insider trading

Tragedy of Fraud – Insider Trading Edition available at Amazon

Now available at Amazon:

tragedy-cover

 

Tragedy of Fraud – Insider Trading Edition: The fall from Big 4 audit partner to prison inmate.

Until April 2013, former KPMG audit partner Scott London was in charge of the audit practice for the southwest region. He was responsible for the audit work of 500 accountants and had the paycheck to go with those duties.

Today he is a prison inmate residing at the federal penitentiary in Lompoc, California serving a 14 month sentence.

Scott London is now in Lompoc penitentiary.

As part of the final editing of my book, I checked the locations of Mr. London and Mr. Shaw in the federal prison system. You can look up such things at the Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator.

Mr. Shaw is still at Taft Correctional Institute. Last time I looked, they were both at Taft.

Mr. London has been moved up the coast to Lompoc USP (United States Penitentiary). That is a medium security prison with an attached minimum security facility.  The facility is a mile or less from Lompoc, maybe 2 miles from the ocean, and is immediately adjacent to Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Mr. London’s official release date is still July 23, 2015. Mr. Shaw is scheduled for release November 28, 2014, the day after Thanksgiving.

UpdateMr. Shaw released 11/28/14.

Public comments on compensation for inside trading CPA partner

There are a range of comments in public about the comp package for former KPMG partner Scott London, who is now in federal prison for insider trading. How can we reconcile those amounts?

Before my book on Mr. London goes into print, I wanted to write one more post about the salary numbers I’ve seen. Will roll this into the book. Hope to start the final, final editing, proofing, and link verification very soon.

High estimate

Arriving soon at an e-retailer near you: Tragedy of Fraud, Insider Trading Edition – The fall from Big 4 audit partner to prison inmate.

Debut appearance of the cover, hot off the digital press:

 

tragedy-cover

 

My newest book is in the last stages of editing. Hope to move into conversion to e-book format soon. Will be released in the next couple of weeks.

As you know, I’ve been following the story of Scott London closely since the day the story broke. Mr. London was KPMG regional audit PIC for the southwest region.

He was caught passing inside information to his golf buddy. When confronted, he quickly confessed and plead guilty. He received a fourteen month jail sentence and is now a prison inmate at the Taft Correctional Institution.

You can now read of his journey from the lofty world of senior leadership to prison inmate in book format. The dozens of blog posts covering the story have been combined in chronological order instead of being spread all over the blog in reverse chronology. The posts have been edited slightly and the sequence changed a bit.

Available soon

The story of Mr. London’s fall will soon be available on your phone, e-reader, tablet, or other reading platform of choice. Will be available at the Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes stores.

Print copy will be available at Amazon soon after the electronic version is published.

Comments from Scott London interview – 7th and final part

Preparation for prison and life after release.

This is the last post describing Scott London’s interview during a four-hour CPE session on June 26. The first post explained the goal of this series is to organize a number of comments in the session. The course was presented by The Pros & The Cons.

This post will cover preparation for prison, life afterwards, and another earned consequence.

Preparation for prison

When asked, Mr. London said he is spending a lot of time with family and friends before he reports to prison.

Comments from Scott London interview – part 6

This is the sixth in a series of posts describing comments in an interview of Scott London during a four-hour CPE session on June 26. The first post explained the goal of this series is to organize a number of comments in the session. The course was presented by The Pros & The Cons.

This post will cover a few stray comments in the interview.

Expectation of total amount of insider trading gains

Scott London is in prison on 7/19/14. Expected release date 7/23/15.

Looks like he surrendered into custody yesterday.

The Bureau of Prisons has an Inmate Locator Service which provides location and incarceration data for all federal prisoners since 1982. Lookup is by name or register number.

As of Saturday morning, 7/19, the locator shows Scott London (register 64641-112) is incarcerated at Taft Correctional Institute, near Bakersfield, California.

Scott London expected to report to prison on Friday; Bryan Shaw is already in custody.

At sentencing, Judge Wu ordered Scott London to report to prison by noon on July 18. That is today.

When I checked the Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator Service on Thursday evening, it showed Mr. London’s status as not in custody with no release date. That’s what I expected.

Then I checked on Mr. Shaw. The court sentenced Mr. Shaw to 5 months with recommendation of confinement at either Taft or Lompoc with orders to report by August 1, 2014.

He is already in custody.

Comments from Scott London interview – part 5 – motivation

This is the fifth in a series of posts describing comments in an interview of Scott London during a four-hour CPE session on June 26. The first post explained the goal of this series is to organize a number of comments in the session. The course was presented by The Pros & The Cons.

Motivation

In the interview, Mr. London said he is still working through the issues that led him to do this. The underlying factor is a behavioral issue inside of him. He insisted it has nothing to do with the KPMG system.

At the point that sharing transitioned from public to nonpublic information, Mr. London thinks he was responding to the appeal of human nature to help a friend in need once in a while. There was a definite slippery slope. In the midst of these comments Mr. London was clear that he took the blame.

Comments from Scott London interview – part 4

This is the fourth in a series of posts describing comments in an interview of Scott London during a four-hour CPE session on June 26. The first post explained the goal of this series is to organize a number of comments in the session. The course was presented by The Pros & The Cons.

The worst day of his life

The FBI knocked on the door of the London home at 8 AM after everyone else had left the house. Mr. London said that was the worst day of his life.

No kidding.

The interview lasted about 15 minutes. Their biggest concern? How many other people were involved.

Comments from Scott London interview – part 3

This is the third in a series of posts describing comments in an interview of Scott London during a four-hour CPE session on June 26. The first post explained the goal of this series is to organize a number of comments in the session. The course was presented by The Pros & The Cons.

Status with Bureau of Prisons

As an aside, the Bureau of Prisons has an Inmate Locator Service, which provides public disclosure of federal inmates.

On July 10, Scott London is listed in their database. His register number is 64641-112.

His status is Not in BOP Custody with a release date of Unknown.

Back to the interview…

The sting

Let’s step outside the interview.  At a time I’ll tie in later, the SEC called Mr. Shaw. He poured out the whole story.

Then the FBI got involved and the sting started.

Back to the interview.

In early 2013 Mr. London received three or four phone calls from Mr. Shaw asking for more information.

Comments from Scott London interview – part 2

This is the second in a series of posts describing comments in an interview of Scott London during a four-hour CPE session on June 26. The first post explained the goal of this series is to organize a number of comments in the session. The course was presented by The Pros & The Cons.

The payoffs

Mr. London says he got around $50,000 in total. He thinks that Mr. Shaw exaggerated the jewelry and concert tickets in order to make the playoffs look bigger. He thinks Mr. Shaw may have paid $3,000 for the watch.

Comments from Scott London during interview – part 1

On June 26, 2014, Scott London was interviewed in a four-hour CPE webcast on professional ethics.

The course was presented by The Pros & The Cons. The interviewers were Gary Zuene, CPA, Gaylen Hansen, CPA, and Michael Sallah of the Washington Post.

There are two published interviews that took place before the CPE session:

I’ve seen two articles discussing the interview:

This post will summarize some of the comments from that interview that I found to be of particular interest.

The goal of this series of posts is to get the interview comments organizing into related topics.

Context for this series

I am presenting my comments about the interview with only a few narrative statements. At some later point I will correlate this with other news reports.

I won’t comment now about my perceptions or how we interpret Mr. London’s comments. That is for another series of posts. Maybe.

How did the insider trading scheme develop?

Additional consequences of insider trading – #13

On June 25, 2014, Scott London was interviewed at length in a webcast presented by The Pros & The Cons.  During the interview, Mr. London shared several more aspects of the consequences of his illegal insider trading.

Add the following items to the long list of consequences of illegal behavior.

Knowing you will be a case study decades into the future – After one interviewer mentioned this would be a great case study for the Harvard Business Review, Mr. London said he knows that will be the case. He hates to be the subject of case studies but doesn’t think there would be a better example.

Embarrassment for your child during a college class – …