Fraud and Highest Embezzlement Case

Embezzlement: Attempting to Find the Easy Way Out Name School Envy and greed has existed since the beginning of time. Maybe we are born with those traits or maybe we are taught through life’s lessons. The rich are perceived as having a carefree un-stress-filled life. The reality shows and news stories of the wealthy buying yachts, taking lavish vacations with their Barbie doll mate, summer homes that are actually castles and extravagant parties. The rest of the world seems to be the servants of the wealthy. How can society not be envious or greedy to obtain what the few have in their life?
Part of society is happy with their position in life; just being able to pay the bills, and take care of their family is what drives them. However, the other part of society wonder, “How have some individuals been gifted with monetary wealth? ”, and their resentment builds. The “Get Rich” schemes are created. The individuals trying to make the quick buck will pressure their friends and family into buying the Mary Kay, Tupperware, or lending money to place bets on Sport games or a gambling weekend at the casino. All this under the assumption that they will make a great deal of money, and earn the respect of the wealthy elite.
The most well know form of money schemes is embezzlement. An understanding definition of embezzlement comes from Global Legal Resources; it states: Embezzlement is a criminal offense which involves the fraudulent and secret misappropriation of money or assets by an agent to who the property has been entrusted. This occurs when a person obtains possession of the goods or money in legal, proper manner, but then appropriates them for his/her use without the rightful owner’s permission. Six (6) cases of embezzlement stand out in Modern day History.

The first case is about Yasuyoshi Kato in 1997 who managed to steal $132 million from Day-Lee Foods, Inc. of Santa Fe Springs, California. At the time, Yasuyoshi was the Chief Financial Offer of Day-Lee Foods. He managed to keep the game up for six (6) years by fraud and forged checks. Yasuyoshi, a Japanese citizen, wrote checks to himself and his wife, from the various companies’ accounts over the six (6) years. He even was so arrogant that he took out bank loans under the company’s name and manipulated the accounting books to cover the theft. Yasuyoshi bought umerous luxury homes, a citrus ranch, premium vehicles, unstable business ventures that failed, jewelry and extraordinary animals. He blamed his wife in court on the reasoning on why he performed the embezzlement. Stating she was always unsatisfied. Yasuyoshi was even so ignorant that when he was asked where the money was coming from, he stated he was a secret inventor of Nintendo. In 1997, Yasuyoshi Kato plead guilty to six felony counts. They ranged from mail fraud (Statute 18 U. S. C. Section 1341) to wire fraud (Statute 18 U. S. C. Section 1343).
In the end, he was sentenced to 63 months in a federal state prison and an additional five years of probation. This was the maximum sentencing at this time. (Marquet, 2010) The second largest case of embezzlement was Gilbert Beesmyer of Guarantee Building & Loan Association of Hollywood, California. He was found guilty in December of 1930 (Statute 18 U. S. C. Section 981), and length of the fraud is unknown but assumed to be less than one year. Beesemyer was able to steal the equivalent of $100 million in 2010 dollars using his position within the company as the founder, general secretary and manager.
The Guarantee Building and Loan Association went broke because of Beesemyer’s actions. He stole the money in form of overdraft penalties, and repeatedly stated he planned to repay the money. Even though he was sentenced to 10 to 100 years to the San Quentin prison, he was released under parole in 1940. The community that had invested in Beesemyer’s bank was destroyed. Businesses failed, 2,500 families went broke, individuals went to asylums and thirty committed suicide. In the end, Beesemyer was able to live his life out to the fullest at age 97 in Baltimore Maryland. Marquet, 2010) Ricardo Carrasco, a Uruguayan national, was able to embezzle $97. 7 million from the BankBoston Corp located in Boston Massachusetts. As the same as the Beesemyer’s case, officials were unable to determine the length of the fraud. He was uncovered in 1998 at the age of 41. Yet, Carrasco suspected that the bank officials finally caught on to him, so he went into hiding. Carrasco started his association with the BankBoston Corp in 1977 at the Uruguayan branch. In 1998, the bank transferred him the Boston location. Carrasco executed fraudulent loans to an Oldemar Laborda in Argentina.
Oldemar Laborda has been known for having a highly suspicious past. The FDIC ordered Carrasco to repay $73 million. The bank wrote off $66 million and even offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. But to this day, he remains a fugitive. (Marquet, 2010) The Chief Operating Officer of Tenens Corp. , dba Essex Street Associates of Beverly Massachusetts embezzled for seven years the amount of $72. 3 million. John Doorly started with the company as a clerk, and with hard work, was able to rise to the CFO position. The clients trusted him, the company trusted him.
In the seven years, he transferred assets from the clients trust accounts to his own personal accounts. Doorly established personal credit cards that the company unknowing paid for. He even overcharged clients in the excess of $61 million for his services and so-called expenses on over-seeing their accounts. Doorly spent the money on gifts for his wife and mistress, and apartment for his son, vehicles, travel, airplanes and numerous failed business ventures. He forged the statements that were mailed to the clients, and even went as far as to deceive the outside auditors.
Doorly’s new assistant, Kim Borans, was the one who found irregularities in the accounts. She immediately went to one of the officers of Tenens Corp to report her findings and suspicion of embezzlement. Doorly was fired and a forensic internal audit was conducted of his accounts. On March 201, Doorly was sentenced to 17-1/2 years to a federal prison. (Marquet, 2010) The fifth highest embezzlement case is Ausuf Umar Siddiqui, the vice president of Merchandising and Operations of Fry’s Electronics located in San Jose, California. He pled guilty of vendor fraud and kickbacks in the theft of $69 million.
The scheme began in January 2005 and ended when he was finally caught in November 2008. Siddiqui had a base salary of $225,000 a year and was the supervisor of 120 employees in purchasing department. His department was responsible for purchasing merchandise on all Fry’s 34 locations. Siddiqui even went as far is to set-up a dummy vendor where he could embezzle the money. He stole the money to satisfy his gambling habit and the need to live the high life. At the time Siddiqui was caught he was being sued by three casinos, Planet Hollywood, Palms Casino and Trump Taj Mahal, for outstanding debt on gambling.
Venetian Resort and Casino in Las Vegas reported that he gambled $17. 9 million dollars with them alone. An investigation showed that his gambling debt over a ten-year period is approximately $167 million. (Marquet, 2010) A case the hits close to home is the Koss Corporation. Sjuata Sachdeva was the Chief Financial Officer of Koss Corporation located in Milwaukee Wisconsin. She began her career with the company as a temporary worker, and within one year was promoted to vice president of finance. Over a p of twelve years, Sachdeva was able to embezzle $40. million by fraudulent funds transfers. She approved at least 204 wire transfers of funds from the company bank accounts to her personal American Express credit card. Also, Sachdeva issued more than 500 cashier’s checks from the company’s accounts to pay for personal lavish expenses. On top of this, she informed other Koss employees to make fraudulent entries into the company’s books to conceal her theft. The theft was only caught after American Express notified Koss of unusally high volume of large transactions.
Sachdeva used her illegally obtained money for a vacation home in Hawaii, a new Mercedes Benz, luxury travel, furs, designer shoes, art and jewelry. She had purchased some many items that she had two storage containers rented in Milwaukee. During the investigation, some luxury stores come forward stating that she had purchased items ans asked the store to hold the item for her until she came and picked it up. However, she never showed up. Sachdeva even had enough nerve to hold various fundraisers to flaunt her wealth in hopes of joining the socialate circle of Milwaukee.
The Board of Trustees of Cardinal Stritch University was so impressed with her that she was offered a position to sit on their board. To cover her theft, Sachdeva informed her friends that her husband, a pediatrician, made a couple million a year, and she made only half a million and they both came from wealthy Indian families. On Sachdeva’s sentencing day she made a statement of, “I stand before you today truly remorseful. You have been my family, my friends, and my co-workers for many years. I know you have been deeply hurt by my dishonesty in ways that I never intended. For eleven years she will sit in prison for her greed and envy. (Marquet, 2010) In every case examined, the US Code that has been violated is Chapter 31: Embezzlement and theft. Twenty-nine Sections of the Code have been created to cover every type of theft from public money, property or records to major theft of livestock. The state sentencing of embezzlement ranges anywhere from 45 months for felonies, six months for misdemeanors or 38 months of probation and including repayment of money and fines.
The sentencing is determined by the monetary amount that is stolen. (US Code) The Federal Government oversees accusations of embezzlement for public agencies, banks, US courts, credit agencies and any program that received money from the Federal Government. Yet, Federal punishment is anywhere between two years to 30 years in prison. However, if the dollar amount of the embezzlement is less than $1000, then the sentence will be less than one year with a fine of only $1000. (Embezzlement Cases) People always are caught when it comes to greed and envy.
The embezzler’s keep stealing thinking they are good enough to keep getting away with it, or maybe it is the lavish lifestyle that blinds them to the consequences. Why are the not happy with the large amount of salary that they receive as income from their careers? It is always more and more until they sit behind metal bars with nothing but a prison issued jumpsuit and a boyfriend named ‘Butch’. References Country. (n. d. ). Embezzlement Law. Lawyers, Attorneys, Law Firms A– Find Legal Information. Retrieved April 20, 2012, from http://www. g. org/embezzlement. html Embezzlement Cases. (n. d. ). Defending your rights in the criminal justice system. Retrieved April 20, 2012, from http://www. defending. com/embezzlement-cases Marquet, C. (n. d. ). The Top 10 Embezzlement Cases in Modern US History. Marquet International. Retrieved April 20, 2012, from www. marquetinternational. com/pdf/top_10_embezzlement_cases_in_us_history. pdf US Code – Chapter 31: Embezzlement and theft. (n. d. ). US Code. Retrieved April 20, 2012, from http://codes. lp. findlaw. com/uscode/18/I/31