Blog#12 Trader Scandal-White Collar Crime

Kweku M. Adoboli, an Ex-UBS trader in London, whose precarious trades ensued a multibillion –dollar loss at a Swiss bank. He is claiming that the bank had knowledge of his actions and encouraged him. Mr. Adoboli’s lawyer, Charles Sherrard stated to the jury that after a series of scandals and missteps at UBS, his client was being singled out. He is being accused of redundancies, reductions in the share price and reputational damage. Mr. Adoboli is charged with six counts of fraud and false accounting in relation to a $2.3 billion loss at the bank. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and if he is convicted he could be facing 10 years of prison time. His defense contended that the accusations signified a “character assassination,” without holding the UBS roles of management accountable for condoning his trading activity. His lawyer Mr. Sharrard insinuated that the bank’s part demonstrates how the industry is driven exclusively to make money while putting extreme pressure on traders to produce profits. Under British Law, UBS is not considered a defendant and not legally allowed to comment on criminal cases. The defense denied accusations of Mr. Adoboli acting unaccompanied to construct false trades that contributed to concealed losses from 2008 through 2011. Mr. Adoboli’s teams raked in $8.8 million in 2010 and $52 million for the 2^nd quarter of 20ll.
White-collar crime was termed by a sociologist names Edwin Sutherland in 1939.  White collar crimes are crimes executed by persons of a higher social status. Some examples of white collar crime are fraud, insider trading, bankruptcy fraud, bribery, embezzlement, cyber-crime, and forgery. There are many well known cases of white-collar crime in the U.S. such as scandals committed by Martha Stewart and within Enron. These crimes affect society in many ways such as destroying companies and forcing them to raise costs thus causing higher prices for customers, reducing employee wages and creating layoffs, while also causing investors to lose millions of dollars and confidence in the stock market. White collar crime in the U.S. is rising. In 2010 there were 661 cases and in 2011 there were 726 corporate fraud cases of which several of them involved losses on public investments of over $1 billion dollars each. It is evident that white collar crime causes serious social and economic problems. By enforcing harsher punishments for such crimes, this could deter individuals from temptation.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/jury-is-told-ex-ubs-trader-was-made-a-scapegoat-for-banks-woes/
http://www.aboutsociology.com/sociology/White_collar_crime
http://money.howstuffworks.com/white-collar-crime5.htm
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/white_collar

http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/financial-crimes-report-2010-2011

Blog#11 Oklahoma Citizens Packing Heat

According to the New York Times article, “Oklahomans Packing Heat”, on November 1^st, Oklahoma’s 142,000 citizens with concealed handgun licenses will have the right to wear their loaded guns in the open. Republican Gov. Mary Fallin signed the “open carry” law although law enforcement objected to it. Statehouse advocates advise that in order to obtain a handgun license, a person has to pass a strict state check of criminal and mental health records. Obviously Oklahoma is clearly inattentive with inaccurate numbers of fewer than four cases being reported last year to the federal mental health watchlist. The state is the 15^th of states legalizing open carry with the notion that this law will enhance public safety. Business owners are deciding on whether to allow unconcealed guns on their premises or whether to put a “no guns allowed” sign in respect for their family oriented customers. The law prohibits the strapping on of a gun if a person is intoxicated. Different states within the U.S. have varying gun control laws. It is estimated that civilians in the U.S. own approximately 260 to 300 million firearms. A Gallup polls reflects that since 1990 laws supporting stricter gun laws have declined even though the FBI attributes two-thirds of the homicides to be gun related. There has been much debate on how gun control should be handled. Other countries have different viewpoints on how they handle gun control. In Australia, gun ownership is strictly prohibited unless used for a licensed sport, animal control, or for employment requirements. According to guncontrol.org.au, Australia’s strict gun laws have saved thousands of lives and are revealed through the results of a 2009 study showing only 0.1 per 100,000 of the population deaths were due to firearm homicide and 0.8 per 100,000 deaths per firearm suicide. Brazil allows its citizens over 24 to own registered guns and restricts them to be kept indoors however; Brazil has the second-highest gun-related deaths following the U.S. Government policies and restrictions on gun control effects society.  An article on Heraldnet.com shared doctor’s views on how they believe that guns should be treated as a social problem. They claim that we need to take a public health and science-based pragmatic approach to the problem of society being inundated with guns and seek better ways of preventing harm ­­­from them. Doctors compared the need for this approach as we did the public health approach of highway safety measures, product changes, and driving laws that contributed to reduced deaths. ­­­­­­One public health approach would be to examine “product features” by looking at which firearms are the most dangerous and why. The doctors stated that manufacturers could be forced to fix defects which allow a gun to go off accidently and incorporate technology that allows only the owner of the gun to fire it. For the safety of society these product restrictions are something that government should look into especially when allowing open carry laws where there is opportunity for guns going off accidentally in the public.

A version of this editorial appeared in print on November 3, 2012, on page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: Oklahomans Packing Heat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/opinion/oklahomans-unconceal-their-loaded-handguns.html

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20121028_11_A1_Therem296082

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/12/gun-laws-around-the-world_n_807700.html#s222572&title=Australia_

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/12/gun-laws-around-the-world_n_807700.html#s222575&title=Brazil_

http://guncontrol.org.au/

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20120812/NEWS02/708129927

Blog#10-Criminalization of HIV

My blog is on an interesting article posted by the Huffington Post titled: Think HIV is Not a Crime? Think Again. This article explains how an unfathomable stigma and discrimination is a way of life for those infected with HIV. Not only is this a social problem but now a legal issue also. It begins by telling the story of Robert Suttle, an advocate against HIV criminalization who has experienced multiple forms of discrimination as a young African American. Robert was born in Louisiana, a state with the highest incarceration rate than any other state in the U.S. and the highest rates of young American males infected with HIV.  Robert is a Louisiana State University graduate and had plans to serve in the Air Force until he received a rejection due to testing positive to HIV. He went to work for Louisiana’s Second Circuit Court of Appeal as an assistant clerk and was about to become the 1^st black male deputy clerk in that court. His life quickly changed when a previous partner filed criminal charges against him for not disclosing that he had HIV at the beginning of their relationship. Robert was prosecuted under a Louisiana law that requires people with HIV to disclose having HIV before sexual relations even if there was no chance of transmitting HIV. He took a plea bargain with a sentence of six months instead of chancing the possibility of a 10-year sentence. Now through the year 2024, Robert has to register as a sex offender and his driver’s license must bear the words “SEX OFFENDER” in red capital letters under his photo. There are thousands of HIV-specific criminal charge cases filed around the country. Out of 35 states Louisiana and Iowa are the only two with criminal statuses that apply exclusively to people infected with HIV. According to the author of this article, Sean Strub there is no proof that these statuses reduce the transmission of HIV. A survey by the Sero Project was conducted in the U.S. on 2,000 people infected with HIV which resulted with close to a quarter of the responses revealing knowing at least one individual that feared taking the HIV test due to the possibility of prosecution if the results were positive.

 

According to the Center for Disease and Control Prevention, Thirty three states have one or more HIV-specific criminal exposure laws. The Global Commission on HIV and the Law reported that the U.S. convicts more people that are infected with HIV for transmission than any other country. This report also states that Canada is the next largest and Sweden and Norway hold the highest conviction rate compared to the HIV-positive population.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-strub/lgbt-hiv-criminalization_b_2039539.html?utm_hp_ref=crime&ir=Crime

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/law/exposure.htm

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/09/where_transmitting_hiv_is_a_crime

http://www.hivlawcommission.org/resources/report/FinalReport-Risks,Rights&Health-EN.pdf