Publications

2020
Working Paper

Arbitration with Uninformed Consumers

By: Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos and Amit Seru

This paper studies the impact of the arbitrator selection process on consumer outcomes by examining roughly 9,000 consumer arbitration cases in the securities industry. Securities disputes present a good laboratory: arbitration is mandatory for all disputes,... View Details

Keywords: Arbitration; Financial Advisers; Financial Advisors; Brokers; Consumer Finance; Financial Misconduct; Fraud; Personal Finance; Conflict and Resolution; Information; Fairness

September 2001 (Revised July 2002)
Case

Fraud Prevention at Omni Bank

By: Frances X. Frei and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

Omni Bank is undergoing a merger and has two important decisions ahead. First, should it enforce the use of its model-driven approach to interacting with customers at the recently acquired Friends Savings and Loan branches. Friends has a culture of personal touch with... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Crime and Corruption; Customer Relationship Management; Decisions; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry

July 2015
Article

Executives' 'Off-the-Job' Behaviors and Financial Reporting Risk

By: Robert Davidson, Aiyesha Dey and Abbie Smith

We examine how executives' behavior outside the workplace, as measured by their ownership of luxury goods (low “frugality”) and prior legal infractions, is related to financial reporting risk. We predict and find that chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief financial... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Behavior; Personal Characteristics; Crime and Corruption; Governance Compliance; Financial Reporting; Organizational Culture

June 1997
Case

Olympic Financial Ltd.

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Sarayu Srinivasan

Olympic Financial is a sub-prime lender in the auto financing industry. Several other financing companies have been wrought with accounting fraud and business mismanagement. Olympic's debt has been downgraded, and its stock has been denigrated although the company is... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Crime and Corruption; Valuation; Financial Reporting; Credit; Financial Services Industry

09 Aug 2018
News

Two Million Fake Accounts: Sales Misconduct at Wells Fargo

Web

The Anatomy of Fraud (TAF) - Course Catalog

understand how the fraud unraveled; To spot financial and non-financial “red flags” that should have alerted investors; The course features prominent speakers involved in the... View Details

March 2021
Article

The Effectiveness of White-Collar Crime Enforcement: Evidence from the War on Terror

By: Trung Nguyen

This paper analyzes the impact of changes in regulatory priorities and resource allocation on criminal enforcement of white‐collar criminal activities. Using the 9/11 terrorist attacks as a shock to the FBI's priorities and allocation of investigative resources, as... View Details

Keywords: White-collar Crime; Government Regulation; Financial Fraud; Securities Fraud; Insider Trading; Crime and Corruption; Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Law Enforcement

09 Aug 2017
News

Financial Fraud: It Takes Two

Fall 2024
Article

The Problem of Good Conduct Among Financial Advisers

By: Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos and Amit Seru

Households in the United States often rely on financial advisers for investment and savings decisions, yet there is a widespread perception that many advisers are dishonest. This distrust is not unwarranted: approximately one in fifteen advisers has a history of... View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Behavioral Finance; Trust; Financial Services Industry

2018
Working Paper

It is Easy to be Brave From a Safe Distance: Proximity to the SEC and Insider Trading

By: Trung Nguyen and Quoc H. Nguyen

We use hand-collected data from SEC’s litigation releases for insider trading violations to examine the effect of geographic distance on its enforcement activities and insider trading activities. First, we find that the SEC is more likely to investigate companies that... View Details

Keywords: SEC; Enforcement; Financial Misconduct; Insider Trading; Geographic Proximity; Governance Compliance; Law Enforcement; Geographic Location; Finance; Crime and Corruption

March 2021 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Wirecard: The Downfall of a German Fintech Star

By: Jonas Heese, Charles C.Y. Wang and Tonia Labruyere

Wirecard was a German fintech company, member of the DAX30, that provided payment processing and related services. Wirecard had enjoyed large growth rates over the years and most investors and analysts were enthusiastic about the company's prospects. Wirecard's... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Fraud; Scandal; Accounting Audits; Accounting; Financial Reporting; Financial Institutions; Financial Markets; Corporate Governance; Governance Compliance; Corporate Accountability; Governance Controls; Financial Services Industry; Germany; Singapore; Dubai

Educators

March 2013
Case

NovaStar Financial: A Short Seller's Battle

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Amy Kaser

The NovaStar case describes the challenges faced by short seller Marc Cohodes of hedge fund Rocker Partners as he tried to expose what he thought was widespread fraud in mortgage lender NovaStar Financial. The case is set in the time period from 2001 to 2007 and tracks... View Details

Educators

December 2021
Article

Cash-for-Information Whistleblower Programs: Effects on Whistleblowing and Consequences for Whistleblowers

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and Gerardo Pérez Cavazos

We study the effect of financial incentives on whistleblowing and the consequences for whistleblowers under the cash-for-information program of the False Claims Act (FCA). Exploiting appeals-court decisions that increase financial incentives for whistleblowing, we find... View Details

Keywords: Whistleblowers; Cash-for-information Whistleblower Programs; False Claims Act; Corporate Misconduct; Consequences For Whistleblowers; Crime and Corruption; Information; Cost

2016
Working Paper

Executive Compensation and Environmental Harm

By: Dylan Minor

We explore the relationship between managerial incentives and environmental harm. We find that high-powered executive compensation packages can increase the odds of environmental law breaking by 40%–60% and the magnitude of environmental harm by over 100%. We document... View Details

Keywords: Misconduct; Environmental Performance; Accounting Scandal; Sustainable Finance; Crime and Corruption; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Executive Compensation; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Governance

May 2021 (Revised May 2022)
Supplement

Odebrecht's 'Transformation Journey' (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Ruth Costas and Pedro Levindo

The case describes the changes in Odebrecht’s board of directors while the company had to file for court-supervised reorganization and cope with an ongoing feud within its founding family, and the new challenges that the Group’s leadership has to face. The changes in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Misconduct; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Reputation; Mission and Purpose; Business and Government Relations; Engineering; Family Business; Emerging Markets; Construction Industry; Brazil; Latin America

January 2013 (Revised August 2013)
Case

First Solar: CFRA's Accounting Quality Concerns

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Ian McKown Cornell

The case relates to accounting quality analysis conducted by the leading research firm Center for Financial Research and Analysis (CFRA) on companies in the solar industry with a focus on First Solar Inc. In 2009, CFRA was concerned that First Solar, like much of the... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Accounting Quality; Financial Accounting; Financial Statement Analysis; Accounting Fraud; Accounting Red Flags; Accounting Scandal; Risk and Uncertainty; Quality; Earnings Management; Valuation; Crime and Corruption; Financial Statements; Energy Sources; Green Technology Industry; Accounting Industry; Energy Industry

Educators