White Collar Crime

Remember Crazy Eddie, the electronics-store king who concocted one of the biggest public company frauds of the 1980s? Eddie Antar ended up in prison, but his cousin and onetime chief financial officer, Sam E. Antar, today advises federal and state law enforcement agencies about white-collar crime and trains them to identify and catch crooks. Often, the former CPA refers cases as an independent whistle-blower and teaches about white-collar crime for professional organizations, businesses, and colleges.

Raymond Lazinski was antsy. Forty-five days had passed, and he was still waiting for $2,000 owed to his small engineering and electronics firm in Glenside. Everything about the sale had appeared routine at first. Lazinski had checked credit references and had agreed to sell a personal home computer system to a man named William Wilson. Lazinski, president of Wyncote Instrumentation Co. Inc., said that he had installed the system at Wilson's office and that Wilson had promised to pay the bill within 45 days.

Last week Washington put the finishing details on a plan to rescue America's battered savings and loan structure, at a cost to the taxpayers that will exceed $100 billion. By some estimates, most of that cost stems from unethical or flatly illegal behavior on the part of S&L executives all across the country. At roughly the same time, in New York City, a 28-year-old female investment banker was found near death in Central Park. A "wolf pack" of six thugs, between the ages of 13 and 17, had set upon her while she was jogging, and brutally raped and beat her. We know two things about these two stories: In a "cosmic" sense, the story of the S&Ls is much more important, much more consequential and will cause much more suffering - in the form of lost savings, higher costs and a weakening of America's underlying financial health.

One can hardly watch the nightly news or pick up a newspaper without reading new allegations of financial fraud. News outlets are littered with story after story, detailing investment scams that result in lost pension funds. Millions of Americans are left wondering who will protect their life savings, and how CEOs and CFOs can raid pensions and not be held criminally accountable. Yet, historically, we have always held white-collar criminals to a different, lower standard. With most crimes, we pass laws that serve to deter criminal behavior, to forewarn potential wrongdoers that we will not abide assaults on individuals or society.

In response to the Nov. 23 Inquirer Magazine article "How the FBI nailed Billy Pflaumer," it seems to me that the FBI made a trade: one murderer, Frank Jock, for Billy Pflaumer, who committed a white-collar crime. It seems to me, a long-time employee of one of Mr. Pflaumer's businesses, that the FBI and Ron Cole, the prosecuter, had a personal dislike for Mr. Pflaumer and that they went to the extreme to satisfy their ego. Bernice Lewis Philadelphia.

AKEY TO distinguishing the severity of a crime is knowing how "high" the criminal was at the time. If the offense was committed by someone high up the corporate ladder, or if the crime scene is a corporate boardroom on a high floor of a skyscraper, you've got your more socially acceptable so-called "white-collar crime. " Nasty street criminals don't sport white collars. Nice men and women breaking the law from executive suites and boardrooms usually wear business suits. And their crimes are "carried out," never "committed.

With strongly worded commentary but no explanation, a Chester County Court judge yesterday reduced the sentence he gave last month to a "calculating con artist" who swindled 23 victims out of almost $2 million. Instead of 10 to 20 years in prison, Frank Thomas Fiascki, 48, of East Goshen Township, will serve eight to 16 years, according to an order signed by Chester County Court President Judge Howard F. Riley Jr. The change came in response to a routine motion for reconsideration filed on March 19 by Assistant Public Defender Joseph W. Dobson, Fiascki's attorney.

In an era when the Pentagon shovels out millions for things like $600 toilet seats, U.S. Attorney Edward S.G. Dennis Jr. knows how to put a stop to it. On Tuesday he nailed another outfit specializing in grand theft from taxpayers via the Pentagon - a subsidiary of Litton Industries Inc. called Clifton Precision, Special Devices Division, operating out of Springfield, Delaware County. Mr. Dennis announced that Litton had pleaded guilty to all charges on a 321-count indictment spelling out how its Clifton Precision employees systematically stole $6.3 million between 1975 and 1984 by routinely inflating cost estimates on products it sold the Pentagon.

Charles J. Taggart, 68, of Clifton Heights, a former Philadelphia policeman and federal investigator known for his skill in fighting white-collar crime and for his "big heart," died Sunday at Lankenau Hospital. "He was like a leader in the office, teaching new agents and giving them the training they needed to investigate white-collar crime," said George Hallett, regional inspector general with the General Services Administration. "He was respected throughout the country because of his knowledge of white-collar crime.

This is an odd time to be weakening a law that lets victims of white-collar crime fight for compensation. After all, fraud was a large factor in the self- destruction of hundreds of savings and loans, leading to the biggest bailout in U.S. history. Prosecutors are alleging corruption in Chicago's commodity markets on a scale rivaling the illegalities on Wall Street. These scandals buttress the Justice Department's 1986 estimate that white-collar crime costs Americans at least $200 billion a year.

Remember Crazy Eddie, the electronics-store king who concocted one of the biggest public company frauds of the 1980s? Eddie Antar ended up in prison, but his cousin and onetime chief financial officer, Sam E. Antar, today advises federal and state law enforcement agencies about white-collar crime and trains them to identify and catch crooks. Often, the former CPA refers cases as an independent whistle-blower and teaches about white-collar crime for professional organizations, businesses, and colleges.

"Oh, going down is not to be hoped for. . . . They might increase less rapidly. " - University of Pennsylvania health economist Mark Pauly, on chances that a health-care overhaul will reduce insurance premiums "Chocolate is less susceptible to whatever is going to happen in mortgages and banking and unemployment. " - George F. Shipp, chief investment officer at Scott & Stringfellow, on why Kraft Foods Inc. would bid to acquire chocolatier Cadbury P.L.C. "All companies have personalities, and Hershey does not seem like a company with the personality to get involved in a messy situation like this.

The region's two recently indicted state senators were - and are - rich and powerful men. The personal wealth of Pennsylvania Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, a banker, lawyer and licensed electrician, has been estimated at $20 million, and his stock and options from the bank his grandfather founded are worth an additional $13 million. Meanwhile, New Jersey Sen. Wayne R. Bryant made roughly $643,000 in each of the last three years from his public jobs, his law firm, and a position at Susquehanna Bank, prosecutors said.

The region's two recently indicted state senators were - and are - rich and powerful men. The personal wealth of Pennsylvania Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, a banker, lawyer and licensed electrician, has been estimated at $20 million, and his stock and options from the bank his grandfather founded are worth an additional $13 million. Meanwhile, New Jersey Sen. Wayne R. Bryant made roughly $643,000 in each of the last three years from his public jobs, his law firm, and a position at Susquehanna Bank, prosecutors said.

AKEY TO distinguishing the severity of a crime is knowing how "high" the criminal was at the time. If the offense was committed by someone high up the corporate ladder, or if the crime scene is a corporate boardroom on a high floor of a skyscraper, you've got your more socially acceptable so-called "white-collar crime. " Nasty street criminals don't sport white collars. Nice men and women breaking the law from executive suites and boardrooms usually wear business suits. And their crimes are "carried out," never "committed.

The election of Pennsylvania's next attorney general takes on special significance as the state prepares to regulate the new casino gambling industry. It's been only nine years since Attorney General Ernie Preate Jr. went to prison for not reporting illegal cash contributions from the operators of illegal video-poker machines in Lackawanna County. Thomas Corbett Jr., who served well as interim attorney general for 15 months after Preate pleaded guilty in 1995, is now the Republican candidate to become Pennsylvania's top law enforcement officer.

Democrats have not won an attorney general's race since the office was made an elected position in 1980, partly because the party has suffered from a stigma, real or imagined, that Democrats are not tough enough for the job. Three Democrats - former U.S. Attorney David Barasch, former White House attorney Jim Eisenhower, and Northampton District Attorney John Morganelli - are seeking to change that perception. As they prepare for the April 27 primary, all three candidates promote themselves as experienced prosecutors who will be aggressive on violent and white-collar crime.

With strongly worded commentary but no explanation, a Chester County Court judge yesterday reduced the sentence he gave last month to a "calculating con artist" who swindled 23 victims out of almost $2 million. Instead of 10 to 20 years in prison, Frank Thomas Fiascki, 48, of East Goshen Township, will serve eight to 16 years, according to an order signed by Chester County Court President Judge Howard F. Riley Jr. The change came in response to a routine motion for reconsideration filed on March 19 by Assistant Public Defender Joseph W. Dobson, Fiascki's attorney.

The Senate yesterday unanimously passed far-reaching legislation to reform accounting practices and punish white-collar crime. "We put good policy over partisan politics," said Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said. "I've called the [Securities and Exchange Commission] a toothless tiger. This bill gives them some teeth. " The measure, which appeared dead a few weeks ago, picked up support as new accounting scandals erupted and helped drag down the stock market. As stocks tanked again yesterday, the Senate united to pass it, 97-0.

One can hardly watch the nightly news or pick up a newspaper without reading new allegations of financial fraud. News outlets are littered with story after story, detailing investment scams that result in lost pension funds. Millions of Americans are left wondering who will protect their life savings, and how CEOs and CFOs can raid pensions and not be held criminally accountable. Yet, historically, we have always held white-collar criminals to a different, lower standard. With most crimes, we pass laws that serve to deter criminal behavior, to forewarn potential wrongdoers that we will not abide assaults on individuals or society.