May 2024 - True Crime Book Club - Past Titles - LibGuides at Westwood Public Library

About the Author: Eugene Soltes

Eugene Soltes is a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School where his work focuses on corporate integrity and risk management. His research utilizes data analytics to identify organizational cultures and compliance systems that can effectively prevent, detect, and respond to reputational and regulatory threats. Professor Soltes teaches graduate-level courses on regulatory environments and risk management, and was the recipient of the Charles M. Williams Award for outstanding teaching (Harvard Business School).

Eugene Soltes is the Jakurski Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. His research on corporate malfeasance has been cited by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, and Bloomberg News. Professor Soltes teaches in Harvard Business School’s executive education programs and is the recipient of the Charles M. Williams Award for Outstanding Teaching. He received his PhD and MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his AM in statistics and AB in economics from Harvard University (Hachette Book Group).

Eugene Soltes on Writing the Book

Synopsis

What drives wealthy and powerful people to white-collar crime? Why They Do It is a breakthrough look at the dark side of the business world. From the financial fraudsters of Enron, to the embezzlers at Tyco, to the insider traders at McKinsey, to the Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, the failings of corporate titans are regular fixtures in the news. In Why They Do It , Harvard Business School professor Eugene Soltes draws from extensive personal interaction and correspondence with nearly fifty former executives as well as the latest research in psychology, criminology, and economics to investigate how once-celebrated executives become white-collar criminals. White-collar criminals are not merely driven by excessive greed or hubris, nor do they usually carefully calculate costs and benefits before breaking the law. Instead, Soltes shows that most of the executives who committed crimes made decisions the way we all do-on the basis of their intuitions and gut feelings. The trouble is that these gut feelings are often poorly suited for the modern business world where leaders are increasingly distanced from the consequences of their decisions and the individuals they impact. The extraordinary costs of corporate misconduct are clear to its victims. Yet, never before have we been able to peer so deeply into the minds of the many prominent perpetrators of white-collar crime. With the increasing globalization of business threatening us with even more devastating corporate misconduct, the lessons Soltes draws in Why They Do It are needed more urgently than ever.

Discussion Questions

Motivations for White-Collar Crime:
- What are the common motivations presented in the book for individuals engaging in white-collar crime?
- How do these motivations differ from traditional criminal behavior?
Rationalizations and Decision-Making:
- How do white-collar criminals rationalize their actions? Are there recurring themes or patterns in their thought processes?
- What role does cognitive dissonance play in the decision-making process of white-collar criminals?
Organizational Culture and Ethics:
- To what extent does the book discuss the influence of organizational culture on white-collar crime?
- How can organizations foster an ethical culture and prevent individuals from succumbing to the pressures that may lead to white-collar crime?
Legal and Regulatory Environment:
- How does the legal and regulatory environment contribute to or mitigate white-collar crime?
- Are there reforms or changes in the legal system that the book suggests might be effective in preventing or addressing these crimes?
Psychological Profiles of Offenders:
- What psychological traits or characteristics are commonly found in the individuals discussed in the book who commit white-collar crimes?
- Are there any warning signs or red flags that organizations can look for to identify potential white-collar criminals within their ranks?
Comparisons with Other Types of Crime:
- In what ways do the motivations and rationalizations of white-collar criminals differ from those involved in street crimes?
- Are there any commonalities between white-collar crime and other types of criminal behavior?
Impact on Victims and Society:
- How does white-collar crime impact victims, both individuals and society as a whole?
- Are the consequences of white-collar crime adequately addressed in the legal system, or are there areas that need improvement?
Prevention and Deterrence:
- What strategies and measures does the book suggest for preventing white-collar crime?
- How effective are traditional methods of punishment in deterring individuals from engaging in white-collar criminal activities?
Ethical Considerations:
- From an ethical standpoint, how should society address individuals who have committed white-collar crimes? Is rehabilitation a viable option, or should the emphasis be on punishment?
Reflection on Personal Responsibility:
- To what extent does the book explore the personal responsibility of individuals engaging in white-collar crime?
- How can a better understanding of the motivations behind white-collar crime inform approaches to prevention and rehabilitation?

Fact vs Fiction: White Collar Crimes

The term “white-collar crime” was reportedly coined in 1939 and has since become synonymous with the full range of frauds committed by business and government professionals. White-collar crime is generally non-violent in nature and includes public corruption, health care fraud, mortgage fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering, to name a few. White-collar scams can destroy a company, devastate families by wiping out their life savings, or cost investors billions of dollars (or even all three). Today’s fraud schemes are more sophisticated than ever, and the FBI is dedicated to using its skills to track down the culprits and stop scams before they start (FBI).

Octopus by Guy Lawson
Call Number: 332.6 Lawson
Octopus is a real-life thriller that tells the inside story of an audacious hedge fund fraud and the wild search, by a colorful cast of rogues and schemers, for a "secret market" beneath the financial market we all know. Sam Israel was a man who seemed to have it all - until the hedge fund he ran, Bayou, imploded and he became the target of a nationwide manhunt. Born into one of America's most illustrious trading families, Israel was determined to strike out on his own. So after apprenticing with one of the greatest hedge fund traders of the 1980's, Sam founded his own fund and promised his investors guaranteed profits. With the proprietary computer program he'd created, he claimed to be able to predict the future. But his future was already beginning to unravel. After suffering devastating losses and fabricating fake returns, Israel knew it was only a matter of time before his real performance would be discovered, so when a former black-ops intelligence operative told him about a "secret market" run by the Fed, Israel bet his last $150 million on a chance to make billions. Thus began his year-long adventure in "the Upperworld" -- a society populated by clandestine bankers, shady European nobility, and spooks issuing cryptic warnings about a mysterious cabal known as the Octopus. Whether the "secret market" was real or a con, Israel was all in - and as the pressures mounted and increasingly sinister violence crept into his life, he struggled to break free of the Octopus' tentacles.
Spiderweb Capitalism by Kimberly Kay Hoang
Call Number: 332.673 Hoang
Kimberly Kay Hoang traveled more than 350,000 miles and conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews with private wealth managers, fund managers, entrepreneurs, C-suite executives, bankers, auditors, and other financial professionals. She traces the flow of capital from offshore funds in places like the Cayman Islands, Samoa, and Panama to special-purpose vehicles and holding companies in Singapore and Hong Kong, and how it finds its way into risky markets onshore in Vietnam and Myanmar. Hoang reveals the strategies behind spiderweb capitalism and examines the moral dilemmas of making money in legal, financial, and political gray zones.
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
Call Number: 338.7 Carreyrou
In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the next Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup "unicorn" promised to revolutionize the medical industry with its breakthrough device, which performed the whole range of laboratory tests from a single drop of blood. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.5 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn't work. Erroneous results put patients in danger, leading to misdiagnoses and unnecessary treatments. All the while, Holmes and her partner, Sunny Balwani, worked to silence anyone who voiced misgivings--from journalists to their own employees.
The Missing Cryptoqueen by Jamie Bartlett
Call Number: 364.163 BARLETT
175 countries, four billion dollars, one scam: the thrilling rise and fall of the biggest cryptocurrency con in history and the woman behind it all In 2016, on stage at Wembley Arena in front of thousands of adoring fans, Dr. Ruja Ignatova promised her followers a financial revolution. The future, she said, belonged to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. And the Oxford-educated, self-styled cryptoqueen vowed that she had invented the Bitcoin Killer. OneCoin would not only earn its investors untold fortunes; it would change the world. By March 2017, more than $4 billion had been invested in OneCoin in countries all around the world. But by October 2017, Ruja Ignatova had disappeared, and it slowly became clear that her revolutionary cryptocurrency was not all it seemed. Fortune was left asking, "Is OneCoin the biggest financial fraud in history?" In The Missing Cryptoqueen , acclaimed tech journalist Jamie Bartlett tells the story he began in his smash hit BBC podcast, entering the murky worlds of little-regulated cryptocurrencies and multilevel marketing schemes. Through a globe-crossing investigation into the criminal underworlds, corrupt governments, and the super-rich, he reveals a very modern tale of intrigue, techno-hype and herd madness that allowed OneCoin to become a million-person pyramid scheme--where, at the top, investors were making millions and, at the bottom, people were putting their livelihoods at risk. It's the inside story of the smartest and biggest scam of the 21st Century--and the genius behind it, who is still on the run.
Lying for Money by Dan Davies
Call Number: 364.163 Davies
The way most white-collar crime works is by manipulating institutional psychology. That means creating something that looks as much as possible like a normal set of transactions. The drama comes later, when it all unwinds. Financial crime seems horribly complicated, but there are only so many ways you can con someone out of what's theirs. In Lying for Money , veteran regulatory economist and market analyst Dan Davies tells the story of fraud through a genealogy of financial malfeasance, including: the Great Salad Oil swindle, the Pigeon King International fraud, the fictional British colony of Poyais in South America, the Boston Ladies' Deposit Company, the Portuguese Banknote Affair, Theranos, and the Bre-X scam. Davies brings new insights into these schemes and shows how all frauds, current and historical, belong to one of four categories ("long firm," counterfeiting, control fraud, and market crimes) and operate on the same basic principles. The only elements that change are the victims, the scammers, and the terminology. Revealing some of the most famous frauds of the modern age, Davies explains how fraud has shaped the entire development of the modern world economy.
The Believers by Adam LeBor
Call Number: 364.163 LEBOR
It was in luxurious Palm Beach, by the manicured lawns and Olympic-sized swimming pool, that financier Bernard Madoff ravaged the world of philanthropy and high society he strove so hard to join; vaporizing the assets of charities, foundations, and individuals that had trusted him with their funds. It seems nothing was sacrosanct to Madoff, possibly the greatest con-man in history--even Elie Wiesel's foundation lost tens of millions. How could Madoff, a pillar of the Jewish community, do this to a Nobel Laureate and Auschwitz survivor? How could some of the most sophisticated and worldly people in America fall victim to a collective delusion for years? To answer these unsettling questions, this book opens up the clubbish world where Madoff operated, tracing the links from Palm Beach and the Hamptons to the clubs of Manhattan society. It details the network of relationships across which flows hundreds of millions of dollars, and shows how despite material success and acclaim, some human impulses remain eternal. It reveals how an underlying sense of insecurity still shapes some of the richest and most successful individuals in America, making them crave ever more status and peer acclaim.
Crisis of Conscience by Tom Mueller
Call Number: 364.163 Mueller
We are living in a time of mind-boggling corruption, but we are also living in a golden age of whistleblowing. Over the past two decades, whistleblowers have emerged as both the government's best weapon against corporate misconduct and the citizenry's best defence against government. Drawing on relentless original research, including in-depth interviews with more than 200 whistleblowers, Crisis of Conscience is a modern-day David-and-Goliath saga, told through a series of riveting cases drawn from Big Pharma, the military, and beyond.
Capital Offenses by Samuel Buell
Call Number: 364.168 Buell
In Capital Offenses, Samuel Buell draws on the unique pairing of his expertise as a Duke University law professor and his personal experience leading the investigation into Enron--the biggest white-collar crime case in U.S. history--to present an in-depth examination of business crime today At the heart of it sits the limited liability corporation, simultaneously the bedrock of American prosperity and the reason that white-collar crime is difficult to prosecute--a brilliant legal innovation that, in its modern form, can seem impossible to regulate or even manage. By shielding employees from legal responsibility, the corporation encourages the risk-taking that drives economic growth. But its special legal status and its ever-expanding scale place daunting barriers in the way of federal and local investigators. Detailing the complex legal frameworks that govern both corporations and the people who carry out their missions, Buell shows that deciphering business crime is rarely black or white. In lucid, thought-provoking prose, he illuminates the depths of the legal issues at stake--delving into fraudulent practices like Ponzi schemes, bad accounting, insider trading, and the art of "loopholing"--showing how every major case and each problem of law further exposes the ambivalence and instability at the core of America's relationship with its corporations.