Economics: White Collar Crime

Question 1

Ponzi schemes are fraudulent deals where a non-existent enterprise is used to defraud people with a promise of huge and quick returns. Siegel (417) defines a Ponzi scheme as a swindle involving “the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors.” Swindlers promise returns on investment and may keep on providing quick and huge returns for a long period until a tie where they decide to take the money and hide it in untraceable bank accounts. In the 1920s, Charles Ponzi started a scheme duping thousands of New England residents in investing in a speculation scheme involving postage stamps, promising 50% return in 3 months (Siegel 417). Incoming funds were used to pay earlier investors and the scheme went on and on. Financier Bernard Madoff collected billions of dollars from top celebrity clients and he deposited these funds in different banks (Siegel 417). Madoff used “his impeccable reputation (60 Minutes 12:56)” to swindle clients and the Securities and Exchange Commission. From this scam, investors can be termed as both gullible and easy to fool. They are gullible because of the ease of persuasion that swindlers experienced. For example, celebrity clients in the Madoff case, people who already have a lot of money, were interested in a quick return on an investment that was invisible. They are also easy to fool because of greed and the promise of quick and huge returns drives them instead of rationality.

Question 3

Larceny defines “acts in which one person took for his or her own use the property of another” (Siegel 409). It includes the “the trespassory taking and carrying away of the personal property of another with intent to steal.” (Siegel 409). For example, an individual sneaking in the backyard and taking away someone’s car is larceny. Here, there is an issue of trespass and taking away property without consent. Larceny also includes misappropriation of goods in an individual’s possession through legitimate means (Siegel 410). The reasoning here is that commercial systems would collapse if people misappropriated merchandise entrusted to them. On the other hand, burglary was originally defined as “the breaking and entering of a dwelling house of another in the nighttime with the intent to commit a felony within.” (Siegel 414). Today, the definition has evolved to include any form of unwarranted intrusion. For example, an individual posing as a repair man through conspiracy or threat, is equivalent to the common burglar. Burglary is considered more harmful than larceny because it involves entering a home and may threaten the lives of occupants. Even where the home is unoccupied, the threat is always there that in a different scenario there may have been a threat to life of the legal occupant.