Committee Meeting at 2004 Winter Leadership Conference
“Legal and Strategies in the Current Legal and Regulatory Enviornment”
The Commercial Fraud Task Force Committee will hold a meeting on Friday, Dec. 3, at the 2004 Winter Leadership Conference. This panel will discuss the legal strategies to consider, from both the debtor and creditor perspective, when fraud is suspected in the current legal and regulatory environment. The speakers are Ross O. Silverman and Brian P. Netols, both of Katten, Muchin, Zavis & Rosenman, Chicago. Both Ross and Brian are former Assistant US Attorneys for the Northern District of Illinois. Ross recently served as the examiner in the United Airlines Case.
Fraud Investigations—Analyzing Financial Information
Twenty-five years ago, a typical major, single act of fraud involved losses of $5 million–$10 million dollars. Just 10 years ago, the amount of losses involved in a large fraud scheme escalated into the hundreds of millions of dollars. As we have seen over the last three years, a single act of major fraud can now involve losses in the billions of dollars. What this dramatic growth in the scale of financial losses due to fraud indicates is that fraudsmen and women have become much more sophisticated, and increasingly, fraudspeople are targeting and manipulating the bankruptcy system to achieve their goals.
- Introduction
- Bankruptcy Fraud: A Case Study by The Hon. Colleen A. Brown, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, District of Vermont
- Fraud Report to the Nation
- Signature Analysis
Presented at ABI’s 2004 Northeast Bankruptcy Conference.
Computer Forensics: Insights into Locating Undisclosed Assets
By Matthew Schwartz, CPA CIRA CFE, and Anthony Cecil, CPA CFE, Bederson & Co. LLP; West Orange, N.J.
In most bankruptcies, there is little cash to go around, so trustees and creditors are always on the lookout for additional assets. In some cases, the trustee or creditors are bewildered to find out that the company or individual has no assets. The debtor made lots of money each year for several years, and then suddenly is insolvent. All indicators suggest that the debtor should have more assets than reported on the bankruptcy petition. However, it is not readily apparent what happened, and inevitably the trustees and creditors ask: “Where’d the money go?”
Reprinted from the September 2004 ABI Journal.
Protecting Yourself Against E-illiteracy: Avoid Being Duped
By Jack Seward; New York
The world of electronic data discovery (EDD), as it is called in litigation, is the current “hotbed” for vendors that are adept finding the way to the hearts of attorneys involved in litigation. How difficult could that be, considering the e-illiteracy existing in bankruptcy litigation? The only problem is you may find yourself being duped during the EDD process.
This article is not about those that win and lose in litigation; this is about having the wool pulled right over your eyes by those involved with EDD. How is that done? Easily. Consider this article required reading to come out of the EDD jungle alive. You will have an understanding of how, when allowed to go unabated, EDD can twist and bend the production of documents rules.
Reprinted from the September 2004 ABI Journal.