Fraud SCAMS AND SHAMS TOE-AWAY ZONE GOLDEN YEARS
Grandma, what big GICs you have!
Singer gets sued over stagehand’s foot
ONE OF POP-STAR KATY PERRY’S STAGEHANDS LOST A TOE in a workplace accident and has sued Perry, the Canadian entertainment giant Live Nation and a number of stage production companies over the incident. The stagehand, Christina Fish, says a movable wall rolled over her foot and although it was obvious she was seriously injured, nobody offered to take her to the hospital. Eventually the toe became gangrenous and had to be removed. Fish said she suffered emotionally and was unable to work for several months. The accident occurred during Perry’s 2014 Prismatic world tour, which grossed more than US$200 million. It was Perry’s third world tour since rocketing to stardom in 2008 with the breakout hit “I Kissed a Girl.” — Peter Carter
EP-GOT-COT CENTER
Bill Nye sues Disney for $37 million-plus
BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY is also a litigation guy. He’s suing Walt Disney Co. and some subsidiaries for more than US$37 million, claiming he didn’t get his fair share of profits from the Bill Nye the Science Guy show. According to a suit filed in July, Nye says he received a cheque in April 2008 for US$585,000 as his share of the net profit. However, a few months
later, Buena Vista Television sent a letter retracting its calculations. The letter said Nye owed BVT US$496,111. The serious error piqued Nye’s curiosity so he launched an investigation into the payouts. One finding led to another, and the result is the suit. — PC
46 | CPA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2017
LAST JUNE, A 68-YEAR-OLD bookkeeper working in a credit union in Iowa admitted embezzling nearly US$2.5 million between 1978 and 2015. Mostly, she diverted small amounts from the credit union to her and her children’s accounts. And why should you care? Because, according to a 2017 investigation into what kind of person embezzles, the Iowan bookkeeper fits the bill perfectly. The study, conducted by the Hiscox Insurance Co., looked at more than 400 cases in the US and concluded that most embezzlers are people working in the accounting and finance departments of small and medium-sized financial-service organizations. In 51% of the cases, perps were female. — PC
SAM THE CRIMINAL RECORD MAN
Fraudster encourages whistleblowing
SAM ANTAR is a convicted felon and a former CPA. In the early 1980s he and his cousin Eddie founded Crazy Eddie’s, supposedly an electronics retailer but in fact a front for one of the biggest scams in US history. Now, contrite and rehabilitated, Antar is an outspoken fraud fighter and says every company should encourage its employees to be whistleblowers: “Whistleblower hotlines help legitimate organizations police themselves to demonstrate to the public and regulators that they are serious about running an ethical business. Employees should be encouraged to report wrongdoing and management should be encouraged to respond responsibly. It is far better for management to find out about internal wrongdoing, and self-report it if necessary, than to suffer the humiliation of learning about it from a New York Times exposé. If management ends up learning about internal wrongdoing from the media, it will have zero credibility.” — PC
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