Download - Week 6
White Collar Crime
• Includes crimes committed both by and against corporations or businesses.
• Also incorporates political crimes– ex. Watergate, Iran-Contra
• More difficult to research and prosecute due to partial government complicity– HMOs
– Firearm companies
– Tobacco
– “Just wear sunscreen”
Professions and the law
• Most organized professions control legal aspects of that profession
– political action committees
– AMA, APA (Psychiatric) and ADHD
• Also businesses control actions of employees
– Complicity in guilt
– Threats of employment repercussions
– occasional threats of violence
• Karen Silkwood
Medical “Science”
• Medicaid Fraud
– estimated $50-80 billion/year
• 2.4 million unnecessary surgeries/year
• approx. 100,000 accidental deaths
• Medical research
– $$$ not empiricism
– FenPhen
– Hwang Woo-suk Cloning Controversy
Crimes at the consumer level
• “Psst, wanna buy some speakers?”
• Airline Training schools
• “God says send in your money”
• Telemarketing scams
• Scams that prey on victims of telemarketing scams• “You won a prize, call this number” (long distance charges may apply)
• Keys on the roof
• Ponzi Schemes (send me your $100 and put your name on this list)
• Sell junk to your friends
• Pyramid schemes
Koscot Interplanetary, Inc. and Amway
• Koscot in the 1970’s was cosmetics company
– Glenn Turner
– Pay $2000+$5400 for supplies
– Earn bonuses for recruiting others
• Amway
– purchase household products from “sponsor”
– try to get others whom YOU can sponsor
– Actually sold stuff, thus avoided “pyramid” laws
• Be wary off:
– Up-front recruiting costs
– Ridiculously priced products
– mandatory minimum purchases
– exaggerated income claims & rock and roll want adds
– No buy-back policy
Crimes by Big Business
• 60% of business have been involved in criminal/civil actions
• Oil, drug companies, and automobile industry are biggest offenders– very lenient punishments
• Government involved with Big Business– Reagan and the EPA
– HMO Patient’s Bill of Rights
– Slush funds
– the $73,100 toilet seat
• Business seek to circumvent government power in order to make more $$$
– Microsoft and Anti-Trust law
Safety and Money
• Companies regularly balance the costs of recalling an unsafe product versus simply paying off lawsuits
– “pre-owned”flood vehicles
– Firestone & Ford
– The “slightly combustible” Ford Pinto
– Brown and Williamson Tobacco
– The DC-10 Cargo door~~~346 deaths in France
– GE covers up engine flaws
– Cordis’ pacemakers
– Cholesterol inhibitor kills rats
• 20 million injuries, 30,000 deaths from defective products
Safety and Money Part 2
• Killer IUDs sold overseas
• Depo Provera malignant tumor research
• “NuSalt” salt substitute
• Pesticides exported to other countries, products imported to US
• Do you KNOW what goes into hamburger meat?
• Nestle’s killer baby formula sent to Africa
• Returned spoiled meat turned into processed food~~~(sold as “Windsor Loins”)
• Safety laws can be violated by– changing the product name
– changing the formula by adding a few inert ingredients
– manufacturing outside of the US
– import ingredients separately and assemble
Environmental Crime
• Three-Mile Island– faked safety tests
• Companies circumvent US environmental law through illegal toxic waste dumping– dumping medical wastes in international waters
– chemical recombination
– companies tend to oppose all environmental legislation• claim it will hurt the consumer
• make token efforts to look good (Miami sugar farmers)
• argue humans more valuable than nature
• count on short term goals
Environmental Crime Part 2
• Hospital disposal of amputated limbs in public trash
• Exposure to Hepatitis B on the job
• Allied Chemical defrauds the Army and the EPA
• Radioactive dumping at sea
• Mercury run-off in Rhode Island
• Pig waste spills in Pennsylvania
• Companies will attempt to avoid links by:– dumping in international waters/ 3rd world countries
– using 3rd party dumping companies
– showing inspectors to “dummy sites”
Crimes against Employees
• OSHA limits exposure of employees to hazards– Meatpackers work right after surgery
– Asbestos welding gloves
– building fumes
– exposure to arsenic, cyanide=negligent homicide, but fined only $25,000
– Safety measures on machines
– Businesses have been fighting new OSHA regulations on grounds it would “hurt consumers”
• including measures to avoid carpal-tunnel syndrome and tendonitis
• better ventilation for ALL office buildings
• better regulation of exposure to neuro and cytotoxins on the job
• better regulation of exposure to carcinogenic substances
Industrial War Crimes
• Standard Oil sells gasoline to the Nazis through Switzerland post 1941
• Swiss banks and the Nazis
• American Insurance companies and Jewish war dead
• Ford trucks in WWII
• Industrial Espionage
– IBM has lost billions to French and Japanese
– typewriter repair men
– television transmitters and phone bugs
– French considered to be worst offenders
Lenient Punishment
• Most laws are recent, including fraud, anti-trust, false advertising, etc.
• Libertarianism and laissez-faire
• “Trickle-down” economy
• Less publicity…violators often own stock in media
• intermingling between business and politics
• white-collar criminals do not fit stereotypes of criminals
• corporate law allows for many legal delays….ex. IBM
Cyber Crime
• Crimes committed in the context of computer/internet environment
• Takes numerous forms:
– circumvention of trade law
– false advertising
– circumvention of pornography laws
– solicitation of minors
– viruses & trojan horses
Circumventing Trade Laws
• By use of internationally based web-sites, US trade regulations can, in part, be circumvented.– Particularly laws regarding controlled substances
– some products may not be sold in US, but is ok to sell from out of US
– some products ok to sell in US, so as do not advertise as “medicine”…ok though in other countries
– Germanium~~~cures cancer, AIDS and the common cold, so long as you are not too attached to your kidneys.
– GHB recipes
False Advertising
• Caveat Emptor on the internet– selling of false merchandise on EBay
– violations of copywrite law• File-Sharing Programs
– Get-Rich-Quick Schemes
– Diet-Plans
– “How to get rid of junk E-mail” E-mail
• Some of these seek Credit Card numbers– Will charge you a large fee for useless product
– make charge then disappear altogether
Circumvention of Pornography Law
• Porn regulations in US are fairly lenient, nonetheless there ARE some regulations. However, these can be violated through use of international web sites.
• Depictions of nude children
• Depictions of children engaged in sexual behavior
• Bestiality and “bizarre” sex not typically encountered within US porn industry
• Sites include those in Netherlands, Sweden, Ukraine, Japan and Russia
Child Pornography
• Sites featuring nude children difficult to prosecute
• Sites involving child porn typically are international
• However private groups often exchange hardcore child porn– may involve webs of exchange, photos of own children
– also engage in marketing child porn literature
– primarily a support structure for pedophiles
– may legitimize actions of pedophiles
• Pedophilic support groups– NAMBLA
“Innocent Images”
• 1995 FBI raids 120 homes of AOL users to prosecute child porn ring in US
• included photographs of individuals aged 2-13 either posed nude or engaged in sex acts
• probe began because 10-y.o. George Burdynski abducted by suspected pedophile
• 12 arrested in total
• attempts to regulate Internet transmission hampered by both international concern and 1st amendment
Pedophiles on the Web
• Pedophiles may search for youth victims on web
– MySpace.com
• Allows them a safe environment– allows pedophiles to be more aggressive
– allows for seduction before meeting
– may use offers of gifts or money
– may use ruse to get child alone
• Minors themselves less supervised– may lack maturity to deal with sexual overture
• High risk, as perpetrator would have little previous attachment to victim
Cyber Hoaxes
• Little Girl Dying of Cancer
• Microsoft will buy you a new computer
• Bud Frog Virus alert
• Elfbowling virus alert
• Your account is about to be disconnected…– gets your password!
• IM charge chain letter
• Coca-Cola toilet bowl hoax
• Gas pump HIV hoax
Viruses
• A virus which disrupts or destroys normal computer functioning– often replicates
– some new ones mutate
• Hackers:– highly intelligent
– passive-aggressive
– underachievers
– find cyber vandalism to be amusing
• However, others use viruses for the purpose of doing harm
Viruses Part 2
• Melissa– uses Outlook to send itself to everyone you know--makes E-mail
look innocent
– destroys boot sector, deletes Windows
– David Smith
• Jerusalem– activates every Friday 13th
– deletes all files used that day
• LoveBug– Deletes certain types of files
– Linked to Manila
Trojan Horses
• Appears like valid executable file
• Contains hidden code which does damage– may upload saved passwords, credit card numbers
– may display objectionable graphics
– may destroy files
• Web-site links– may lead you to bogus web-sites which provide information to site
user that will give them access to your accounts
– may appear in junk e-mail as potentially interesting (though typically porn or get rich quick) links
Protections from viruses and THs
• Do not open e-mail from unknown sources– Certainly do not follow links!– Do not download files!
• Keep updated virus scans open• Be suspicious of language which seems “canned”