Archive

from FaithWorld:

Gambling Catholic nun accused of embezzling $850,000 (updated)

A nun with a fondness for gambling trips to Atlantic City was accused of embezzling more than $850,000 from a suburban Catholic college where she oversaw the school's finances, officials said on Friday.

Sister Marie Thornton, former vice president of finance at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, is charged with sending phony invoices to the school to pay off personal credit card bills and expenses, the Attorney's office said.

The thefts occurred between 1999 and 2009, when Thornton resigned, court documents said. She entered a plea of not guilty to a federal embezzlement charge.

Iona officials issued a statement saying the school has taken action, implemented new financial oversight controls and recovered most of the missing funds.

The U.S. Attorney's office originally said the theft was more than $1.2 million but on Friday revised the amount to more than $850,000, saying it had originally miscalculated.

Read the full story by Aman Ali here.

from Fan Fare:

Another Charlie Sheen car over the cliff

Another day.  Another pricey Charlie Sheen car ends up wrecked at the bottom of a Los Angeles canyon.  And another mystery heist.

It's the second time in five months that one of the "Two and a Half Men" star's luxury cars has been driven out of the actor's gated community in the middle of the night (without anyone apparently seeing anything suspicious)  and been driven off the side of  famed Mulholland Drive.

In February, it was Sheen's black Mercedes. On Tuesday, it was his silver Mercedes S600 (starting retail price $149,000) .

On both occasions, Sheen had apparently left the keys in the car and was unaware anything was amiss until getting a call from authorities after they hauled the abandoned vehicle back up the mountainside.

The keys were found still in the vehicle, which had been pushed off the steep winding road and down the cliff about a mile from where Sheen lives.

No-one has been arrested despite the fact that video surveillance tracks cars going in and out of  Sheen's  gated community.

from Shop Talk:

The legal way to buy stolen goods

Don't let the headline fool you.  It is still illegal to buy stolen goods ... unless you're buying them from the police.

In the same way that eBay is the world's virtual garage sale, a website called Property Room is trying to become the world's virtual police auction.

Founded in 1999, the website has partnered with 1,600 law enforcement agencies around the country to sell unwanted or unclaimed recovered property.

Although the latest statistics from the U. S. Federal Bureau of Investigation show crime decreasing across the country, property crimes here, in Chicago, apparently rose 4 percent between 2007 and 2008--the latest numbers available.  From a wider view, the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics found that property crimes account for about 75 percent of all personal and property crimes committed in 2006.

While much of that merchandise finds its way back to the owner, a lot of it never does.

On Property Room, users can bid on items ranging from electronics and power tools to jewelry and designer clothes. There are even cars up for bid, although don't hold out hope to get a shot at the Big Bopper's car.

Bids can start as low as $1, and proceeds are said to be split between the website and participating police department.

from Commentaries:

Sergey and Misha

The name of the Chicago firm that hired alleged Goldman code-cracker Sergey Aleynikov is out and it's a name you've probably never heard of before. That's because Teza Technologies LLC is a new firm--formed in May--by former Citadel Investment Group trader Misha Malyshev.

Malyshev, who had been a top high-frequency trader at Citadel, left the giant hedge fund in February because he felt he was not being sufficiently compensated, says a source familiar with the situation. Malyshev's group was one of the more profitable last year for Ken Griffin's operation, which overall had one of its worst years ever in 2008

And here's the thing: I'm told Malyshev signed a nine month non-compete agreement with Citadel when he left.

Bloomberg first reported that Teza hired Aleynikov and got an email statement from the start-up, in which the firm said it "was not aware of the alleged misconduct.''

In the email statement, Teza also said it has suspended Aleynikov without pay and didn't learn of his July 3 arrest until July 5. That, of course, is the day that we at Reuters broke the news that Aleynikov was arrested by federal authorities and charged with stealing the source code for Goldman's rapid-fire stock and commodities trading platform.

Right now, Teza is a small operation at best. There's no website for the firm and it doesn't appear to have a listed phone number. Illinois incorporation records reveal the company was formed on May 5. One of the mailing addresses appears to be the home address for one of the principals, Matthew Hinerfeld, who is an ex-Citadel guy too.

Hinerfeld worked in the counsel's office at Citadel. So is another founder, Jace Kohlmeier, who had the same non-compete agreement with Citadel as Malyshev.

from Shop Talk:

The recession strikes again

The recession hammered U.S. holiday sales last year and new research suggests that it also drove up "shrink" -- a retail industry term for shoplifting, employee theft, and administrative errors.

An estimated $36.5 billion was lost to "shrink" in 2008, according to preliminary findings from the latest National Retail Security Survey released today.

That figure is up from $34.8 billion in 2007, an increase of nearly 5 percent.

The survey, conducted by the National Retail Federation and the University of Florida, also showed that retail shrink averaged 1.52 percent of retail sales in 2008, up from 1.44 percent in 2007.

"Criminals have found a way to manipulate and corrupt the retail industry,” said Richard Hollinger, lead author of the report and professor of criminology at the University of Florida.

Retailers grappling with the worst recession in decades have been forced to cut spending on everything from security to labor in a bid to protect profits. That scenario "leaves new opportunities for thieves to take advantage of companies,” Hollinger said.

According to the survey, 44 percent ($15.9 billion) of the 2008 retail losses were due to employee theft. 14 percent of those cases involved collusion with outsiders.

from Shop Talk:

Security cameras can “see” a lot more these days…

Sweethearting (v.) the act of a store employee giving a friend or family member free merchandise by pretending to scan items at the register or by ignoring items in shopping carts.

It is one of the oldest tricks in the book and a big problem for retailers. So big, in fact, that some estimates suggest that "sweethearting" and other types of employee theft account for almost half of all annual retail theft, or $19.5 billion out of $41.6 billion overall.

Massachusetts-based StopLift Inc. says the answer is just waiting to be liberated from all of the security camera tape that retailers typically don't monitor until something goes really, really wrong.

We've all seen the video of outrageous things that can happen in grocery stores, convenience shops, and retail outlets, but the reality is that watching the security feeds from cameras mounted above every register is time-consuming -- so most of that video information goes unused.

StopLift's computer software analyzes camera feeds by reading certain body motions and other signs that tip off sweethearting. From there, it's up to managers to decide whether training or  termination is the right response.

You can see actual "sweethearting" caught by the software on StopLift's homepage, here.

StopLift said its clients include Big Y and Safeway grocery stores.

from UK News:

Are children safe on the Internet?

Ofcom says millions of children who use social networking sites are exposing themselves to potential danger by leaving their privacy settings on "open," thereby allowing all and sundry to peruse their personal details.

Its figures show a no less than a quarter of all children aged 8 to 11 in Britain, are registered with a social networking site.

It is the latest in a long series of warnings about Internet danger to children -- which may suggest that either the children or their parents do not seem to care too much.

Do you think users are being too blasé, or are the dangers being exaggerated? Have you ever had any personal experience of the dangers Ofcom and others warn us about?