The Nature and Scope of Fraud and Fakery in International Business Term Paper

The Nature and Scope of Fraud and Fakery in International Business - Term Paper Example Before understanding the nature and scope of fraud and activities related to it, it is important to understand what is meant by the term â€Å"Fraud†. In its simplest meanings, fraud can be considered an act of deceiving another with the intention of gaining something as a result. Fraud is illegal because it involves misrepresentation, deception, and trickery. It is pertinent to distinguish fraud from errors considered as unintentional (Singleton & Singleton, 2010; Davia, Coggins, Wideman, & Kastantin, 1992; Albrecht, Albrecht, Albrecht, & Zimelman, 2009). As for instance, incorrectly entering the wrong amount in an invoice and receiving or giving incorrect amount by mistake does not account for fraud. In fact, it is the thought of deception which distinguishes a mistake from a fraud. The Oxford Dictionary defines fraud as: On the other hand, the government of UK on its official website has provided a broad definition of fraud in relation to international trade. The definition provided by the government of UK is as follows: Apart from these definitions, another version of the definition for fraud is provided in the Webster Dictionary, which seems to be more explanatory, simple and convincing. The definition is as follows: â€Å"In law, the deliberate misrepresentation of fact for the purpose  of depriving someone of a valuable possession or legal right. Any omission or concealment that is injurious to another or that allows a person to take unconscionable advantage of another may constitute criminal fraud. The most common type of fraud is the obtaining of property by giving a check for which there are insufficient funds in the signer's account. Another is the assumption of someone else's or a fictitious identity with the intent to deceive. Also important are mail and wire fraud (fraud committed by use of the postal service or electronic devices, such as telephones or computers).†Ã‚  

American Civil War Essay Example for Free

American Civil War Essay From the start of the Civil War until the end of the Reconstruction period, America faced what can be considered a revolution. During this time, many social and constitutional developments emerged and brought great change to the country. Social developments that contributed to the revolution were the Freedmen’s Bureau, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Black Codes. Constitutional events that sparked dispute were the three civil rights bills, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the reconstruction. Between 1860 and 1877, both constitutional and social developments merged to created drastic changes that threatened the balance of life in the United States, causing revolt throughout many Americans and bringing about reform to the nation. Before 1860, the United States was split into two sides fighting for power: the North and South. Slave states and free states were constantly competing for representation in Congress. In order to reduce conflict, the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 were passed. Tensions lowered to a degree, but the compromises only delayed the inevitable discord. State’s rights was a critical topic during this time period. The south believed that they had the constitutional right to secede. After Lincoln was inaugurated in 1860, seven states seceded from the Union. Four more states followed after that. South Carolina, in particular, felt their rights had been stripped off of them, and challenged the Constitution of the United States. Document A) South Carolina feared the north would gain enough power that they would abolish slavery in the south, crippling their slave-based economy. This sequence of events induced the bloody Civil War, later leading to the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation, which meant the freeing of slaves that were still under possession in 1863. Eventually, the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery, was passed. The end of the Civil War meant the end of bloodshed but the start of reconstruction of the nation. Although slaves were finally freed, it was still rough life for the freedmen. Some blacks felt betrayed by their own government. They were baffled at the fact that they fought for their nation but could not vote for their representatives. In the petition to the Union convention of Tennessee, it is stated that blacks were treated unfairly in court, as the courts would not even receive â€Å"negro testimony. † (Document C) Gideon Welles, Lincoln’s Secretary of the Navy wrote in a diary that the Federal Government has no control of whether or not blacks can vote; he felt it was up to the states to decide. Document D) In attempts to unite the nation, several acts were put into effect. The Freedmen’s Bureau, for example, was set up to help blacks read and write in order to counteract their disadvantages in education. It also provided food shelter, welfare, and medical attention to those affected by the war. Unfortunately, some acts were not in favor of the blacks, such as the Black Codes. The Black Codes prohibited blacks from renting land or e ven borrowing money to buy land. It also forced them to sign working contracts, synonymous to slavery. President Johnson felt that the Black Codes were necessary because he did not want America becoming â€Å"Africanized. † In a petition to the commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau, some African Americans felt their promised rights were being neglected. (Document E) On the other hand, political actions were taking place in the struggle for equal rights for all Americans. Republicans were taking control of government and were also ignoring the orders of President Johnson. Radical Republicans were struggling for equal rights throughout nation. In 1866, the Civil Rights Act was created. This act stated that African Americans were United States citizens, shielding them from the Black Codes, and essentially overriding the Dred Scott decision. Shortly after came the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The changing of the Constitution to include the 14th amendment was considered revolutionary. (Document F) President Johnson was impeached in 1868 due to 11 crimes and misdemeanors. He was the first president in history to get impeached. After his impeachment, blacks now started to receive more equal treatment. Blacks were finally able to vote in the 1868 election, which ended up giving the Republicans a victory. (Document G) The 15th amendment was also added to the Constitution, prohibiting any state from denying a citizen the right to vote. Although revolution was going positively throughout, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan was a negative addition. Their goal was to terrorize and scare blacks by force. (Document I) In 1870, Congress decided to ban these secret organizations and enforce the 14th and 15th amendments through the Force Acts. Document H) All in all, between 1860 and 1877, both constitutional and social developments caused great reform in America. Revolutionary ideas such as the freedom of slaves, anti-secession, and rebellion played a key factor throughout these years. The once estranged country was back on track as a unified whole. African Americans, as a result of constant struggle, gained their rights and freedom. It is safe to say that the United States faced a period of reconstruction, which amounted to the shaping of the country.

Comparing Flauberts A Sentimental Education and Henry James’ The Portr

Comparing Flaubert's A Sentimental Education and Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady Henry James wrote of A Sentimental Education, "[Flaubert] takes Frà ©dà ©ric Moreau on the threshold of life and conducts him to the extreme of maturity without apparently suspecting for a moment either our wonder or our protest--'Why, why him?' Frà ©dà ©ric is positively too poor for his charge; and we feel with a kind of embarrassment, certainly with a kind of compassion, that it is somehow the business of a protagonist to prevent in his designer an excessive waste of faith." . He spoke harshly, but with no little authority on the subject; his own The Portrait of a Lady takes Isabel Archer from this Å’threshold' to, if not quite the Å’extreme of maturity', then to a point which serves the same novelistic purpose. As, at the end of Sentimental Education, the reader understands that Frà ©dà ©ric's novelistic life, his potential to drive a narrative, (his limited potential, as James might see it), is over, so the reader is given to understand the same of Isabel at the end of Portrait. In considering James' evaluation of Frà ©dà ©ric's worthiness as a protagonist, one cannot deny that the basis of his criticism is valid; Frà ©dà ©ric is the "abject human specimen" James says he is, and there are times in the novel when we do want to ask, "Why him?". But we must also ask whether Flaubert was not fully conscious of his hero's pathetic nature, and whether the placement of such a character at the center of his novel was not an utterly intentional, and perhaps ultimately brilliant, stroke of authorship. This question, and the comparison of two bildungsromans with two such contrasting heroes, leads to the interesting and more fundamental question of the function of a r... ... his life trying to obtain a future to align with the loftiest of his dreams; now that he is no longer at the Å’threshold' looking forward, he has no where to cast his dreaming, idealizing eyes but back, and not just into his past, but even beyond the narrative bounds of the novel. Thus excluded from the last scene, we are in a sense abandoned to Frà ©dà ©ric's fate, looking back with longing to a time that never existed. There is a way in which Sentimental Education, so utterly devoid of transcendence or redemptive spirit, chillingly effects the reader in a much deeper way, resonates in a much darker place than The Portrait of a Lady. Finally, we see that Isabel has learned what the novel had to teach her; Frà ©dà ©ric has not, and the brutal Å’sentimental education' is ours. Works Cited James, Henry. A Portrait of a Lady. 1908. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1963.

The Prince :: essays research papers

"An Outline and Arguments on The Prince by Machiavelli" Niccolo Machiavelli was a very knowledgeable man. He was born in Florence in 1469 and when he was of the age 43 he wrote The Prince. His first admission into politics happened in1498 with the title as Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Signoria. He held this job through the year 1512 right before the Medici took over Florence. He was very faithful to his elders and to the policies of the government. In 1502 he became assistant to Soderini who was elected chief magistrate of the Republic. One of his finest accomplishments came in the year 1509 when he made Pisa acquiesce after a 15 year struggle. He was mostly credited because he directed the land and sea blockade that brought about Pisa’s submission. Three years later the Spaniards attacked Prato. They broke the walls, attacked the defenders, and totally destroyed the town. A couple days later Soderini resigned and went into exile. The Medici took control of Florence and six weeks later dismissed and banished Machiav elli for one year. Early in 1513 he was suspected of plotting to overthrow the Medici government. He was first arrested, then tortured, and then released after his innocence was satisfactorily proven. He then went to a small farm near San Casciano where he was restless and bored. There he wrote the book called The Prince. There are a lot of ideas and teachings mentioned in the book. It as a whole discusses what a principality is, what kinds there are, how they are won, how they are maintained and why they are lost. He first states that there are either republics or principalities (inherited or new). Principalities that are inherited are more easily to keep because the citizens already know and are familiar with the family in power. So the new prince should not keep away from the methods of his predecessors. This theory holds value because if the people are already familiar with the law and are acquainted with family then the heir to the throne will be loved and taken in as a brother. If a new state is conquered then it will be hard to keep because of all the injuries that took place while occupying the new principality. Therefore, he will probably lose it. But, after one has conquered a territory a second time it will be easily lost because the ruler can use the rebellion as an excuse. The Prince :: essays research papers "An Outline and Arguments on The Prince by Machiavelli" Niccolo Machiavelli was a very knowledgeable man. He was born in Florence in 1469 and when he was of the age 43 he wrote The Prince. His first admission into politics happened in1498 with the title as Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Signoria. He held this job through the year 1512 right before the Medici took over Florence. He was very faithful to his elders and to the policies of the government. In 1502 he became assistant to Soderini who was elected chief magistrate of the Republic. One of his finest accomplishments came in the year 1509 when he made Pisa acquiesce after a 15 year struggle. He was mostly credited because he directed the land and sea blockade that brought about Pisa’s submission. Three years later the Spaniards attacked Prato. They broke the walls, attacked the defenders, and totally destroyed the town. A couple days later Soderini resigned and went into exile. The Medici took control of Florence and six weeks later dismissed and banished Machiav elli for one year. Early in 1513 he was suspected of plotting to overthrow the Medici government. He was first arrested, then tortured, and then released after his innocence was satisfactorily proven. He then went to a small farm near San Casciano where he was restless and bored. There he wrote the book called The Prince. There are a lot of ideas and teachings mentioned in the book. It as a whole discusses what a principality is, what kinds there are, how they are won, how they are maintained and why they are lost. He first states that there are either republics or principalities (inherited or new). Principalities that are inherited are more easily to keep because the citizens already know and are familiar with the family in power. So the new prince should not keep away from the methods of his predecessors. This theory holds value because if the people are already familiar with the law and are acquainted with family then the heir to the throne will be loved and taken in as a brother. If a new state is conquered then it will be hard to keep because of all the injuries that took place while occupying the new principality. Therefore, he will probably lose it. But, after one has conquered a territory a second time it will be easily lost because the ruler can use the rebellion as an excuse.

Legalize Casino

Chatchawan Jarusvasunt 5204640154 What is the effect of disorder gambling? Gambling create no output, it just the transfer of money in society. Gambling consume time and existing resource in the economy also. Gambling did not provide any resource like other media and other entertainment activities but it have it own value too. Is it true that gambling with legal status is better for the society whether the cost of gambling overcome the benefit it creates? This question is very subjective. * Are there costs involved that exceed the obvious economic development benefits? Who actually gains and who loses? * If Las Vegas is a model of economic development through gaming, are there any other costs that need to be looked at? Las Vegas tends to have a wide variety of social ills associated with it. There is some controversy of the true level of these given the high tourist population. No studies have examined whether those are associated with gambling, the transient population, the growing population, or the low level of social services provided by the state. How widespread are the economic benefits? Some research as Professor Robert Goodman, in his study entitled, â€Å"Legalized Gambling as a Strategy for Economic Development†, describes the effect of gambling on local business. He indicates that a study in South Dakota a year after legalizing video gambling in the state did† Show significant declines for selected activities such as clothing stores, recreation services, business services, auto dealers and service stations. The tourists from abroad may spend more resource and time in the region, or local people that used to spend resource in other region change the behavior to gambling in the region. This case is the beneficial effect of gambling for region. The local people may increase spending on casino in substitution of other business, or tourists change from consuming others to gambling. This case gambling provide no additional benefit.Casino may b uy more products from out of state than the business they replace, or increase social cost, or locally owned business go bankrupt by out-of-state owned casino. This case made the region suffer. The effects of casino depend on the above criteria. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. William R. Eadington, â€Å"Economic Development and the Introduction of Casinos: Myths and Realities,†Ã‚  Economic Development Review, Forthcoming, p. 3.

The Virgins Passion essays

The Virgin's Passion essays The Gothic Diptych at the Minneapolis Museum of Art, which is attributed to the Master of the Passion Diptych, seems at first glance to be a fine example of the mixed mannerism and classicism typical of a time in transition between Gothic and Renaissance styles. The small ivory panels, which are dated at approximately 1375, have a deeply traditional subject matter. They portray a series of scenes from the life of Christ, beginning with the Annunciation and proceeding through his birth, adoration by the Magi, betrayal, death, ascension, and the final gift of his spirit to the people at Pentecost. These subjects are executed skillfully in the tiny medium (the entire work in less than 9 inches tall), with careful attention paid to the expression and placement of the figures. Stylistically, this piece seems both common to its time and yet also enlightening as to its historical moment. There is a certain classical stylization to the flow of the drapery and clothing about the figures which has evolved from the more formless shapes of the earlier middle ages, and hints at an evolving classicism and awareness of form that heralds the oncoming Renaissance. The characters are in constant contorting motion, and the drapery about them is used to accentuate the angles at which they are caught, and an articulated body is visible below. "In the Gothic figure no such differentiation exists" (Iskold), until the Gothic begins to blend Sucha blend is not entirely uncommon in the later Gothic era, of course, and one sees other characteristics of the Gothic more obviously present. The extreme mannerism of certain artists at this time is more gently portrayed here, but still visible in the bodies that contort off to one side, and the sometimes exaggerated facial expressions. The male background figures especially tend towards a slightly regressive mannerism, with grins that border on gri...

Example of Normal Approximation of a Binomial Distribution

Example of Normal Approximation of a Binomial Distribution The binomial distribution involves a discrete random variable. Probabilities in a binomial setting can be calculated in a straightforward way by using the formula for a binomial coefficient. While in theory, this is an easy calculation, in practice it can become quite tedious or even computationally impossible to calculate binomial probabilities. These issues can be sidestepped by instead using a normal distribution to approximate a binomial distribution.  We will see how to do this by going through the steps of a calculation. Steps to Using the Normal Approximation First, we must determine if it is appropriate to use the normal approximation. Not every binomial distribution is the same. Some exhibit enough skewness that we cannot use a normal approximation. To check to see if the normal approximation should be used, we need to look at the value of p, which is the probability of success, and n, which is the number of observations of our binomial variable. In order to use the normal approximation, we consider both np and n( 1 - p ). If both of these numbers are greater than or equal to 10, then we are justified in using the normal approximation. This is a general rule of thumb, and typically the larger the values of np and n( 1 - p ), the better is the approximation. Comparison Between Binomial and Normal We will compare an exact binomial probability with that obtained by a normal approximation. We consider the tossing of 20 coins and want to know the probability that five coins or less were heads. If X is the number of heads, then we want to find the value: P(X 0) P(X 1) P(X 2) P(X 3) P(X 4) P(X 5). The use of the binomial formula for each of these six probabilities shows us that the probability is 2.0695%. We will now see how close our normal approximation will be to this value. Checking the conditions, we see that both np and np(1 - p) are equal to 10. This shows that we can use the normal approximation in this case. We will utilize a normal distribution with mean of np 20(0.5) 10 and a standard deviation of (20(0.5)(0.5))0.5 2.236. To determine the probability that X is less than or equal to 5 we need to find the z-score for 5 in the normal distribution that we are using. Thus z (5 – 10)/2.236 -2.236. By consulting a table of z-scores we see that the probability that z is less than or equal to -2.236 is 1.267%. This differs from the actual probability but is within 0.8%. Continuity Correction Factor To improve our estimate, it is appropriate to introduce a continuity correction factor. This is used because a normal distribution is continuous whereas the binomial distribution is discrete. For a binomial random variable, a probability histogram for X 5 will include a bar that goes from 4.5 to 5.5 and is centered at 5. This means that for the above example, the probability that X is less than or equal to 5 for a binomial variable should be estimated by the probability that X is less than or equal to 5.5 for a continuous normal variable. Thus z (5.5 – 10)/2.236 -2.013. The probability that z