How to Spot White-Collar Crime in 3 Easy Steps
So you stop off at your money manager's office atop some gleaming Midtown office building and you find him in a vast office filled with priceless art work, sitting behind an antique desk dressed in a $10,000 custom-made suit, and fingering photos of a new beachfront estate in East Hampton he's had his eye on. Should that be a warning sign you've invested your money with the next Bernie Madoff? That's what the Wall Street Journal's Wealth Report wonders today, pointing out that the recent crop of fraudsters all seemed to very much enjoy parading around their riches:
Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Stanford had many things in common, aside from alleged investment frauds. They both liked traveling by private jet—multiple jets, in both cases. They both had homes in Florida. And they both owned yachts.
There you have it! All you have to do is look for those three, small details and you'll be able to tell the good guys apart from the ones who are engaged in vast criminal conspiracies to defraud the innocent. We're just relieved that Ron Perelman's yacht and multiple jets are accompanied by a house the Bahamas, not in Florida. We were worried there for a moment!
