White Collar Roundup - July 2011

Flight of Fancy

The Second Circuit drew a bright line between the venue requirements for conspiracy and those for substantive securities fraud. In short, the court held that a fraudster's use of JFK Airport, which is located in the Eastern District of New York, to fly to meetings at which fraudulent representations about securities were made was sufficient to establish venue in that district for a securities-fraud-conspiracy count, but not for the substantive securities-fraud count.

Exploiting the Weaknesses

In a June 14 report on the habits of fraudsters, KPMG found that most are able to ply their trade by exploiting weak internal controls. And most fraudsters are male, are 36 to 45 years old, are senior managers, have worked at their company for more than ten years, and defraud their own employer. Also, the impetus for fraud often results from an influencing factor, such as financial concerns, job dissatisfaction, or aggressive business quotas and targets.