Economy
The international financial institutions that play such a central role in contemporary globalization have become prime targets of criticism for their policies and practices
In a rapidly changing global economy, the roles of the international financial institutions have been increasingly questioned
These institutions have many ties with each other, and the lines of demarcation between their activities can become blurred

The World Bank and Crimes of Globalization
The World Bank has been characterized as paternalistic, secretive and counterproductive in terms of its claimed goals of improving people’s lives

Critics claim that many less-developed countries that received World Bank loans are worse off today in terms of poverty and that the severe austerity measures imposed on borrowing countries, deemed necessary to maximize the chances of bank loans being repaid, impact the poorest and most vulnerable citizens most heavily

The World Bank and Crimes of Globalization
At a World Bank meeting in Berlin in 1988, protesters called for the establishment of a Permanent People’s Tribunal to try the World Bank for “crimes against humanity”
The World Bank complicity in these allegations is best understood in terms of the Bank’s criminogenic structure and organization
The World Bank does not set out to do harm, but its mode of operation is intrinsically criminogenic and it functions undemocratically

The World Bank and Crimes of Globalization
The World Bank is at a minimum criminally negligent when it:
Fails to adequately explore or take into account the impact of its loans for major projects on indigenous peoples
Adopts and implements policies specifically at odds with the protocols of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent covenants
Operates in a manner at least hypothetically at odds with both international law and state law

Finance Crime
Finance crime refers to large-scale illegality that occurs in the world of finance and financial institutions
Finance crime may be committed on behalf of major financial institutions, such as banks, or for the benefit of individuals occupying financially privileged statuses, such as investment bankers
In the final years of the first decade of the 21st century, the American economy and the world of high finance was in a state of crisis

Finance Crime

In the fall of 2008, the passage of a divided Congress “bailout” bill and the dramatic drops in the stock market, the financial crisis was widely characterized as the most serious since the Great Depression

This crisis occurred in the wake of several decades of high finance playing a central role in the production of vast wealth with deregulation, globalization, and technological innovation

Banking/Thrifts Crime:
The Savings & Loan Mess
The critical importance of banks to the economy and the catastrophic financial consequences of bank failures led to the creation of a large regulatory structure intended to oversee police banking operations

Banks from their earliest days have engaged in fraudulent activities
In 1999, a bank pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges in connection with shifting unclaimed checks and credits of customers into its own accounts

Banking/Thrifts Crime:
The Savings & Loan Mess
Some alleged practices involving credit cards do violate laws
In the recent past, the federal government filed antitrust charges against Visa and MasterCard for restricting banks from offering competitors’ cards
When people need loans, they often turn to banks
The largest loan most people will get is in connection with a purchase of a home or refinancing

Banking/Thrifts Crime:
The Savings & Loan Mess
Banks have also been implicated in a wide range of specifically illegal acts intended to enhance their profitability, including bribery, money laundering, tax evasion, and investment-related fraud

Money laundering has been described as the criminal practice of taking ill-gotten gains and moving them through a sequence of bank accounts so they look like legitimate profits from legal businesses

The S & L Frauds
Savings and Loan (S & L) was characterized at the time in the 1980s as the “biggest bank robbery” ever
The S & L failures can hardly be attributed to criminal conduct alone, but such conduct clearly played an important role
Beyond such immediate victims and long-term costs to taxpayers, the S & L frauds:
Added to the national deficit
Deflected billions of dollars that might have been spent on education, health care, and environmental projects
Limited credit available to legitimate borrowers who paid higher rates for loans

The S & L Frauds
In the 1970s, the rapid inflationary rise in the cost of living made the low, fixed interest rates paid by the
S & Ls increasingly unappealing to depositors and rendered the higher but still relatively modest interest earned on mortgages increasingly unprofitable
Thrifts deregulation took place over a period of time, culminating in the 1982 Garn-St. Germain Act
This new level of deposit insurance played a key role in bringing about the S & L debacle

The S & L Frauds
The various illegalities in the S & L frauds included:
Unlawful risk taking, looting and covering up
Unlawful risk taking refers to exceeding the practices legally available to the S & Ls, even in the deregulated 1980s
Deregulation produced a criminogenic environment that was bound to escalate the level of illegal activity
Finally, the S & Ls engaged in massive deceptions to conceal their fraudulent activities from outside examiners

Fraud and the S & L Bailout

In 1989, it was widely recognized that a massive bailout of the S & Ls was necessary

A new agency, the Resolution Trust Corporation, was established to sell the assets of hundreds of failed thrifts

The Criminal Justice Response to S & L Fraud
Investigating and successfully prosecuting S & L crimes proved difficult
The crimes were highly complex, and the line separating outright fraud from bad business judgment or mismanagement is not always well defined
Most of those convicted in S & L cases were minor players
In cases involving millions of dollars, only probation and modest fines were imposed

Insider Trading
Insider trading is a quintessential form of white collar crime

Violation of trust may be a principle attribute of all white collar crime, bust such violation virtually defines insider trading

Many other cases of insider trading involve individuals of more moderate means simply looking for a quick profit on an investment or to avoid losing money

Insider Trading
Individuals with privileged information have always made investment and trading decisions on the basis of such information

Prohibitions on insider trading originated principally with the advent of federal securities laws

Although no specific statutory definition of insider trading exists, SEC regulations and judicial opinions have generally defined it as trading on the basis of material nonpublic information

Insider Trading

The SEC has been granted much discretion in defining insider trading

Insider trading laws attempt to neutralize the advantages that violate either a basic trust or specific requirements for confidentiality

The Pursuit of Insider Trading Cases
Through most of the 20th century, the practice of passing inside tips was probably quite common and was not prosecuted
During the recent era, a number of factors increased the visibility and newsworthiness of insider trading
The financial markets became more vulnerable to insider trading by virtue of the dramatic growth in both the trading capacity of institutions and corporations and in tender offers or takeover situations

The Victims of Insider Trading
Clearly, the primary victims of insider trading are institutional and individual investors who bought or sold stock at a loss, failed to realize a profit, or overpaid for stock because of insider trader manipulations

The substantial direct losses of some investors are but a part of the cost of insider trading

The loss of confidence in the integrity of the market is another very real cost

The Wall Street Insider Trading
Cases of the 1980s
In 1985, Merrill Lynch claimed that one of its traders in Caracas was trading on inside information

This tip led to an SEC investigation of a small bank in the Bahamas, Bank Leu, through which the trades were executed

The investigation revealed that one of the bank’s clients had engaged in a pattern of exceedingly profitable trades correlated with corporate takeovers

The Michael Milken Case
Michael Milken became a key figure in the hyperinflated financial market of the 198os as the “Junk Bond King”
Milken had come to recognize that vast amounts of money could be raised through issuing and selling high-yield, high-risk junk bonds
They pay higher interest because they are viewed as more prone to default
These junk bonds were widely used to finance the wave of corporate takeovers during the 1980s and they were bought up by S & Ls and many mutual funds

The Michael Milken Case

Although the criminal investigation of Milken initially included charges of insider trading, it ultimately resulted in his pleading guilty to six felony charges of securities fraud and conspiracy

Insider Trading since the 1980s
Early in the 2000s, an especially high-profile case of alleged insider trading surfaced involving Dr. Sam Waksal of ImClone and his good friend Martha Stewart
Waksal was alleged to have tipped off a number of relatives and friends directly or indirectly that the FDA had failed to approve a major new ImClone drug for the market
When this news became public, the stock price plunged

Insider Trading since the 1980s

According to one study, politicians do suspiciously well as investors

The suspicion is that financiers with insider information are eager to ingratiate themselves with U.S. senators and other powerful politicians

Finance Crime and Financial Markets
In addition to insider trading, many other unethical and illegal activities occur within financial markets:
A massive check-kiting scheme against banks was masterminded by the prestigious brokerage firm, E.F. Hutton
They were systematically cheating customers by:
Phony bidding
A long-running fraud within a rigged foreign currency marketplace
The sale of illegal tax shelters
The revelation of significant fraud in the mutual fund and hedge fund industries

Finance Crime and Financial Markets
An immense amount of fraud occurs in connection with the sale of stocks, and some of this activity is addressed as a form of contrepreneurial fraud

Federal prosecutors also investigated possible systematic defrauding of large institutional investors in connection with the sale of limited real estate partnerships

Although such suits have been successful, it has generally been difficult to win such cases

Stock Analysts and Conflicts of Interest
Investors have historically relied upon advice and recommendation of stock analysts while making their investments
Stock analysts would often function as sales representatives promoting a company’s stock instead of as disinterested and impartial analysts
In return, the analysts who helped bring business to their firms are rewarded with huge bonuses
In some cases, stock analysts even own stock in companies whose stock they promote, and accordingly they profit greatly from a run-up in the stock price

Stock Analysts and Conflicts of Interest

Eliot Spitzer launched a criminal investigation of Wall Street firms after evidence surfaced that stock analysts who were recommending that their clients buy a stock were at the same time disparaging the companies involved and their stock in emails among themselves

Many stock analysts were complicit in huge losses for investors

Insurance Industry Fraud
People rely heavily on insurance as a buffer against catastrophic accidents, illnesses, and fatalities and as a source of retirement income

In fall 2008, insurance companies were being financially battered and undercapitalized

The offshore insurance companies have been especially successful in avoiding regulatory oversight and have been involved in large-scale frauds

Insurance Industry Fraud

Insurance company frauds take many forms
Ex. Brokers who are supposed to provide unbiased recommendations on coverage

The financial misrepresentations and manipulations of insurance companies put the interests of their clientele in jeopardy

Insurance Industry Fraud
As a consequence of the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 and potent lobbying, the insurance industry has been relatively unregulated

Agents in these schemes misrepresent their credentials for providing financial advice, and are specifically trained to use scare tactics to persuade retirees to sign up for their plans