Fraud, money laundering, and Ponzi schemes can make for fascinating mysteries. In this episode, Brook and Sarah discuss white collar crime in fiction and in real life.
Discussed and mentioned
White Collar Crime (1949) Edwin H. Sutherland
Catch Me If You Can (1980) Frank Abagnale Jr. and Stan Redding
Catch Me If You Can (2002 film)
Owning Mahowney (2003 film)
Panama Papers – The Laundromat (2019 film)
A Death in Cryptoland (podcast about Gerald Cotten and Quadriga)
American Greed (television series – MSNBC)
Red Team Blues (2023) Cory Doctorow
Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder (2024) C.L. Miller
The Water Rat of Wanchai (2011) Ian Hamilton
The Accountant (2016 film)
The Firm (1991) John Grisham
Margin Call (2011 film)
Boiler Room (2000 film)
Erin Brockovich (2000 film)
The Missing American (2020) Kwei Quartey
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) Patricia Highsmith
Tracers in the Dark (2022) Andy Greenberg
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Transcript
This transcript is generated by a computer and there may be some mis-spellings and strange punctuation. We try to catch these before posting, but some things slip through.
| Sarah | Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I’m Sarah. |
| Brook | And I’m Brook, and we both love mystery. |
| Sarah | Hi, Brook. |
| Brook | Hi, Sarah. I am so ready to talk about another subgenre in the mystery space with you today. |
| Sarah | We’re going to be talking about white collar crime today. And when I say that, Brook, are you thinking of accountants and lawyers and expecting the stories to be pretty boring? |
| Brook | Yeah, possibly that is a thing, right? All the guys in suits and yeah, numbers could get boring. |
| Sarah | It could, but often the stories involve international travel, almost always involve large sums of money, and intrigue. We typically see fewer situations where the main character stumbles onto a body and must piece together what happened. |
| Sarah | Instead, the sleuth is often following a paper trail that leads to corruption, conspiracy, or fraud. Financially motivated crimes are not new. Many of the stories that we read from the golden age of mystery involve an inheritance, for example. |
| Sarah | But the crimes themselves usually involve death and take place in dining rooms, libraries, or outdoors, rather than in boardrooms. The term “white-collar crime” appeared in a 1949 book by the same name by sociologist Edwin H. Sutherland. |
| Sarah | In it, Sutherland presented his theory that crimes like fraud and embezzlement that are committed in the workplace by wealthier people were overlooked by police who focused investigations on poorer criminals. |
| Sarah | Modern day mysteries with financial elements tend to involve money laundering, insider trading, and pyramid schemes. And although the stories are frequently free from death, the crimes themselves can be just as impactful for the victims. |
| Sarah | Technology, especially in stories that are set in present day, ah plays a significant role. Think of cybercrime or email phishing schemes. |
| Sarah | And sometimes we end up cheering for the crook. Think of the story of Frank Abagnale and the film Catch Me If You Can. So today, Brook, we’re going to be talking about white collar crime and how we see it in mysteries. |
| Brook | Thank you, Sarah. That was great. And this is going to be a really fun discussion. I especially loved learning where this term came from. You know, that wasn’t something that I thought of researching, but ah that there’s actually clear back in 1949, book with that title. |
| Brook | And I thought that that was a great point that um sometimes police officers, law enforcement overlook these crimes um and I think some of that actually has to do with the fact that these criminals um kind of hide behind this ah veneer of professionalism and respectability. |
| Sarah | I think I think the perception for Sutherland at the time, you know, when he was doing his research was that um police hold people who are wealthier in a higher regard, and, you know, don’t want to step on their toes, or and I think there was also some police corruption as well. |
| Brook | We’re led to believe even though this is completely false, that we should trust or we could trust successful people. And so it creates this kind of shield for them. |
| Brook | And as you say, in some of those instances, the police are involved. And we’ve read stories that have that component in them. |
| Sarah | Absolutely. When thinking about this episode and the different ways we see white collar crime in mysteries. |
| Sarah | um You know, I thought about it’s a film from the early from 2003, and it’s called Owning Mahowney. And it’s about bank fraud. And it stars Philip Seymour Hoffman. |
| Sarah | And it’s a Canadian story, actually. He was, I think, with CIBC, which is one of our um major banks here in Canada. |
| Sarah | And he was, he had a gambling addiction and was creating loans and falsifying paperwork to fuel his gambling addiction. And it’s quite a sad film because you just see this dissent that um that the main character Mahoney um um spirals as his as his addiction takes over for more of his life and he makes worse and worse decisions at work. But the you know the film is about the investigation to uncover all of this fraud that’s been going on. |
| Brook | Right. Yeah. I think that that is another component of these stories is many times the white collar criminal is, I mean, they’re definitely doing something shady. They’re earning money ah fraudulently or they’re, you know, they’re working the system somehow. I mean, you mentioned the Frank Abagnale Jr. story, which is one of my favorite movies. |
| Brook | um It was working really well for a while. And then things just kind of spiral out of control. And that’s sometimes when we see this turn from ah strictly white collar crime to perhaps there’s like a murder that has to happen in order to try to keep them safe. |
| Sarah | And, and, you know, unfortunately that’s true in real life. So um one of the things that I looked into a little bit to, to prepare for today’s episode was the Panama Papers, which was, um if you’ll remember in, I think it was in 2016 when all of this data was released and it detailed large sums of money moving around to avoid tax facilitate political corruption and launder money. |
| Sarah | And it was all kind of centered with a law firm that was based in Panama. And that’s where the name Panama Papers came from. And there were real world implications for this. And actually, I didn’t know this, two journalists were murdered because of their reporting related to ah information in the Panama Papers. |
| Brook | Wow, that is so interesting, Sarah. And it reminds me of the fact that much of the true crime that ah people listen to on maybe podcasts or read in books, a lot of them start out in the white collar world, like online scams or um you know somebody committing somewhat minor frauds in their community, but then things spiral out of control. And I’ve heard it said that when a white-collar crime escalates into somebody dying then um it’s red collar crime. |
| Sarah | Well, you know, Brook, as I was thinking about this episode, I realized, because I know I’ve said before, I’m i’m not really into true crime. I’m actually into true white collar crime because I’ve, I’ve listened more, more white collar crime podcasts than I have the, you know, serial killer or missing people or, or, um, the other type of, of true crime podcasts. |
| Sarah | There was one that there was one that was done a little while ago about um Gerald Cotton, who a a single-handedly, he was running a Bitcoin exchange ah that turned out to be a Ponzi scheme, which was only realized to be the case when he died suddenly and nobody could access their money. |
| Sarah | And there was this huge investigation, um you know some suspicion that perhaps he hadn’t ah died of an illness, which was the original reporting, and and know this was an exit scam for him. But that was that that was a fascinating story, i think in around 2019. Unfortunately, I think there’s a lot more white-collar crime that happens that we see in the real world than than murder. |
| Brook | Yeah. Yeah. Well, I’ve mentioned before, I think on the show that one of my favorite ah true crime television shows is American Greed. And there again, we’re talking white collar crime. So I would agree. i think that that’s a bigger draw for me for for true crime. And it might it possibly be because of that point that you just made about there’s these real world fears that are tied up in it. |
| Brook | Like, what if I lose all my savings? What if i you know invest in some scam and get taken and my retirement is gone? What if I am trusting someone that I shouldn’t just because they seem you know slick and put together? I mean, those are things that we really worry about, especially when we’re dealing with our life savings, for instance. |
| Sarah | Very true. We are far more unlikely to stumble across a body than we are to experience a scam. I mean, we get you know email phishing emails daily, right? People offering us… millions of dollars if if they can just funnel it through our bank accounts, ah you know and then you get get to keep some of that money, that the offers from foreign princes or foreign dignitaries that we all know not to click on those links. |
| Brook | Right. Or something even far more boring. I mean, I think that was what, two weeks ago, Sarah. And when we got on to talk, I was actually excited because you know this topic was on our minds. And I said, I was just the victim of a phishing scam because ah I had a very legitimate looking email that said that one of my accounts had been hacked and I just needed to click on this link and solve the day. And it was completely false. And so I definitely could have fallen into one of these traps where it wasn’t going to ruin my whole life, but it was probably going to be a tremendous hassle. And i I probably would have lost a few hundred dollars. |
| Sarah | No, exactly. |
| Sarah | So let’s turn, Brook, to some of the fictional white collar crime that um and we may have read or or watched. I recently finished a book by Cory Doctorow and actually finished a couple of of his books. He has a main character. He’s a forensic accountant in his 60s. His name is Martin Hench. And the books are about him um investigating high-value white-collar crime. And his thing, I think, is that he he keeps 25% of what he recovers. And, you know, if he’s recovering ah a couple million dollars, that’s that’s not a bad payday for him. |
| Brook | Oh, that sounds like a great series, Sarah. I, just like you said that you enjoy probably out of any true crime, white collar, you know, stories. I find that it’s the basis for some of my favorite. um Oh my goodness. I’m having such a hard time. |
| Brook | I find that this premise is one of my favorites for mysteries too, because it’s ah so, like we said, relatable. And I just recently read Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder. |
| Brook | And this is a 2024 release by C.L. Miller. And so the premise of this is that there are actually these antique hunters who go out in the world and try to locate these antiques that have been stolen, antiquities and antiques. |
| Brook | And that used to be the main character’s job. And um a new crime draws her back into the world of antique hunting. And it was just a ah really great kind of different setup. And although you get that um murder mystery, the reason why the crime is happening is all based in, you know, a financial gameplay. |
| Sarah | Oh, that sounds so good. And I think I’m going to have to add that to my um my reading list, Brook. |
| Brook | Yeah, you won’t be disappointed. It’s really good. |
| Sarah | Another series featuring a forensic accountant is by Ian Hamilton, and his main character is Ava Lee. And she is a ah Canadian accountant. She travels around the world following the money trail. um Again, like ah the other one I mentioned, Martin Hench, you know, is dealing with large sums of money. |
| Sarah | But she’s trained in martial arts and sometimes gets a little bit physical, which is a bit different than the yeah then the other series. But equally good. I really enjoy that series as well. |
| Brook | Yeah, that sounds great. Well, speaking of more physical, the next one that I had to mention is the same. So I was thinking of the movie The Accountant. |
| Brook | It’s a 2016 movie starring Ben Affleck as this, um, mathematic savant. And he is an accountant and he tracks down this big scam that’s going on in this corporation. |
| Brook | And one thing that I think that this movie ah really highlights is a trend in these stories where the sleuth character, because we don’t really have a detective, but we have some character who stumbles upon what is really going on. |
| Brook | And they’re often put in this terrible dilemma about what to do next, because if they… Turn the bad guys in people get hurt. If they don’t turn the bad guys in people get hurt. And so they usually are in a no-win situation. It’s just a really satisfying um predicament to see characters in. |
| Sarah | Oh, I haven’t seen that, ah Brook, but I think there’s a sequel coming out maybe this year. |
| Brook | Oh, that’s great. I hadn’t heard. I’ll i will definitely check that out. |
| Sarah | Another I thought of was The Firm, which ah is the 1991… book by John Grisham. And then it was a film with Tom Cruise later in the nineties. |
| Sarah | I think we talked about that one when we talked about legal thrillers. |
| Sarah | But it involves a lot of, ah you know, money laundering and and criminal activity that, that you know We cheer for ah the main character because he comes up with a really clever way of saving the day um and and um saving himself. |
| Brook | Right. when So when he’s put in that dilemma, he comes up with this really clever solution. Yeah. The Firm is ah as a great representation of this subgenre. |
| Brook | Another one of my ah favorite movies in this category ah was Margin Call. It was 2011 film and it was fictionalized take on the 2008 financial crash. And it’s like the 24 hours that led up to the you know the stock market crash. And it these sort of like intern or lower level stock guys are all seeing, they’re working late and they’re watching what’s happening and they’re seeing what’s about to take place. And so they have these decisions to make like do they notify people because there was potential money to be made that day. So do they kind of work the system? Do they tip off their friends and family about removing stocks? It’s just a really fascinating um predicament that they’re in. And this has Kevin Spacey and Demi Moore, and it it’s a star-studded cast and really great, great movie. |
| Sarah | Well, and, you know, I think we we mentioned earlier that because there are real lots of real life examples of white collar crime, i think um ah Hollywood often draws inspiration from it. |
| Sarah | And I don’t remember if Boiler Room, that film, was based on a true story or um just inspired by various examples. But I think that’s another example of um I think they were pumping stocks for companies that didn’t exist. or cant i can’t I can’t remember. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, but um just when you were i’m talking about Margin Call, it reminded me of ah that film. |
| Sarah | I also thought about um the film Erin Brockovich. |
| Sarah | I mean, it’s corporate negligence, really, that she’s um combating. But I think you could make a pretty strong argument that that was white collar crime. |
| Brook | I agree. I think that’s a great example. And it’s a a little bit of a twist on the situation, but there were was definitely criminal negligence in not informing their, you know, their customers and in a huge loss of life and in financial resources. So, yeah, I think that’s a great example. |
| Sarah | Last year, I think it was, I read a book by Kwei Quartey, and it’s titled The Missing American. And so it’s set in Ghana. |
| Sarah | And we get the other side of that um relationship scam. So we see the um people who are perpetrating the scam who are, you know, just young men who are pretending to be beautiful women preying on widowers ah in the US, you know, pretending that they’ve um fallen in love with them and and um getting the, these older men to send them, to send them money. |
| Sarah | And it’s it’s actually a a PI, the sleuth. She starts out um working for the police and ends up being part of a detective agency. And and so that was that was an interesting um an interesting take on the on the genre. |
| Brook | Oh, that’s really fascinating to look at that from the other side. I don’t think that that is ah anything that I’ve ever seen before. So that would be worth looking into. But that um that idea of ah but kind of this relationship scam, like this was much earlier than what we see these days. But I was also reminded of The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. I mean, just a classic ah white collar crime. He’s, you know, charming. He’s but doing forgery and these financial crimes in order to ah make his way in the world. |
| Sarah | Oh, that’s such a good example, Brook. |
| Sarah | So one thing that I learned recently is that the IRS, and this is true of Canada’s Revenue Agency, has a criminal investigation unit. |
| Sarah | And they have officers who have badges, and they make the arrests of people who are involved in financial crimes. And it was actually the IRS criminal investigation team that arrested Al Capone. |
| Sarah | So I think you know most people know that he ended up in prison for for tax fraud, but it was IRS investigators, not police investigators. |
| Brook | Exactly. So I think sometimes we don’t imagine that there is that branch of the IRS that are, you know, as a SWAT team going in to maybe like nail the accountant firm or something. It’s it’s pretty unique to think about. |
| Sarah | I read a book not too long ago about cryptocurrency and kind of the crimes associated with that. And that’s where I learned about the IRSCI. um But so that book was Tracers in the Dark by Andy Greenberg, and he’s a journalist with Wired magazine. |
| Sarah | And he did a really great job of explaining kind of a very technical, um, thing, cryptocurrency in a way that was really accessible. So, you know, if if someone is interested in learning a little bit more about that, then I would, I would recommend that. And it was just fascinating. The, um, way that the investigators tackled these crimes. |
| Brook | Oh, that sounds great, Sarah. And, you know, just as you were speaking, it dawned on me how hands off most of these criminals can be. I mean, especially in this day and age, they’re completely communicating with their victims ah via the Internet. Typically, they they don’t have to see the faces or really know the people that they’re harming. And so I think it makes it like to them, it feels like a very victimless crime when, in fact, they’re really doing a lot of harm and um and causing a lot of fear as well. I know like the older generation of people in my family are our really scared of these scams, even though i don’t thankfully no one has been a victim of any. I think that that fear that that will happen um is really tangible in this day and age when we’re doing so much of our interacting online. |
| Sarah | Oh, that’s such a good point, Brook, that distance that the criminal has from their victim. I’m sure it makes it easier to justify. |
| Sarah | Well, Brook, thank you for this conversation. It’s been really interesting to discuss white collar crime, both in real life and in fiction. |
| Brook | Absolutely. It’s been great. And we’re not quite done with the topic. We have an interview with author Jakob Kerr coming up, and he has a new book out that includes some white-collar crime. So we’re looking forward to speaking with him soon. |
| Brook | But for today, thank you for joining us on Clued in Mystery. I’m Brook. |
| Sarah | And I’m Sarah, and we both love mystery. |
