Unwanted Evidence of a Corporate Icon

By Ben Strope

The book is mostly about one individual who worked for a large company and found himself on the wrong side of the companys management when corruption was discovered and exposed. This took place even though he had worked for and through the companys internal security forces, contracted corporate investigator firms, and the FBI. The book covers all levels and types of industrial crime, but concentrates more on executive crime. This is because it affects society the most, and it falls under the category of near-perfect crimes. This is because few are ever arrested, convicted, or do prison time even though they steal billions from all areas of society. The Wall Street crash was a prime example, and to add insult to injury, most got their bonuses on top of what they stole. This book continually tries to show its readers by example after example how easy it is for executives to steal billions and never even get questioned, forget about being arrested. Our criminal system is just not equipped or concerned about this type of crime. The ultimate concept being, crime in the executive world really pays big.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496952004

Ben Strope

The author of this book is telling all who read it that we as a society must make ourselves aware of what is going on, because sooner or later, it will affect us. It may be our job, community, state, country, or our security. Evil and greed are alive and well. If they are not checked, they will get out of control. The author tells the story of individuals’ firsthand experiences with the trials and challenges of trying to do what is right in a corrupt company. The author writes the book as fiction, but it’s based on stories from real life. He shows what can happen if good people do not come forward and expose wrongs. One’s own imagination can put themselves in such companies as this one or the ones involved in the Wall Street crash that took place. The author also points out that when executive crimes are committed and billions of dollars are stolen, even the FBI’s hands can be tied legally or by political influences. Thus, a writer has to be aware that our present system is in the crooks’ favor when executive crimes are involved.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

CORPORATE DIRECTIVE

I sat at my desk one afternoon going through the department mail, which was circulated daily from office to office on a buck slip for each individual’s review. As we went through the internal items, we just initialed off the slips and passed them on to the next person. The mail usually just contained company data and other items of general information.

A new corporate directive caught my attention. It was addressed to all plant site managers in the US and all senior managers at all the plant sites, plus the development laboratory sites. Basically, anybody who was anybody got copied on the directive: division presidents, vice presidents, directors, etc. The copy list was two pages long.

As I read, it became very interesting. The new corporate procedure was, in effect, putting one person in charge of all surplus corporate inventories. This individual now had overall say or control of around $2 to $10 billion in surplus products and components per year.Even more interesting was the absence of the normal checks and balances used in corporate procedures of this type. This was a license to steal if I ever saw one.

What was even more unbelievable was the executive who got assigned the responsibility. His track record was already one of shady deals with several outside, non-company vendors. Even at the time, it was known that he had set one of his old girl friends up in business to buy products from the company at discounted prices. This later came out, but it didn’t seem to matter. I had been invited to sit in on a surplus PC sale in which the ex-girlfriend’s husband was involved as the buyer for her company. I had in fact spent the day with the buyers, and had lunch with them and with my friend who was handling the sale.

This whole situation didn’t look right. This same individual had a hard time accounting for millions in losses before, and now he was getting this job. The computer industry unlike, say, the auto industry, which sells its excess built cars off at slightly reduced prices often will take so much on the dollar just to get rid of the excess components and products, especially if the technology is older. I had been associated with surplus inventory for years, and had seen firsthand the changes taking place over the last few years. The company was selling more and more inventory at way below market price. I continually called and wrote memos to senior company managers asking them if they were aware of what was going on. I got very little feedback, and was becoming a pain for them.

My own investigations were revealing severe waste and mismanagement. At one time, my office was full of new components that were being disposed of, which the company was buying back at the same time. Even more interesting to me was the fact that only certain companies could bid on the surplus inventory. I knew this because several outside companies would call me trying to bid on the inventory, only to get rejected by the group handling the sales.

The more I thought about the directive, the more intriguing it was. I picked it up and headed down the hall to my friend Charlie’s office. Charlie, you haven’t seen this yet. Take a look at it, and give me your thoughts."

As Charlie read through the letter, he shook his head and said, Unreal. This guy will rip the company off for millions of dollars."

Charlie and I had been friends for years: had been in the same function for years, had worked on projects together, and had traveled to most of the company’s sites on job assignments. Our function’s responsibility was returned products and component reuse or disposal for the manufacturing site. This is why this corporate directive was being circulated to our group by our management.

Charlie and I had over thirty years in the company, so we were pretty familiar with company procedures. Both of us had been in management, and had worked at several locations in the US Charlie had come out of the military, and started out in the company testing large systems. He had been around a bit, and I valued his opinion and advice as well as his friendship.

As Charlie finished the directive, he said to me, This is the guy who set up his girl in business, isn’t it?

I said, It sure is. Their company management is the one that Jaco and I had lunch with when he took me along on the personal systems sales tour. Actually, it was his girlfriend’s husband and some other guy. The husband seemed like an okay guy. Sort of quiet.

"That was also the day that all our power went off in the area. Jaco was driving the four of us around and running through all of these intersections like he owned the highway. Maybe that was why he was so quiet. Jaco has no patience, and I thought for sure he was going to crash into somebody. He expected everyone to yield for him every time. There company was named after the two girl friends cousins Jenny / Alley.

I had been pretty sure it was the girlfriend’s company, but when I saw the delivery bill of lading, I knew for sure it was. I had not talked to the two individuals about their company that day, and Jaco hadn’t, either.

Jaco and I had become good friends. Jaco was forever doing things not-by-the-book, and was always in some kind of scrape. Management both loved and hated him: loved him because he got things done when no one else could, and hated him when they had to cover for his recklessness. Jaco was forever coming to me for favors, but he was also willing to help people when he could. This was how I got invited on the sale. I mentioned it to Jaco, and Jaco said, Sure. When the buyers come in, you can take the day and spend it with us.

I had become interested in the sales because when I reviewed the sales data from past sales, I could see that the products being sold were way under their new actual manufacturing cost, and they were all brand new. I had brought this to my management’s attention several times to no avail. They just didn’t want to get involved, and wanted me to leave it alone for everybody’s sake. I had already caused concern within Management because of all the letters I was sending to senior corporate managers about the sales to companies of products way under market value. They were responding, but always had poor answers: ‘Thanks for the help, but we will take care of it.’

What had really gotten me so gung-ho on the waste situation was that I was also their functions capital planning guy. I would put in funding requests for computer products that the company made, and get turned down by the site controller, who would say that the funds were not available. This would really raise my blood pressure: when I knew my function, and several other functions and sites in need of products, were being refused, while at the same time the company was selling the needed products way below cost to these special buyers.

I had really gotten involved a few years earlier, when my site took over the responsibility for all returned corporate products. Many of these products were high-end computer systems worth millions per system. My function did the updates and remanufacturing for them, and a group of marketing people in Denver did the sales.

At first the sales data was available to internal personnel, so many folks including me began to follow the selling costs and buyers. It wasn’t long before it became interesting because of the buyers and selling prices: the selling prices being way below market value, and the buyers being a strange lot.

One buyer was the talk of the function personnel for a while.

After some time, the folks handling the inventory got to know the buyer somewhat because he called about every day checking on what was available and when we thought his products would ship. He never came to look at the inventory. Finally, one day, he revealed to one of our guys that he was on a boat off the coast of South Carolina. The phone reception wasn’t always that good, and our guy said, "Why don’t you just drive up and see us? It’s only about four hours.

Manny said, I can’t come ashore.

Our guy said, Why not?

Manny told him that he had been deported, and that federal agents might grab him once he was inside the three-mile limit.

Our guy said, You’re putting me on.

Manny said, No, really, it’s true.

Our folks had already begun to wonder about Manny, because he would sometimes give another name when he called, and they used to say to each other, So-and-so called, but he sounds just like Manny. Sure enough, Manny had three names that he used. His accent gave him away once a person had talked to all three names.

Well, it wasn’t long before I and several others knew about Manny and other strange companies buying products. Several others and I began to question Management about who we were doing business with. The questions being asked put Management on the defensive, and they began an immediate information-blocking effort. Soon all buyer contact was only with the Denver personnel, and the selling prices were removed from the inventory printouts. Our management’s position was that it was none of our concern who the marketing group was selling to, and that we should just stay out of it, period.

By this time I had already obtained a monthly computer product remarketing catalog, and was getting updates quarterly. I put together a letter for a corporate vice president showing him what the company was selling products for and what the remarketing magazine was saying they were worth asking the vice president if he was aware of the situation, and what his thoughts on it were. The company was selling product systems worth over $1 million for 2 to 3 hundred thousand each.

This got Management’s attention, and I did get follow-up phone calls saying they were working on it. Months later, the site general manager saw me at a meeting and thanked me for my input and interest. I was never sure quite who to believe. My management wanted no part of anything that was being critical of any person or group, regardless of how screwed up the situation might be.

I had another situation happen that gave me concern about Management not long after the mailed letter to the vice president. I had been over at the warehouse shipping docks, and as I was walking through the area, a truck driver approached me and asked me who he could see about getting his truck loaded as soon as possible. He confided in me that he had to get this load of computers to the dock in Miami, Florida by ten o’clock the next morning to catch a ship bound for Latin America. It was very important to the people involved.

I asked in passing, Where in Latin America do you think it’s bound for?

To my surprise, the driver said, I believe it’s Cuba so I have heard. This really got my attention.

The trucker got loaded with the high-tech computer equipment and was on his way. By now I was thinking, We are doing business with organized crime that’s why everyone is so closemouthed about these sales. I had seen literally millions and millions of dollars in inventory being sold for near nothing, and wasn’t patient with Management’s frail answers, but this new situation was against our US trade restrictions.

I thought about going back to the FBI again, but dropped the thought because of my last experience with them. I had contacted there office a few months earlier on the subject of white-collar crime. I made the call and asked to speak to an agent. The agent picked up the phone, and I identified myself by name, address, where I worked, and the reason I was calling. The agent only answered by saying hello and How can I help you?

After I had talked to the agent for a few minutes, I asked, To whom am I speaking? as I wanted to write the person’s name down.

The individual ignored my question. The agent was a woman.

I proceeded to explain that I was sure I had uncovered a major case of white-collar crime, and was requesting some help on how it should be handled or who I should be talking to. Again I asked, Whom am I talking to?

This time the agent said, I cannot tell you.

I said, I don’t understand. This is an FBI office, is it not? And you are an agent, correct?

The agent said, Yes, it’s the FBI, and I am an agent.

I said, What’s the deal about no name?

Answer: I just can’t tell you.

I was now fast losing confidence in this famous FBI that I had heard so much about all my life. I said, I have given you my name, address, and even my phone number, and I can’t even get a first name. Please give me another person or agent to talk to. The agent said, I can’t do that.

By now I had had it with this individual, and said, I’ll tell you what, lady: I’ll find someone in the FBI who has a name, if I have to call Washington, D.C.! and slammed the phone down.

I then picked up the phone again and called my US senator’s office, and asked for an FBI number in Washington, D.C. The senator’s secretary came back shortly with a number. After a few redirects in Washington, an individual picked up the phone in the white-collar crime division and gave his full name and area.

I first thanked the agent for answering my call, and then told him what I was looking for and what had happened with the last agent. I said, What’s the deal with the ‘no name’ situation?

John, the agent, said, That’s just a dumb, dumb procedure that some nut up here put out because one of our agents got harassing phone calls. It was withdrawn right after it went out, and they apparently haven’t gotten word.

I then covered the situation with John, and John said, I hate to tell you this, but you should go back through the local office. I thanked John for his time and direction.

My first encounter with the FBI wasn’t all that impressive so, I forgot them for a while. However, I thought the possible selling of restricted computers to Communist Bloc countries such as Cuba should be reported to someone. I ran the situation by my immediate management, and again they didn’t want to get involved, and cautioned me to just leave it alone. At this time in the company, no management wanted to make any waves.

I decided that the least I could do was to notify Corporate Security of the situation. I then drafted a letter and sent it to their head person. Shortly thereafter, I got a letter back from Corporate Security saying that the company really didn’t have any control over their products once they were sold. I didn’t think the US Government would take this position but, thought Corporate Security should know what they were doing. Years later, I knew I should have notified the State Department or justice on the matter, because the company was in fact doing business with organized criminal elements.

My encounters with strange inventory situations seemed never-ending. Shortly after the FBI situation, I was trying to obtain personal systems for my function’s requirements, and I was getting the ‘not available’ answer from my internal supplier which, stated that the company just didn’t have them available to go internal for company use plus, he had eleven other sites requesting the same type of equipment. I told the supplier, That’s not the case at all. I know there are at least ten thousand sitting in one warehouse because I was over there last week. I had gotten a request to see if we could help move them somewhere. The storage was costing $5,000 a month. Actually, there were fifteen thousand being stored at this site at the time.

The supplier said, I have to go by what accounting tells me.

I said, I’ll tell you what: you email the addresses of the other site equipment requesters, and I’ll send them a memo on what’s really available.

He said, Okay, but I know nothing about this, okay?

I then emailed a memo to the other requesters stating the possible equipment was in storage, which nobody would admit existed. The following day, I started getting calls about my memo. Some didn’t believe me, while others did. Accounting can’t be wrong. One individual said, I’ll be there Monday morning to look at the inventory. Where can I meet you without it being known?

I said, No problem. Call me back and let me know what motel you are going to stay at Sunday night, and I’ll meet you about eight o’clock at the motel in the morning. I’ll be driving a black Ford van.

Sure enough, when I went to the motel Monday morning, there were two guys waiting for me. We took off for the warehouse. I signed them in, and said to the warehouse personnel, We are going to look at some inventory.

The two just couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was what they had needed for some time, and was getting stonewalled. They left there happy with me, but mad as hell at the site inventory people.

I thought the second guy was some level of higher management, because the inventory became available shortly thereafter. I was not sure what someone had planned to do with it, but it was a lot of bucks.

I said to Charlie as he was reading the directive, "Can you believe that? We, and a lot of other people, have told Management time and again about Sid’s operations.

They must have their heads in the sand, or just be playing dumb, was his remark.

I said, "For sure Sid isn’t going to share any of this windfall with any of our management. Wallace and Sid hated each other even though they are both Italians.

Wallace was Charlie’s and my second-level boss, who liked to manage like some mob boss. He loved to belittle people and ream them out whenever he could over the smallest of things. Wallace had his pet boys, like bodyguards, who brown-nosed him, but Charlie and I were always on his shit list. My boss had told me more than once, That Wallace wants to fire you, so be careful around him.

Wallace couldn’t stand a different opinion, and you could never, never make him look bad, even if it was in fun. He would never forgive you for it. He lost one of his very best staff personnel over a situation that was all in fun at the time. Wallace had done something dumb, which he was capable of from time to time, and his staff guy picked on him about it in a meeting. From then on, Wallace made the guy’s life miserable, and he finally quit the company.

Charlie, I said, speaking of Italians, let’s look up Sid’s department on the system and see how many he has working for him. I know of at least two.

The company had this great system where anyone could go on the tube and look at all personnel all over the world by individual, department, group, division, and so on - -from the lowest personnel to the company CEO. It covered one’s company address, phone number, and other company data way ahead of its time in the corporate world.

Charlie brought up Sid’s department and, lo and behold, nine out of the eleven personnel had Italian last names. Charlie and I just looked at each other and laughed. We had often joked about Sid’s guys sounding like the ‘wise guy’ TV show persona. Most seemed like good guys, but some could be SOBs when they wanted to be. All had that Italian personality.

This situation was unusual, to say the least. Their site was in Vermont, where the Italian population is somewhat higher, but it still looked questionable knowing Sid’s history.

Charlie said to me, Sid has got to have some high-level sponsors. He just couldn’t do what he does without at least a vice president’s support, and probably more than one.

I said to Charlie, He could easily make millions here.

Many months later, I learned who one of Sid’s sponsors was, and how it came about, when I went to work for another company that had personnel who had worked with Sid years ago.

I was always suspicious of the vice president who had set Sid up in this new job. I had made a copy of the corporate directive, and later gave copies to both the company’s investigators and the FBI, which got involved later. Sid’s sponsorship had come from his association with a former plant manager, who had moved on to a corporate VP job.

It was also believed that this was the time when he set his girlfriend up in business for the first time. Sid and his associates had worked out a deal with a vendor that was supposed to save the company money, but it really cost the company a few million. The girlfriend was at one time on the plant manager’s staff. Then she left and went with some vendor. They were probably all in on the deal.

After the job ran out, Sid then set her up in business buying products from the company’s inventories that his group controlled.

Sid was nobody’s fool. He dressed sharp and played his parts well. Sid had worked in the field support area and headquarters for years. Some didn’t care for him,