Handbook of Frauds, Scams, and Swindles: Failures of Ethics in Leadership

by Serge Matulich

This handbook presents a collection of stories about frauds from around the world. Each story describes events from beginning to end, demonstrating how leaders failed to act in an ethical manner. Written in an accessible style, the text allows readers to uncover patterns without the need to grasp sophisticated technical concepts. The book covers well-known infamous cases, such as Enron, Parmalat, and Vivendi, as well as less familiar scandals such as the Elders of Zion, which illustrate that fraud has occurred in fields other than business for hundreds of years. Every entry includes an introductory summary to tie the stories together along with teaching notes to facilitate classroom discussions.

Paperback Bunko

First published June 19, 2008

Reviews

[John-Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm designing an ethics class for my organization, and this book is chock full of cases of fraud from all walks of life: media, medical, financial, you name it, they got it! The authors of the different chapters did a great job making the stories as accessible as possible for those not familiar with the more technical aspects of the particular case, and the bibliographies at the end of each chapter were robust enough to satisfy the curious reader.

The one trouble I had with the book, and it's not altogether minor, is with the subtitle of the book itself, "Failures of Ethics in Leadership". I felt like most chapters just explained the story and left out any discussion on how the fraud was a result of a breakdown in ethical leadership. There were exceptions: three chapters devoted to the HealthSouth fraud thoroughly discussed how Scrushy and his cronies led that organization into disaster, but by and large, the purported focal point of the book, failures of ethics in leadership, was glossed over in most chapters.

All in all, though, there are several stories of fraud that can serve as excellent case studies for just about any ethics course.

[randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmmm, what did I learn from this book? This is kind of the Sociopaths Financial Handbook, suggesting that if you are callous and cynical and clever enough, you too can make millions (or billions) off of innocent, trusting, less clever people. Of course, even if you have a scheme, some assembly is required. Editors Serge Matulich and David Currie organized the book into seven sections and these deal with major players from Charles Ponzi to Barry Minkow of ZZZZ Best Carpet Cleaners to Enron to Vivendi and United Airlines and the City of San Diego. A collection of authors present the stories in readable and sometimes entertaining styles, frequently accompanied by additional notes. All of these stories relate to financial crimes, some of which are extremely complicated, yet in every case, the authors distill the technicalities to non-financial readers.