Month: October 2018

Have you ever thought about faking your own death? Probably not, but for some people this idea has crossed their conscious. Pseudocide, also known as the act of faking one’s own death, may seem like a taboo concept but it not a not a rare one. According to an article titled Playing a Risky Game: People Who Fake Death for Big Money by Emmet Pierce,“ In 2016, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud (CAIF) conducted a survey in which insurance companies were asked if the faking-a-death problem was slight, moderate or severe. Fake death fell into the moderate category,” (Pierce). Statistics on how many people a year fake their own death is very unclear as many of the “pseudocides” go unreported. Life insurance companies actually purposely do not report “pseudocides” in order to deter others from attempting it and to protect their companies from bad press. People who fake their own deaths will do because of financial issues, to avoid law enforcement and jail time, and even to“restart” a new life. Let me be clear, faking your own death is not considered a crime, but it could lead to future legal consequences. It comes to no surprise that majority of pseudocide cases are attributed to life insurance fraud. This is primarily due to the fact that some life insurance policies can guarantee some individuals up to $100,000 and in cases of wealthier individuals a payout into the millions. This form of fraud is very profitable as it can allow individuals to acquire extensive amounts of money without exerting very much effort. Therefore, life insurance companies who come into situations where their clients’ deaths appear to be mysterious or unexplained private investigators will be hired. Hiring private investigators to ensure that deaths reported by families of the deceased are in fact valid and not fraudulent. Cases of pseudocide always make huge headlines including the faked death of Alexandra Hatcher. This Virginia native attempted to commit pseudocide with the help of her husband to cash out on a life insurance policy worth over hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hatcher’s death certificate had claimed that she had sustained a life-threatening fall, however, that was not true as Hatcher was actually alive and well. In her efforts to defraud her life insurance company of hundreds of thousands of dollars, she forged her own death certificate and published her own death notice in the daily press. She continued about her scheme by using counterfeit checks to purchase and resell vehicles to other dealerships for cash. Luckily, law enforcement was able to catch onto the Hatcher’s plan and her and her husband were arrested before they were able to continue on with their lucrative scheme. Both were charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, possessing and uttering a counterfeit security of an organization, and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. They both are currently facing up to thirty years in prison.

I personally would never think about faking my own death. I could not live a happy life without my family and friends by my side. Yes, you can capitalize off of faking your death, but its not really worth it in the end as what you will ultimately lose in the process outweighs the future benefits. For me family and friends are more important than money because thats something money can’t buy. Therefore, to all my common readers, legal fanatics, and those who have ever thought about faking their own death…how far would you go and is it all really worth it at the end of the day?

 

White-collar crime is a term many of us have heard of but may not completely understanding. White-collar crime is defined as the commision of crime by someone of high authority, such as government official or business professional, for monetary gain. Some of the most famous white-collar criminals include Charles Ponzi, Kenneth Lay, and John Rigas. The white-collar criminal I want to focus on today is Charles Ponzi the pioneer of the word “Ponzi scheme”. A Ponzi scheme is a scheme were investors are promised a large profit from their investment into a successful business, but in the end are only getting paid back in older investments made by other investors. Ponzi was known widely in the 1920’s for this scheme as it allowed him to profit close to $250,000 a day. He strategically executed this scheme by purchasing discounted postage stamps with money given to him by investors and then selling them at regular price. This, in the end, helped make Ponzi millions of dollars and made his name a household name in the realm of white-collar crime. Ponzi was exposed to the world when his publicists began to see through the lies within his scheme and exposed him to the press. Charles Ponzi pleaded guilty eighty-six counts of mail fraud, owed over $7 million back to his investors,  and was sentenced to fourteen years in prison. While in jail, Ponzi had gone completely broke and had all his assets seized by the American government. Many would agree that Charles Ponzi lived a life dedicated primarily to making quick money and benefiting from the naiveness of others. If I were to be charged with a crime, I honestly believe that it would have to be some form of white-collar crime. This ranges from minor crimes such as forgery to more extreme crimes such as embezzlement. Committing white-collar crime is so much of a less severe than crimes such as murder that I do not look at those who commit white-collar crime entirely as criminals. Yes, they did commit a crime but is it really as severe as murder or aggravated assault? The answer is no.

Some white-collar criminals, in some cases, will steal small amounts of money from numerous banking accounts and walk away with millions. The average person would probably not only not notice but also might not even care if forty cents went missing from their bank account. In this scenario, a white-collar criminal could steal forty cents from 200,000 banking accounts and walk away at the end of the day with a total of $8,0000 in hand. This is extremely mind-blowing given how much money can be made from just pressing a few buttons on a laptop. I bet these guys that hack into these accounts just run one program which allows them to access hundreds of thousands of accounts and withdraw funds. This $8,000 could all be made in one single day. If someone were to do this every single day for one year he or she would profit close to $3 million. This is why one should certainly be cognizant of all their accounts as they never know whether or no they will become the next victim.

 

Being sentenced to life in prison is a death sentence of its own because once you are sentenced you will never see the light of day ever again. This is the reality for Broward county, Florida native Lionel Tate who was given the death penalty without parole for killing six year old Tiffany Eunick at 14 years old. From this incident, Tate became the youngest person in American history to receive the death penalty without parole. Growing up Tate developed a fascination with the WWE and would enjoy imitating their moves and pretending as if he were one of the wrestlers on the screen. One day Lionel Tate was left alone with six year old, Tiffany Eunick,  as they were supposed to be being watched by Eunick’s mother Deweese Eunick. While the two were downstairs alone, Deweese Eunick was upstairs sleeping. She then heard noises coming from downstairs and later urged the two to be quiet. After about forty-five minutes of them playing, Tate went upstairs to inform Eunick mother that her daughter was no longer breathing. The autopsy conducted on Eunick showed she had suffered a fractured skull, internal bruising, and a total of three broken ribs during the attack. He was later charged with first-degree murder.

Tate’s trial took place in January of 2001 and was one of the first cases to involve an adolescent suspect and the death penalty. The disturbing part of this case is that the prosecution was planning on trying to charge Tate as an adult. The defense argued that Tate was simply just mimicking what he saw on tv and was not trying to intentionally harm Eunick. During the entire trial, Tate never took the stand and a video demonstration was used in its place. However, the corner that Tate threw Tiffany into in the video was virtually impossible because in that corner was a treadmill. This led the jury to not believe Tate’s story and only made his case even worse.

Lionel unfortunately was tried as an adult and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. The victim’s mother even believed that Tate’s sentencing was too harsh. She believed that even though justice was served  it was still unfair to hand a child a life sentence. The rest of Tate’s childhood was lost as he would spend the rest of his days in prison. Fortunately, in 2005 the court then ruled that since Tate was not given a psychological evaluation during his trial he was offered a plea deal of one years house arrest and 10 years probation. After accepting the plea deal, Tate soon was caught with a firearm and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Sentencing juveniles to life sentences is something I do not think I will ever be able to understand. As a kid, I did things that now that I look back on I regret so much. For example, when I was younger I ended up setting my backyard on fire after accidentally forgetting to completely put out the campfire I had started. Fortunately, no one was hurt but the fire department did have to come and put the fire out. After my parents found out, they grounded me for two months and I had all my privileges taken away. I look back at that moment and have realized that I never should have started that fire in the first place. As kids we make mistakes and I think that is what Lionel did. He made a mistake, but unfortunately it cost another person’s life. To my legal fanatics, my common readers, and my future criminals please realize that the things you do today can potentially affect your future forever. We as college students are way too young to let our lives be thrown away over avoidable behavior and situations, I urge all my fellow classmates and scholars to be cognizant of their actions and behaviors while on campus.

 

Lyle and Erik Menendez had everything they ever wanted. From fancy cars to living in an luxurious Beverly hills Mansion in California, some could say they had it all. Their father Jose Menendez was a well respected figure head in Hollywood and had great success in his line of work. From working in the corporate world as a movie studio executive, Jose Menendez was able to generate an estate worth close to an estimated $14 million. The Menendez family collectively seemed like the picture perfect family and lived a life that many of us could ever dream of. But soon this perfect family dream turned into a terrible nightmare.

On the night of August 29th, 1989 Lyle and Erik Menendez brutally murdered their parents in the den of their family home in one of the most infamous cases of double homicide in modern American history. Their weapons of choice were two 12 gauge shotguns. They caught their parents as they were watching television by surprise and shot them both to death. They went on to cover up their crime by dumping their shotguns at the top of the hill in a neighborhood near their house and proceeded by heading to a local movie theater as a part of their alibi. Once they returned home, they called 911. This 911 call made headlines across America as the voice of the young man was bone chilling and disturbing. Weeks after their parents death, no suspect had came forward and the police were at a dead end in solving Jose’s and Kitty’s murder. Before the police got a lead on any suspects in their parent’s murder, the boys had already cashed out on their parents fortune. During this time they bought three Rolex watches, two expensive cars and numerous high priced clothing, and even spent $60,000 on tennis lessons in hopes of one day living out their dreams as professional tennis players. Erik ,however, was no longer able hold on to this guilt any longer so he confessed to murdering his parents to his psychiatrist. His psychiatrist did not contact law enforcement at first until Erik made the decision to threaten his life. The Menendez brothers then went to trial to prove their innocence for three years arguing that the reason for them killing their parents was out of self defense. They claimed that their father had sexually abused them for much of their childhood while their mother just sat back and watched. In their trial, they detailed the years of child abuse and sexual misconduct they experienced at the hands of their father. They blamed their father because he was the one that orchestrated these acts of child abuse. Their emotional testimonies were not enough to convince the jury of their innocence. The court came to the conclusion that their actions were not out of self defense, but out of greed for their parents fortune. They were later sentenced to two life prison terms without the possibility for parole.

I can not believe it. The things people do for money. People like the Menendez brothers will forever have to live with the emotional trauma of killing their parents for the rest of their remaining existence. If they felt like this abuse was going on for years the best option would have probably been to have called the police and not to have killed their parents. Even though  I can not speak to what actually happened between the Menendez brothers and their father, I still strongly feel that they did not handle this situation in the correct manner. I would never in a million years think of doing something so heinous and despicable. But the Menendez brothers would. This is why they are rotting in jail for the rest of what’s left of their lives. To my legal fanatics, my common readers, and to my future criminals just remember that money is not the key to happiness… family is.

Works Cited

History.com Editors. “The Menendez Brothers Murder Their Parents.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-menendez-brothers-murder-their-parents.