referencebooks (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} referencebooks) wrote,@ 2006-05-30 13:10:00 |
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| Entry tags: | business, criminal justice, history |
Encyclopedia of Fraud
Encyclopedia of Fraud: 2005 Edition
By Joseph T. Wells, CFE, CPA
Published by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
This is a 7" by 9.5" hardbound book running to 848 pages including the brief bibliography, plus appendices and a preface.
The preface states that this encyclopedia is intended for an audience of "practitioners and academics," which could easily mislead a literal-minded person. It's not practitioners of fraud who are the intended audience, of course, but academics and accountants and other investigators of fraud.
The book has entries on numerous fraud schemes, organized by both topic and type of scheme, as well as entries about fraud cases and "notable fraudsters." Here is a list of the first fifteen entries in the book:
- Adelphia
- Antar, Eddie
- Antitrust
- Asset Misappropriation
- Asset Valuation, Improper
- Atkins, Charles and William hack
- Attitudes Toward and Perceptions of Fraud
- Auditing for Fraud
- Auto Sales Fraud
- Automotive Repair Fraud
- Avant!
- Avocational Crime
- Bait and Switch
- Banco Ambrosiano
- Bankruptcy Fraud
Entries on types of fraud are the longer ones, often going on to easily a dozen pages. Biographical and historical entries are a little shorter but are also often several pages in length. The prose is clear and enjoyable to read, so that it's easy to get a lot of knowledge about different varieties of fraud and fraud cases quickly and easily.
One entry caught my eye in the table of contents - an entry for Marcus Garvey. This two and a half page entry summarizes the story of Marcus Garvey and J. Edgar Hoover's politically-motivated pursuit of him on fraud charges. The entry is very clear in stating that the Garvey case was not a case of fraud but of persecution for political reasons; this makes it interesting that the case is written up in the book at all. I suppose the author felt that the record still needs to be set straight.
The book is good but somewhat weak from a design standpoint, which is not surprising given that its publisher is a professional association with priorities other than publishing. It's a useful reference work for business and history students and scholars.
