...12 MADOFF SECURITIES Synopsis A childhood friend summed up the driving force in Bernie Madoff’s life: “Bernie wanted to be rich.” As a youngster growing up in New York City, Bernie realized that Wall Street was the greatest wealth creation machine the world had ever known. So, after graduating from college in 1960, he set his sights on joining the exclusive fraternity that ran Wall Street by organizing his own one-man brokerage firm, Madoff Securities. Madoff was one of the first individuals to recognize that computer technology provided the means to “democratize” Wall Street by establishing a system that made securities trading much more efficient and much cheaper. In the early 1970s, Madoff and several other individuals organized the NASDAQ exchange, which was destined to become the world’s largest electronic stock market. Years later, the NYSE would be forced to follow suit and switch to electronic securities trading. Literally millions of investors have benefitted from the lower transaction costs of electronic securities trading that were in large part a result of the pioneering efforts of Bernie Madoff. Unfortunately, Bernie Madoff will not be remembered as a pioneer of electronic securities trading. Instead, the word “Madoff” will always be associated with the phrase “Ponzi scheme.” Although his stock brokerage firm was extremely lucrative, Madoff eventually established a parallel business, investment advisory services. Over a period of several decades, Madoff became...
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...Running head: INDIVIDUAL PROJECT: Forensic Accountants: Fraud Busters 1 Individual Project: Forensic Accountants: Fraud Busters Pamela Turner Professor Ann Nelson Contemporary Business 508 February 13, 2013 Strayer University INDIVIDUAL PROJECT: Forensic Accountants: Fraud Busters 2 Individual Project: Forensic Accountants: Fraud Busters Determine the most important five skills that a forensic accountant needs to possess and evaluate the need for each skill. Be sure to include discussion regarding the relationship between the skill and its application to business operations. The age of information technology there is a definite rise in computer crimes, financial frauds, employee thefts and securities scams, insurance and bank frauds. The forensic accountant searches out fraud and criminal transactions in banking, corporate entity or from any other financial records within an organization. Forensic accountants take a more proactive, skeptical approach in examining books of accounting. The base of a forensic accountant is accounting knowledge. The dispersement of the knowledge of auditing, internal controls, risk assessment and fraud detection. There must be a basic or general understanding of the legal environment. The legal environment is essential in order to support the litigation. A strong set of communication skills both oral and written (Houck, 2006). Forensic...
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...Business ethics 1. Assignment 1: Questions 1) Analyzing the ethical frameworks needed in decision making, which ones best align to the eight ethical principles of the Global Business Standards of Codex. Without doubt, there always exists a dilemma when company decisions are being made. It is for this reason that ethical frameworks are utilized to ensure that appropriate decisions are made in the organization. Ethics.ubc argues that ethical frameworks act like “snake detectors.” They are there to ensure that “snakes” in the organization are easily recognized before they bite. In layman’s language, they offer guidance when making decisions. Some of the ethical frameworks put forward include: * The utilitarian approach * Rights approach * Fairness approach * Common good approach * Virtue approach Utilitarian approach This approach basically focuses on the consequences of a particular action (capsim.com). For example, it considers whether an action will eventually lead to greater good than other related actions. Therefore, the most ethical decision to be made will be that which will offer maximum benefits. Rights approach In this approach, the most ethical decision to be made will have utmost respect and protection for human rights (capism.com). In this case, people have the right to make their own decisions and everyone ought to be respected in the decisions they make. Fairness approach Just as the name suggests, fairness...
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...Bernie Madoff Research Project Abronia S. Young D03202587 On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal offenses, including securities fraud, wire fraud , mail fraud , money laundering, making false statements, perjury, theft from an employee benefit plan, and making false filings with the SEC. The Fraud In March 2009, Madoff admitted that since the mid-1990s he stopped trading and his returns had been fabricated. Madoff's sales pitch, an investment strategy consisted of purchasing blue chip stocks and taking options contracts on them, sometimes called a split-strike conversion or a collar. Typically, a position will consist of the ownership of 30–35 S&P 100 stocks, most correlated to that index, the sale of out-of-the-money calls on the index and the purchase of out-of-the-money 'puts' on the index. The sale of the 'calls' is designed to increase the rate of return, while allowing upward movement of the stock portfolio to the strike price of the calls. The puts, funded in large part by the sales of the calls, limit the portfolio's downside. Rather than offer high returns to all comers, Madoff offered modest but steady returns to an exclusive clientele. The investment method was marketed as too complicated for outsiders to understand. He was secretive about the firm’s business, and kept his financial statements closely guarded. One of the most prominent promoters was J. Ezra Merkin, whose fund Ascot Partners steered $1.8 billion towards Madoff's...
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...Principles of Managerial Finance The Prentice Hall Series in Finance Adelman/Marks Entrepreneurial Finance Andersen Global Derivatives: A Strategic Risk Management Perspective Bekaert/Hodrick International Financial Management Berk/DeMarzo Corporate Finance* Berk/DeMarzo Corporate Finance: The Core* Berk/DeMarzo/Harford Fundamentals of Corporate Finance* Boakes Reading and Understanding the Financial Times Brooks Financial Management: Core Concepts* Copeland/Weston/Shastri Financial Theory and Corporate Policy Dorfman/Cather Introduction to Risk Management and Insurance Eiteman/Stonehill/Moffett Multinational Business Finance Fabozzi Bond Markets: Analysis and Strategies Fabozzi/Modigliani Capital Markets: Institutions and Instruments Fabozzi/Modigliani/Jones/Ferri Foundations of Financial Markets and Institutions Finkler Financial Management for Public, Health, and Not-for-Profit Organizations Frasca Personal Finance Gitman/Joehnk/Smart Fundamentals of Investing* Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance* * denotes Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance— Brief Edition* Goldsmith Consumer Economics: Issues and Behaviors Haugen The Inefficient Stock Market: What Pays Off and Why Haugen The New Finance: Overreaction, Complexity, and Uniqueness Holden Excel Modeling and Estimation in Corporate Finance Holden Excel Modeling and Estimation in Investments Hughes/MacDonald International Banking:...
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...Principles of Managerial Finance The Prentice Hall Series in Finance Adelman/Marks Entrepreneurial Finance Andersen Global Derivatives: A Strategic Risk Management Perspective Bekaert/Hodrick International Financial Management Berk/DeMarzo Corporate Finance* Berk/DeMarzo Corporate Finance: The Core* Berk/DeMarzo/Harford Fundamentals of Corporate Finance* Boakes Reading and Understanding the Financial Times Brooks Financial Management: Core Concepts* Copeland/Weston/Shastri Financial Theory and Corporate Policy Dorfman/Cather Introduction to Risk Management and Insurance Eiteman/Stonehill/Moffett Multinational Business Finance Fabozzi Bond Markets: Analysis and Strategies Fabozzi/Modigliani Capital Markets: Institutions and Instruments Fabozzi/Modigliani/Jones/Ferri Foundations of Financial Markets and Institutions Finkler Financial Management for Public, Health, and Not-for-Profit Organizations Frasca Personal Finance Gitman/Joehnk/Smart Fundamentals of Investing* Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance* * denotes Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance— Brief Edition* Goldsmith Consumer Economics: Issues and Behaviors Haugen The Inefficient Stock Market: What Pays Off and Why Haugen The New Finance: Overreaction, Complexity, and Uniqueness Holden Excel Modeling and Estimation in Corporate Finance Holden Excel Modeling and Estimation in Investments Hughes/MacDonald International Banking:...
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...Unit 3 Research Paper # 1 Business Law Outline Thesis--Government Regulation is needed in the U.S. to keep scandals from ruining our businesses livelihood and the financial futures of all Americans. Introduction Many acts have been created because of controversy and scandals that have and continue to happen in the U.S. These acts were introduced to prevent individuals and businesses from losing everything and to help the government to keep individuals and businesses safe from scams. Without these regulations there would be no standards and companies and corporations could do as they please. They also help to monitor the accounting of companies, keep the scandals at a minimum, and watch for trends so we don’t have another stock market crash. Too many people have lost everything when these types of disasters strike. Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934 The Securities Act of 1933 was enacted as a result of the stock market crash of 1929. It was the first major piece of federal legislation to apply to the sale of securities. The legislation was enacted as the need for more information within and about the securities markets was acknowledged. The 1933 Act was based on the idea that companies offering securities should provide potential investors with sufficient information about both the issuer and the securities to make an informed investment decision. The Securities Act of 1934 established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The 1934 Act also gives...
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...MBA 6301, Business Ethics Course Syllabus Course Description Explores the role of individual, business, and government activities related to ethically responsible commerce and socially beneficial business activity. Prerequisites None Course Textbook Stanwick, P. A., & Stanwick, S. D. (2014). Understanding business ethics (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Course Learning Outcomes Upon completion of this course, students should be able to: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Analyze the concepts of business ethics from a personal and an organizational perspective. Assess the ethical issues facing business leaders. Evaluate and distinguish between the concepts of social responsibility, integrity, and business ethics. Explain the framework required to make ethical decisions in today's business environment and how it improves the business climate. Summarize how moral philosophies, on a corporate and individual level, influence ethical decision-making in business. Analyze the influence of corporate culture, including leadership, power, and motivation, on business ethics in the workplace. Explain the pressures that influence ethical decision making in the organization. Evaluate the need for ethical standards, codes of ethics and practices in business. Assess the auditing process to assure ethical practices are being followed. Analyze the role that culture plays in global business ethics. Credits Upon completion of this course, the students...
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...investigation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC (BMIS) had any financial or other inappropriate connection with Bernard Madoff or the Madoff family that influenced the conduct of their examination or investigatory work. The OIG also did not find that former SEC Assistant Director Eric Swanson's romantic relationship with Bernard Madoffs niece, Shana Madoff, influenced the conduct of the SEC examinations of Madoff and his firm. We also did not find that senior officials at the SEC directly attempted to influence examinations or investigations of Madoff or the Madofffirm, nor was there evidence any senior SEC official interfered with the staffs ability to perform its work. The OIG investigation did find, however, that the SEC received more than ample information in the form of detailed and substantive complaints over the years to warrant a thorough and comprehensive examination and/or investigation of Bernard Madoff and BMIS for operating a Ponzi scheme, and that despite three examinations and two investigations being conducted, a thorough and competent investigation or examination was never performed. The OIG found that between June 1992 and December 2008 when Madoff confessed, the SEC received six! substantive complaints that raised significant red flags concerning Madoff s hedge fund operations and should have led to questions about whether Madoffwas actually engaged in trading. Finally, the SEC was also aware of two articles regarding Madoff s investment operations...
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...Financial Management. A. In your judgment, what were the principal causes of the recent financial crisis and Great Recession? Would you include Government policies that encouraged housing purchases for those who could not afford them, artificially low interest rates implemented by the Federal Reserve, banks and mortgage brokers who were greedy, the failure of Government regulators to provide proper oversight to the banks and other financial institutions, individuals who borrowed and spent more than they should have, or some other causes? . B. From the e-Activity, examine ethical behavior within firms in relation to financial management. Provide at least two (2) recent (in the last 5 years) examples (other than Enron, WorldCom, and Bernie Madoff) of companies that have been guilty of ethics-based malfeasance related to financial management. What were the specific sanctions that were imposed and explain why the sanctions and penalties were appropriate? . C. From the scenario (Scenario Topic: The primary objective of the corporation is value maximization), what are at least two (2) actions that Trevose Fitness Center (TFC) could take in order to raise capital that will, in turn, enable it to achieve its expansion goals? How can you defend your response? Support your observations with at least two (2) recent and real-world examples of implementations of these same actions? Week 2 DQ 1 The annual report is agood place to for managers to start in the assessment of...
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...OC College of Business Administration MGMT 5603.93: Ethics, Decision Making, and Communications Fall 2015, Term 2 Online _______________________________________________________________________________________ Professor: Dr. Phil Lewis, Professor of Management Phone (Work): (405) 425-5561 or 425-5560; (Home): (405) 475-7070 Email: phil.lewis@oc.edu Virtual Office Hours: Email responses normally within 24 hours. Mission of Oklahoma Christian University Oklahoma Christian University is a higher learning community that transforms lives for Christian faith, scholarship, and service. MISSION OF THE OC SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Within a framework of excellence in contemporary business education, the School of Business Administration will build a community of lifelong relationships upon a foundation of enduring Christian values. CONTRIBUTION OF COURSE TO CHRISTIAN SERVICE AND LEADERSHIP For I have walked in my integrity … I will walk in my integrity … Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord. Psalm 26:1, 26:11, 119:1 (NKJV). THE OC COVENANT The Covenant for Oklahoma Christian University is posted under Course Information. REQUIRED TEXT Phillip V. Lewis, Ethics in the World of Business, Kendall-Hunt Publishing Co., 2014 (ISBN: 978-1-4652-3979-2). COURSE DESCRIPTION This course examines the basic ethical issues involved in the conduct of business from a biblical perspective. Critical thinking of organizations as...
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...Licensed to: iChapters User Licensed to: iChapters User Fraud Examination, Fourth Edition W. Steve Albrecht Chad O. Albrecht Conan C. Albrecht Mark F. Zimbelman VP/Editorial Director: Jack W. Calhoun Editor-in-Chief: Rob Dewey Sr. Acquisitions Editor: Matt Filimonov Associate Developmental Editor: Julie Warwick Editorial Assistant: Ann Mazzaro Marketing Manager: Natalie Livingston Marketing Coordinator: Nicole Parsons Content Project Management: PreMediaGlobal Sr. Manufacturing Buyer: Doug Wilke Production House/Compositor: PreMediaGlobal © 2012, 2009 South-Western, Cengage Learning ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706. For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at www.cengage.com/permissions Further permissions questions can be e-mailed to permissionrequest@cengage.com Library of Congress Control Number: 2010940986 ISBN-13:...
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...accounting profession. Furthermore, the paper examines these reasons through the lens of race and ethnicity. The paper also synthesizes multiple sources regarding blacks’ underrepresentation in account- ing. Blacks are underrepresented in accounting because of internal and external factors linked to their ethnic identity. Many blacks feel that they do not belong to the accounting profession, and as a result, they rarely choose accounting as a career. Many CPA firms think that blacks are not capable of doing the job and delivering the superior results that clients expect. While the demand for new and diverse accounting talents is increasing in light of recent white-collar crimes committed by Bernie Madoff, Enron and WorldCom, blacks’ representation in the ac- counting field still remains low. Research has shown that blacks are under- represented in most American Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firms. There is much speculation as to why this is so. One reason might be that blacks have some personal qualities that cause them to enter the account- ing profession at a low rate. Some people might even wonder if society is still oppressive towards blacks years after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. The reasons why blacks are underrepresented in the accounting profession include the historical exclusion of blacks from the accounting profession and the unfavorable conditions that exist for blacks. Perhaps ac- counting has not been a part of blacks’ racial formation, and some black...
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...Texas. Freescale has discovered that in order to have the right people at the right time to do the right job, it needs an extensive and elaborate set of metrics to manage its 24,000 employees in 30 countries. Of particular concern to Freescale is retention. “There’s no greater cost than human capital, especially in the technology industry,” says Jignasha Patel, Freescale’s director of global talent sourcing and inclusion. “When you’ve got a tenured employee that decides to walk out the door, it’s not just one person leaving, it’s that person’s knowledge and network and skills.” To manage talent and prevent turnover, Freescale holds line managers accountable for recruiting, hiring, and retaining employees. To do that, managers need to project their talent needs into the future and reconcile those with projected availabilities. Patel provides line managers with census data that helps them make their projections, but at the end of the day, the responsibility is theirs. “What we have done is taken all of our inclusion data, all our metrics, and we’ve moved the accountability...
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...The Federal Reserve System & Financial Crisis Alejandro Cuervo Wilmington University Abstract As we go into our research on the financial crisis of 2007, we will try to answer some questions about what actually cause of the failure of our financial system, which almost collapse the dollar. While there are plenty of faults to go around on what cause this crisis, there was never a clear path on how to reverse the demand that was cause by repealing the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. Although there has been other regulations and acts pass since the repeal of the Act of 1933, the ability to restore and strength our dollar has been an uphill battle to take control of it. What was known within our economic system to readjust and rebuilt had not worked to establish balance playing field on the world stage or our domestic economy. As we look forward toward corrective action though the Dodd-Frank Act, Sarbanes-Oxley Act or the Global Legal Settlement of 2002 which reduced the conflict of interest as did the Sarbanes-Oakley Act. These conflicts encompass “underwriting and research in investment banks, auditing and consulting in accounting firms and credit assessment and consulting in credit rating agencies.” (Sanati, 2009) So while we have had a slow and diosmose recovery from this crisis, I will try to answer some of the questions presented to us today on our ability to fully recover and instill some preventative measures to ensure a worst and more devastating financial crisis...
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