White-collar crime is quite an incredible industry – millions of dollars disappear each year to offshore bank accounts, hookers, drugs, and yachts because rich executives (generally rich white guys) aren’t satisfied with their Porsches. White-collar crime finally got some serious attention when corruption single-handedly destroyed the lives of four thousand Enron employees at the start of the economy’s downturn.

These days, criminology theories often blame the economy for the rise in these types of crimes. White-collar workers are losing money in the stock market and finding themselves unemployed. They want to maintain their same standard of living, which leads to Office Space style scenarios.

It generally consists of lying, cheating, and stealing. It’s normally a non-violent crime, but can wipe out the savings of entire families. (See scams such as the one in the movie Boiler Room.)

So what are the biggest all-time white-collar crimes in America, and does the criminology behind it change from case to case?

Top 5 Infamous White-Color Criminals and Their Crimes

5) Insider Trading: Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken

Pilfered: $200 million

In the 1980s, some of the big guys on Wall Street made millions through inside trading. The law was already in effect when Ivan Boesky was sold out by Dennis Levine for large-scale insider trading. Boesky in turn implicated Michael Milken. Milken and Boesky were the face of the largest corporate fraud scandal for a decade. Now insider trading is more commonly associated with our pal Martha Stewart.

Victims: Investors

Dennis Levine purchased a large amount of Nabisco stock just before a merger, then immediately sold them for a large profit. This got the SEC’s attention, and Levine turned in Boesky, who then turned in Milken.

4) Enron Corporation (Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling)

Pilfered: Over $1 billion

What appeared to be an incredibly successful company in a short period of time was in fact an incredibly complex scam. For fifteen years, executives of Enron fudged reports, used accounting loopholes, bribed foreign governments for contracts, and hid failed deals and projects. All in all, they were able to hide billions of dollars in debt from their investors, while manipulating and damaging the California energy market, and the Texas power market.

Victims: California energy was one of the big victims, but some 4,000 employees went from a cushy salary to unemployment when the company was swiftly brought down.

The Enron stock was trading at 55 times its earnings; analysts and investors did not know how it was making its income, and Bethany McLean shone light on this situation in her article, Is Enron Overpriced? She found strange transactions, erratic cash flow, and huge debt when she viewed the company’s 10-K report. When Enron reported $638 million third-quarter loss that October, the SEC began an inquiry to the company’s accounts, and it was all downhill from there.

3) WorldCom and Bernard Ebbers

Pilfered: $3.8 billion (Some sources state up to $11 billion in fraud took place.)

The second-largest long-distance telecommunications company in the U.S. didn’t get there with honest hard work. Though Bernard Ebbers began growing the company with well-timed acquisitions, a major one left them struggling, and caused their stock to suffer. Ebbers artificially inflated stock prices and cooked the books to hide the losses. He also “borrowed” $400 million from WorldCom to finance his other businesses.

Victims: Investors, and WorldCom, which filed for bankruptcy immediately

A team of internal auditors uncovered the original $3.8 billion fraud, and then discovered billions of losses concealed through false accounting practices. Some of the funds were siphoned off for personal use. They filed bankruptcy in 2002, and it was the largest filing at the time.

2) Adelphia Communications and John Rigas

Pilfered: $60 billion

In the 1950s, Adelphia Communications was founded, and in just a few decades became the fifth largest cable company in the country. It was a rags-to-riches-to- prison story that landed Rigas and his son behind bars. The head honchos hid $2.3 million in liabilities from investors, and failed to record $3.1 million in loans. He inflated Adephia’s subscriber growth and lied about their bottom line. He used company money for personal use, including investing in a golf course, and building luxury condominiums.

Victims: Investors and employees

The SEC actually caught Adelphia after taking a good look at the company’s financial statements and finding a loan for millions of dollars to John Rigas. As soon as the news hit Wall Street, the stock dropped from its peak of $66 a share, to 15 cents a share. Rigas was indicted for securities, bank, and wire fraud in 2002; he and his sons were also charged with tax evasion. John Rigas is currently serving the remainder of his 15-year sentence.

1) Bernard Madoff

Pilfered: $65 billion

Probably the biggest corporate con in history, Madoff created a huge Ponzi scheme by encouraging huge investments from individuals and corporations around the world. Their payoff came from future investments, not legitimate returns on investments, while he kept the payoff.

Victims: Mostly wealthy New York Jewish businessmen were targeted, though he also took advantage of charity circuits and country clubs.

Similar to the cause of the Great Depression, when the recession came around about a decade ago, investors tried to pull out around $7 billion from the fund. Obviously that money was no longer available, and Madoff’s scheme was uncovered. The person to finally turn him in? His son.

It seems that the criminology behind these crimes are pretty much the same. Too much power and responsibility, not enough good sense.

The Department of Defense has altered the policy concerning the photography of America’s returning war dead. Now, news organizations will be allowed to photograph and disseminate photos of flag-draped coffins — as long as the families of the fallen soldiers give permission.

While the no-photographs policy has been in place since 1991, the issue became contentious when President Bush put a total ban on the release of photos of coffins returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. Opponents contended Bush was trying to hide the true cost of the war while supporters of the policy argued such pictures are too easily exploited.

The new policy seems to be an acceptable compromise. While photos of flag-draped coffins lined up in the back of a plane might be dramatic, I don’t think they serve any notable purpose and don’t inform us nearly as much as the soldier obituaries run in papers across America and released regularly by the DoD. But, if news organizations feel compelled to print such photos and if the families of the deceased soldiers are amenable to having those photos published, I see no compelling reason to prohibit the act. Bush’s total ban always seemed too extreme of a policy.

As decidedly anti-Clinton as he is, Sully still makes a sage observation today:

He’s about scoops, and gets them. But once you realize that the Clintons’ tax returns and the Olympics ceremony boycott stories came from the Clinton camp, do you still believe that photo of Obama in a turban fell off a turnip truck?

Hillary’s team has been giving Drudge “secret” exclusives on a lot of stuff, and not just recently. It’s an open secret how pushing dirt through Drudge works, and even though some here at Donklephant dismissed me for believing that Hill’s camp pushed that image, I think it’s important to remember that the campaign never followed up on who did it, nobody was ever fired as a result and nothing additional was said, like “Yeah, Drudge made this up.” And as we all know, when a campaign doesn’t say something, it can resonate just as much as when they do.

So what do you think?

This is really amateur hour.

The Obama campaign gave this photo to news outlets for what reason? To show that President Clinton meets people?

All this will ultimately end up doing is remind people that Obama was a member of Wright’s church for over 20 years, and that Bill Clinton met the man for a couple minutes.

As top aide Howard Wolfson said…

“Urgent indeed — a picture — oooooooo!”

Pretty pathetic move from Obama’s camp, and I’m extremely disappointed because it points to a “politics as usual” type of campaigning that he has repeatedly decried.

I’m changing the “Pics of the Week” section in the footer to “1000 Words.” I think it has a nicer ring to it and I’m going to be highlighting a new pic each day and sharing the story behind it.

Today we have the story of Kenneth Foster, a death row inmate in Texas who surprisingly got a commutation of his death sentence last week…

From his cell on death row, Kenneth Foster didn’t pretend to be an innocent. In 1996, Foster drove the car in a nighttime crime spree, ferrying friends to two armed robberies before following a pair of cars into a neighborhood. After Foster’s companion got out and shot one of the drivers, the 19-year-old Foster whisked the murderer and his other passengers from the scene.

Repugnant though they are, Foster’s crimes did not include the murder of Michael LaHood, a 25-year-old law student. Through an unprecedented turn of events, Foster Thursday narrowly escaped dying for that murder. To the surprise of many, Gov. Rick Perry heeded the recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Foster’s sentence to life.

The governor’s decision did not, however, arise from the “law of parties” — the unique Texas law that holds all participants in a capital crime equally culpable, if it can be proved they “should have anticipated” the fatal outcome. The advocates for reducing Foster’s sentence included 13 members of the Legislature, most of whom argued that Foster had no idea a shooting would take place. Foster and his co-defendants testified that while Foster knew of the previous crimes that night, he didn’t anticipate murder.

Pictured above is Kenneth’s father and wife. You can find more pictures and stories at the bottom of the page.

As always, at the bottom of the page, courtesy of TheNewsRoom.

By the way, full disclosure, I’ve become a brand ambassador for TheNewsRoom which means I’m actively writing and educating our community about their product and its benefits. This isn’t a paid position, but I do get double points in their rewards program called NewsPerks.

Needless to say, I’m pretty sold on their marriage of content and advertising, and I’ll be writing about it more in the coming weeks, along with effective ways to monetize your traffic.

Nicholas Popaditch lost his eye in Iraq…so we rebuilt him.

Yes, that’s a bionic hand peeling a banana, and it could mean a lot more freedom for our soldiers who’ve lost their appendages in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You can see more pics at the bottom of the page.

Courtesy of TheNewsRoom.

As always, they’re at the bottom of the page.

Courtesy of TheNewsRoom.

Located at the bottom of the page…

Unfortunate Update:
Note the ad that got served up with one of the 1-35 bridge collapse pictures, in particular the lines “You’ll Be Surprised” & “Jump In.”

This doesn’t happen every time because a different ad gets served up, but when it does…yikes.