MN Advisory Comm Exhibits 1-18 - Minnesota Judicial Branch

. , %&‘ck adequate manpower to carry out
hn investigation or prosecution.
Complaints to the attorney general’s
The check kiter must not. only be
smart enough to deal wilh a large
number of banks, but he must also caloffice
by the public arc sometimes fol- culatc the exact tirne it takes checks to
lowed up with an investigation. “Wr
II;IVC~ to SC! :I pri0ril.y on who lo go
travel between banks, taking into account
weckcntls and holidays. One
after.” Kuretsky said, “but I think lhc: cheek kiter now under investigation by
need is being met.” St. Paul postal authorities has dc-
Kurtalsky has eighl full-time ply fraudcd 37 banks of ovc1r $1 million.
on his staff, but needed the assistance of
about 20 William Mitchell law students
The white collar criminal is also difficult
to apprehend bccausc he’s operatto
complrtc the odometer investigation
initiated by the attorney general. The
students logged over 400 hours on the
investigation.
Although many complaints reccivcd
ing on his own home ground. In early
1970, after hearing rumors of a largescale
fraud going on within the welfare
department, f Icnncpin County welfare
fraud investigators spent three weeks
by the lJ.S. Attorney’s office are forwarded
to the IRS. FBI. Post Office and
going through case files looking for evidenoe.
They found none.
other agencies, investigation of white
collar crime is also difficult on t.he fcdcral
level.
It wasn’t until a bank clerk, who happcncd
to know one of the investigators.
questioned whether t.o cash an eightmonth-old
welfare check that the first
clue surfaced. It was then necessary for
investigators to examine by hand more
have rnaiw
than 900,000 cancelled checks before
enough evidence was amassed to
charge 13 welfare depart.ment employees
with the theft of $66,000 over a
two-year period.
“The scheme was moving so
smoothly, God knows how long it could
have gone on if the bank clerk hadn’t
called us almost by accident,” Richard
Rislcy, chief welfare fraud invesc
tigator, said. “When we first examined
the case files, even if we had known
what we were looking for, WC wouldn’t
have found it. That’s how well the
tracks were covered.”
Special problems also exist in the
prosecution of white collar crimes.
White collar criminals are often rcspected
members of the community.
They can afford better attorneys, the
non-violent nature of the crime may
rnake judges more lenient, and juries
may be more sympathetic to the white
collar criminal.
The vice-prc+ient of an Illinois colognc
supply company that drlfraudrd
sovcral Minnesota residents of more
than $100,000 by selling non-existent distributorships
was able to muster com-
“WV already have ongoing crimes to
deal with. and white collar crimes take
an inordinate amount of time to investi-
gatt>.” U.S. Attorney Renncr said. :‘As
a result. whitcl collar crime exists. we
know it does, but we just aren’t able to
pursue it to the full extent. WV have so
mu(h work to do already that wt’ c~~n‘l
do anymore alld do it right.”
Even when complaints arc rnadc a11t1
investigations initialcld. the complexity
of the crime and the intelligence of the
white collar criminal make invcstiga-
t ion and apprehension difficult. Accord-
ing to lit~nncr, “The white collar crimi-
nal is ~rsuall~ tkic smarter type’. and tic’s
operating wlthin his own arc’s of cxpcr-
tise.”
St Paul postal inspectors will attest
that many check kiters border on being
brilliant. Check kiting involves “crcat-
ing money.” A check kiter in Min-
nchapolis. for example. writes a check
overdrawing his account in an Ok-
lahoma bank and deposits the check in
his Minneapolis account. He then races
the check back to Oklahoma. where he
covers the check written in Minneapolis
by another check overdrawing the Min-
neapolis account. As he includes more
banks in this operation, the amounts of
the checks increase. creating a finan-
cial kiting effect.
May, 1975
munity support after his conviction in
federal court in Minneapolis last
spring. There was a letter-writing cam-
paign in his behalf appealing his im-
prisonment, and the director of an II-
linois collcgc also wrole the judge, of-
fering the convicted felon a $17.500 a
year position as director of admissions
if he could bc released from prison.
Juries also may respond more sym-
pathetically to the white collar crimi-
nal. According to L3arry Feld, a profcs-
sor of law and sociology who teaches a
course on white collar crime at the LJni-
versity of Minnesota, many white collar
criminals and jurors are likely to share
the same ethnic. social and economic
r
BUYING QUALITY CLOTHING
IN THE TWIN CITIES
USED TO BE AS EXPENSIVE
AS EVERYWHERE ELSE. . .
BUT WE’VEDONE A LOT
TO CHANGE ALL THAT!
In spite of record inllot~on, many ureu men
have actually seen the ‘05, of the,r clolh,n~,
go dawn in the IOSI IWO years’ Thbs has been
fsue because of the trenlendovs VUIUBL these
men have d,scovered 01 ROBB’S We sell
First Qur~hty Nome Brand Clothtn(i OI every-
day prices much lower thor, those of other
Quality men’s stores, even lower thotl their
sulc piIces!
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AT NOMINAL CHARGE
7100 AMUNDSON AVE. SO., MPLS.
PHONE 94 l-7286
DO YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT
YOUR EMPLOYEES ARE
DOING ON COMPANY TIME?
JOHN R. MURPHY
PRIVATE INVESTIGATION
84 Walden
Burnsville, MN 55337
Professional Investigations by ex-FBI Agents
License & Bonded ’ 612 - 890-843 1