Bosnian Serbs jailed for Srebrenica massacre

2010-06-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

A UN war crimes court on Thursday sentenced two Bosnian Serbs to life in jail for genocide over their role in the Srebrenica massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in July 1995.

http://news.malaysia.msn.com/top-stories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4140952

Commercial fraud; quick, cry wolf.

2008-12-16T04:24:00.001-08:00

Let's not be naive. Even astute investors infatuated by fast gains can be caught off guard by glamourous and high paced investment vehicles such as the debacle in mid 1995 of Barings Bank and subsequently the handful of Australian cases. Now relegated to the classics of corporate collapses and scandals classics, they were excellent lessons on the importance of continuous vigilance by stakeholders against embezzlement.
In spite of the embarrassment to the authorities, upper management and related parties in additon to the massive losses, the fall of Barings due to manipulative exercises on derivatives by a single individual should have been a strong catalyst for corporations to guard against agents overriding stringent safeguards. However, have we learnt? And why will we not learn after likes of Worldcom and Enron?
Greed, complacency, peer pressure, or some other contrived excuses? A more likely reason; uncontrollable exuberance, not necessarily rational or otherwise with due respect to Greenspan. And whose exuberance should it be exactly? Not the guilty party of course. They would have been too busy being exuberant with their impending gains and conniving their next moves to pull the wool over those who are blissfully ignorant, gleefully naive and never to forget, glamorously exuberant.
Another explanation is the fear of authority. Following a looting, who would dare disturb the intoxicated pirate Captain about the fast reaching coast when all he is concerned is how to get the better of everyone else who is just as drunk with the successful raid. Everyone else is just a pawn and dispensable. The atmosphere of fear is what allow narcissistic crooks to thrive in and only rationality and courage can put a halt to it.
It's the madness even children knows about; the naked Emperor syndrome. No one dares to question wrongdoings by despotic corporate rulers and to have this happen today is shameless and mind boggling. Compounding the problem is often the human habit of grovelling by mid level executives that only serve to provide more room for the head honcho to dictate self serving orders to achieve more illicit gains. Fears of job losses become more entrenched in economic downturns so as to stunt employees and middle executives questioning of the intelligence and rationality of transactions, but to have these corporate scandals recurring at the rate we have seen just indicate an urgent need for overhaul of regulation but also inculcating stronger morality issues in education systems in schools. The costs and efforts involved are worth it for the future, for the stakes are just too high as we have belatedly been taught. The losses that result from these scams outstretch economic wastages in major wars and harm livelihoods worldwide in the face of other unpreventable crises.
The Obama administration must prioritise this and show that these activities are not tolerated. The world's common folks' earnings are simply not gaming chips to be indirectly pulverised continuously by a handful of compassionless corporate shenanigans. As Winston Churchill once put it, 'the first quality that is needed is audacity'. Stakeholders must stand up to all types of conniving and manipulative individuals and groups the moment the signals are there and engage investigations on the suspect transactions without delay. Cry wolf, all the time. Seizing of illegally attained assets once due process is complete must be facilitated speedily to be returned to public trusts or rightful owners who have been defrauded.
Within corporations, the bigger they are, the greater the numbers eyes are on the floors each day. Thus, with or without internal or external checks, the majority of transactions in firms are at some point seen by someone. The trouble is as far as derivatives are concerned not all employees can quickly catch on to the fundamentals much less identify discrepancies as they occur. And unlike Enron and Worldcom types, each generation's crisis is a unique specie; only this time it has infected more of the populace. In Enron, the biggest bully got spanked. This time around, the neighbourhood's new bullies got every naive kid to throw rocks at the glass house but ran off when the rest of these dumb kids got mud pies in the faces.
Regulatory bodies to avoid flak post-crises seek the sanctuary of enhanced accounting standards, still more safeguards and regulatory provisions. Standards even with the best of intentions and interpretation can only derive the sub optimal results in penalizing if not all parties including government officials are serious or much worse, understand the complexity and illegality of the transactions. After all, which high ranking official in his right mind would admit he is too dumb to understand it all? A suggestion is for government agencies to provide guaranteed job replacements and justified rewards for whistle blowers.

http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12795543&fsrc=nwl&source=most_commented

http://www.economist.com/finance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12818310&mode=comment&intent=readBottom

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Bernie-Madoff-anti-Claus-scar/story.aspx?guid=%7BEC48D3E9%2D7B46%2D4740%2D8FA1%2D00C6E686E859%7D&dist=SecMostRead

Commercial fraud; ignorance is not bliss

2008-12-16T02:53:00.001-08:00

Commercial fraud costs billions annually in developed and developing countries. The prevalence of business crime taxes national police resources to the extent many instances are not adequately investigated due to limited resources. To efficiently battle such crime requires the cooperation of various government agencies and from the community at large.

Commercial crime has always been underestimated both in its seriousness and its cost to both society and economies. Estimates have annually been put at least five billions on average in developed western countries.

The oversight on fraud by society is that most people do not 'see' the crime harming. However, its damage can often be far reaching as in many institutional collapses that have happened resulting in destruction of retirees and families' incomes. Since the early nineties, electronic commerce and information technology have contributed to the growth in commercial fraud.

Technological advances have conveniently provided fraudsters the means to steal and spy on the information of users for the last decade. The linkages of criminal syndicates have also been strengthened by the ease of information transfers and convenient availability of high technology equipment. Have governments and concerned private industries been serious enough and able to harness their resources to fight this dreaded 'business disease'?

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/18/business/18pay.php

Crime and Punishment

Bosnian Serbs jailed for Srebrenica massacre

Commercial fraud; quick, cry wolf.

Commercial fraud; ignorance is not bliss