elliott spitzer case holds 4 lessons for cpas

031308.jpeggo ahead, ask fraud expert gary zeune, cpa, about elliot spitzer.

not surprisingly, he has some thoughts, all of them trenchant…

  1. perfect example of how really smart people do really stupid stuff. so don’t ever think someone is too smart not to steal, embezzle, kickback scheme. (can anyone say: “tom coughlin, no. 2 person at wal-mart and and head of security who stole $500,000 of gift cards?”)
  2. did you see that the fbi wasn’t even investigating prostitution? they were looking into unusual cash transfers his bank had reported on sars (suspicious activity reports).
  3. powerful people sometimes don’t think the rules apply to them.
  4. he didn’t think he’d get caught (same reason we speed when driving).