Extreme Wealth – Episode 8: Walt Pavlo and the Empty Temptations of Fraud
Release Date: 11/20/2024
Oliver Bullough at the TRACE London Forum
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Speaking at the 2022 TRACE London Forum, Oliver Bullough, author of Butler to the World, discusses the UK’s role as an enabler of financial crime, efforts toward accountability, the balance between transparency and privacy, and the weaponization of lawsuits in British courts to silence journalists. This episode was originally published on 26 October 2022.
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Corruption, Sanctions and Putin's War Regime
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This is a powerful session from the 2022 TRACE London Forum featuring Leonid Volkov, former Chief of Staff to Alexei Navalny and Political Director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF). Leonid discusses the role of corruption in Putin’s Russia as well as the impact of sanctions and the toll that rampant corruption is taking on Russia. This episode was originally published on 5 October 2022.
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“Why They Do It”
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Eugene Soltes describes his fascinating research into what motivates white collar criminals and how distance from their victims makes it easier.
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Effective Compliance Training
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Karen Benson, Associate VP and Assistant Chief Compliance Officer with Royal Caribbean Cruises, shares a broad range of tips on how to build a targeted, innovative training program that keeps employs interested and engaged.
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DEI Progress and Setbacks: What Compliance Professionals Need to Know
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This week’s podcast features an excellent presentation by Misti Mukherjee, founder and managing member of Extensio Law. Misti addresses the shifting field of diversity, equity and inclusion—including recent changes to the law—and emphasizes the critical importance of this work alongside the need to approach it with intentionality and discipline. This episode was originally published on 5 August 2024.
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How Companies Get Caught
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Chuck Duross, partner with Morrison Foerster and former head of the DOJ’s FCPA unit, discusses lures, stings, wiretaps and INTERPOL Red Notices.
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The Unaoil Story
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Nick McKenzie tells the exciting story of his role in the investigation into Unaoil.
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Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World
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Author, academic and former compliance professional, Alison Taylor joins the podcast to talk about her compelling book, "Higher Ground". She describes the contradictions inherent in companies that talk about “doing well by doing good” and explains why corporate reputation management can’t be an end in itself and how trying to do less can be the best strategy. “You don’t have to join every conversation”. This episode was originally published on 14 February 2024.
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Diana Henriques on Reputation Laundering
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Diana Henriques, award-winning journalist and author, discusses the traits of fraudsters and the menace of reputation laundering. This episode was originally published on 3 August 2024.
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Promoting Facts and Countering Disinformation
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Melissa Goldin, a NY-based News Verification Reporter and Editor with The Associated Press analyzes and debunks fake news. This episode was originally published on 24 July 2024.
info_outlineWalt Pavlo went to work at MCI at a time when telecoms were hungry for go-getters. It was the early 2000s, and Walt enjoyed the freedom and aggressive nature of a recently deregulated industry. But soon he realized that MCI’s most lucrative customers were also its flakiest, and the pressure was on to manage millions of bad debt that accumulated on the books. In this episode, Walt explains how he concocted a fake-loan scheme that netted him money far beyond his dreams — and yet how hollow it felt, right up until the moment it all came crashing down.
Walt Pavlo is a nationally recognized speaker who writes for Forbes and NYU Law School on white-collar crime and criminal justice. He founded the firm Prisonology in 2014 as a consulting firm to support federal criminal defense attorneys by providing experts who have retired from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He is the co-author of “Stolen Without a Gun: Confessions from Inside History's Biggest Accounting Fraud, the Collapse of MCI WorldCom,” which covers his stint working in the company’s billing department and committing fraud.