Earlier this January, the world of the NFL was completely rocked by the collapse of Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin on the field during a cardiac arrest that stopped the game cold in a historically unprecedented event. Damar Hamlin spent more than a week in the hospital as physicians attempted to untangle the cause and effect of the cardiac arrest in the 24-year-old safety. He was then discharged with the full confidence of his doctors to continue rehabilitation at home according to a statement released by the Bills. While the freak occurrence has sparked an outpouring of emotional and financial support for Damar Hamlin and his charitable foundation respectively, it has also sparked a larger conversation amongst players, commentators, and fans alike regarding how the NFL cares for their best and boldest when it comes to their quality of care and investment in their longevity.
In team sports such as football, where the players play under the direction or control of a coach and/or manager, they are considered employees of the parent organization—in this case the NFL. It’s difficult to think of sports franchises as having a corporate structure, but in the same way the practices, policies, and procedures of a corporation can have an effect on the employees at the bottom of the chain of command, the way the NFL chooses how to prioritize the health and well-being of their players obviously has a ripple effect throughout the franchise. When talking about corporate culture, leadership is always advised to prioritize the health and happiness of their employees over profit, and players in the NFL should be no exception.
Damar Hamlin was originally hospitalized during a game in Cincinatti against the Bengals when his heart stopped following a tackle on January 2. While no cause of Hamlin’s cardiac arrest and collapse has been publicly disclosed, the Bills’ Twitter account reported that he underwent a “comprehensive medical evaluation, as well as a series of cardiac, neurological, and vascular testing.” His recovery from this incident was accredited to the swift response of medical personnel who rushed the field after Hamlin went down—Hamlin was revived twice before even being taken off the field—actions which not only saved his life, but his long-term neurological function. The incident shook both players and fans alike as they struggled to wrap their minds around how a 24-year-old, second-year NFL player could suffer such a traumatic medical event.
The game was eventually cancelled outright by the NFL, garnering raised eyebrows and visions of a future pivot of values within the league that prioritizes players’ health and safety over the fan experience of the sport. It’s true that pro-athletes have suffered devastating injuries on the field before, but the overall reaction from the teams, the staff, fans, and the NFL have marked this event as significant in the ongoing discourse surrounding care of pro-athletes. While Hamlin may have received thoughts and prayers from fellow players and fans, it still left open the question of how Hamlin would be able to access financial support for his medical needs in the event he would not be able to play another game in the NFL. Due to being only two years into his contract, Hamlin would not have been able to access his pension. However, after an appeal to the NFL and NFLPA by the Bills organization on his behalf, in an unprecedented move, it has been announced that Damar Hamlin’s contract has been adjusted so that he can have access to the $3.64 million set out in his four-year contract with the Bills—a decision that could be a harbinger of positive changes on the horizon when it comes to the terms of future pro-athletes’ contracts.
What happened to Damar Hamlin has sparked a comprehensive conversation regarding the terms of players’ contracts and how the NFL chooses to enforce those contracts. Choosing to pay Damar Hamlin in full for a four-year contract in his second year of tenure with the Bills to mitigate the financial impact of what he survived on the football field is an undeniable prioritization of his well-being. Should the NFL continue to make similar decisions with other players who are injured during games going forward, it would be a marked improvement in the corporate culture of the organization.
It’s a bitter pill to swallow for businesses across the United States that prosecutions for workplace violence have fallen in recent years, but these kinds of incidents continue to grow in frequency—with more than ever resulting in deadly shootings.
Here at Lauth Investigations International, among the spectrum of workplace investigations services that we provide, our comprehensive violence and threat assessment has seen steady demand as business owners recognize the dangers posed to their workforces. The question is, do you need a violence and threat assessment for your business, clinic, or hospital? Here’s what you need to know.
Why Workplace Violence and Threat Readiness Should Be a Priority
Whether you are a human resources professional or an entrepreneur steering a private organization, if your enterprise calls a healthcare setting home, then the risk for your team is real. Alarmingly, some 75% of all workplace violence incidents in the United States involve healthcare professionals, and this danger places them 12 times more at risk than other workforces.
However, that doesn’t mean that other industries are immune to the perils of workplace violence. In fact, a survey in human resources oversight revealed that 48% of American organizations had experienced workplace violence at one time or another. Offering further clues to those weighing the value of preventative measures, the New York State Department of Labor provides the following examples of employment situations that may pose higher risks of workplace violence:
Duties that involve the exchange of money
Delivery of passengers, goods, or services
Duties that involve mobile workplace assignments
Working with unstable or volatile persons in health care, social service, or criminal justice settings
Working alone or in small numbers
Working late at night or during early morning hours
Working in high-crime areas
Duties that involve guarding valuable property or possessions
Working in community-based settings
Working in a location with uncontrolled public access to the workplace
Combating Workplace Violence for Your Company
While having a clear policy on workplace investigations in order to respond to violent or threatening behavior is critical, it is one of the last elements of a well-rounded workplace violence prevention and management plan. In order to avoid liability, injury, or worse, your company’s policy should span from proactive prevention through to timely response and investigation.
First must come efforts to make your organization and employees hard targets for potential perpetrators through effective security procedures, clear recruitment and conduct policies, and ongoing training and awareness. It is also vital to understand corporate culture importance—because when toxicity takes hold within a professional setting, violence is only one of the unwelcome symptoms that may ensue.
A violence and threat assessment is an excellent way to hit the ground running, providing a clear plan of how to mitigate risk and safeguard your team against harm. A deeper understanding of the current health metrics of your workplace can be gleaned with a corporate culture audit—a particularly essential aid when incidents of violence or threatening behavior have already become pervasive. Finally, thorough background screening of all incoming employees can help to prevent the welcoming of a dangerous individual into your workforce. Most businesses find expert external guidance in these areas to be essential when it comes to protecting their teams and ensuring that optimal productivity can continue. To find all of these services alongside skilled investigative support for human resource investigations, turn to the seasoned and specialist corporate team here at Lauth Investigations International. We can provide tailored solutions to help your unique organization meet its ultimate goals, so get in touch today for a no-obligation consultation.
While many companies prefer not to disclose that they have been a victim of while collar crime, this dastardly form of criminality is known to cost American businesses billions, if not trillions every year. Once in a while, a huge case hits the headlines, with scandals rocking entire industries or prompting the creation of new legislation to better protect the public.
To many, these white collar crime examples can seem unrelatable in their sheer scale and audacity—but within each newsreel-worthy story of vast-scale fraud, bribery, or insider trading lies a valuable lesson for even the most modest of business owners. In truth, no enterprise is immune to the threat of white collar crime. This makes learning valuable lessons and being proactive about prevention key to avoiding becoming another number in the worst kinds of statistics.
What Can We Learn from These White Collar Crime Examples?
You may be familiar with these white collar crime examples, but why not stop and look again? Within each dramatic tale lies a valuable lesson for any business or organization that is keen to safeguard against the perils of white collar crime and the painful losses, workplace investigations, and potential litigation that so often follow.
Bernie Madoff’s Story Shows Us the Vital Role of Reporting Channels
Perhaps the most famous white collar crime in all of history, Bernie Madoff’s dastardly actions introduced the term “Ponzi scheme” into the everyday American lexicon. Once a jack of all trades, Madoff managed to climb his way up to become the chairman of the NASDAQ before forging a multi-billion dollar investment firm on the back of entirely falsified trading reports.
Despite years of swirling rumor, the villain remain unscathed until one of his own sons reported him to the authorities. For Madoff, the result of that fateful flow of information was a 150-year jail sentence passed in 2009. The question is, how healthy are your enterprise’s reporting channels?
The Wirecard Scandal Demonstrates the Importance of Oversight
In another dark star among white collar crime examples, all appeared to be going fantastically for the 20-year-old German electronic payments company Wirecard. However, an unexpected audit revealed a $2 billion hole in their books.
Ultimately, CEO Markus Braun took the fall in 2020 for falsifying financial records, while his co-conspirator COO Jan Marsalek fled charges and is thought to be hiding out in Russia. The question is, how stringent are your organization’s financial oversight mechanisms?
The HealthSouth Accounting Case Shows Why Ethics Are Key in Corporate Culture
Despite the facade of a focus on wholesome well-being, HealthSouth had been attracting suspicion for its financial dealings since the 1980s. Unfortunately, behind closed doors founder Richard Scrushy had falsified billions of dollars worth of profits, engaged in bribery and mail fraud, and tragically defrauded Medicare and other federal healthcare programs. It makes us wonder, how strong is the ethical framework within your company’s corporate culture plan?
Marcus Schrenker’s Story Showcases the Power of Corporate Investigations
As alarming as all cases of white collar crime might be, there is comfort in knowing that effective corporate investigations can leave fraudsters quaking in their boots. In 2008, Indiana native Marcus Shrenker’s unethical practices as a money-grabbing investment advisor ultimately caught up with him.
An investigation ensued, and rather than face the consequences of his actions, Schrenker attempted to fake his own death by staging a plane crash and parachuting to safety. Happily, investigators saw right through the theatrics and put Schrenker behind bars. The moral of the story is that even the most cunning of criminals are no match for high-caliber corporate investigators!
Do You Require Assistance Keeping White Collar Crime at Bay?
Here at Lauth Investigations International, we take immense pride in helping corporations across the country safeguard the interests of their shareholders and employees while supporting their success and prosperity. This includes the provision of deft, swift, and effective white collar crime investigations. However, it also includes preventative strategies, such as corporate culture audits, candidate background checks, and more. Do you require assistance keeping white collar crime at bay? If so, get in touch today for a no-obligation consultation about how we can support you best.
Would your business benefit from the support of professional investigators to mitigate the risk of violence and threats in the workplace? The answer to that question might surprise you.
When we imagine the role of the corporate PI, we might imagine them investigating a seedy manager accused of sexual harassment or a spate of thefts in a retail setting. However, one of the most valuable places to which an investigator might turn their attention is in fact prevention. When the same expertise and diligence is focused toward preventing criminality as would be to investigate it, harm can often be prevented altogether.
When it comes to workplace violence specifically, American businesses are thought to lose an average of $250 to $330 billion every year in fall-out—and that most likely doesn’t represent the full picture, given that one in four incidents of workplace violence goes entirely unreported. So how can we assist as you strive to keep your employees safe? Read on as we cover the strategies used by corporate investigators to keep workplaces thriving.
Your Responsibility to Prevent Workplace Violence
Before delving into how a corporate investigator from Lauth Investigations International can serve your business in threat prevention, it is vital to first understand your responsibility as an employer or individual responsible for human resources oversight. For any employer, common law principles apply in this area, including a responsibility to guard against discrimination and harassment, to avoid negligence in hiring and retention, through premises safety liability, and ultimately as respondent superior whenever an incident occurs.
Statistics suggest that as many as 90% of American organizations do not comply with federal OSHA reporting and recordkeeping regulations. This becomes problematic when we consider that OHSA states that “employers may be found in violation of the General Duty Clause if they fail to reduce or eliminate serious recognized hazards. Under this Instruction, inspectors should therefore gather evidence to demonstrate whether an employer recognized, either individually or through its industry, the existence of a potential workplace violence hazard affecting his or her employees. Furthermore, investigations should focus on whether feasible means of preventing or minimizing such hazards were available to employers.”
How Specialist Corporate Investigators Can Help You Meet Obligations
In an era that sees 62% of American companies perceive an active shooter as a top threat, knowing where to begin with prevention can seem intimidating. For most organizations, seeking external guidance is the best possible strategy—ensuring effective safeguards and an added layer of defense against possible litigation. To make your enterprise a hard target for would-be perpetrators, professional and licensed investigators can:
Carry out in-depth background checks on all new employees, accessing many of the same databases used by law enforcement
Provide a deterrent presence and framework guidance for the enforcement of a zero-tolerance policy on workplace violence
Support effective an legally air-tight workplace investigations, creating a safer work environment for your team while protecting your brand’s reputation
Ultimately, as an HR professional or leader driving excellence, your primary goal is to drive the progress and prosperity of your business. This makes seeking expert support for safety in the workplace and strong corporate culture a savvy strategy—allowing you to continue focusing on what you do best. If you would like to discuss tailored solutions to suit the size, nature, and current standing of your enterprise, the corporate team at Lauth Investigations International is here to help. For a no-obligation consultation on how we can support you in effectively combating workplace violence and more, get in touch today.
Did you know that a single shady threat is behind a potential $1.7 trillion in annual losses for American businesses each year? Alarmingly, the number can only be estimated because as many as 90% of instances of this particular flavor of crime go unreported. And who or what is this sly and shadowy danger? It’s none other than white collar crime. So, would you know how to protect yourself against it, and do you have effective measures in place?
Understanding the Enemy: What Is White Collar Crime?
The term “white collar crime” was coined back in 1949 by a sociologist named Edwin Sutherland. He defined it as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in an era that typically saw white-collar workers hold office positions and blue-collar workers hold industry roles. Crucially, white collar crime is usually non-violent in nature, instead targeting financial gain, while being perpetrated by individuals, businesses, organizations, and government officials alike. Examples include but are not limited to:
Ponzi schemes
Embezzlement
Accounting fraud
Bribery
Email fraud
Identity theft
Money laundering
Data theft
Insider trading
Securities fraud
All too sadly, the Lauth team’s extensive experience in corporate workplace investigations tells us that we are living in an era of rampant white collar criminality escalation. The usual suspects of Ponzi schemes, accounting and securities fraud, money laundering, and insider trading are joined by an ever-expanding realm of internet scams, ranging from cryptocurrency scandals to fraudulent email networks.
While some of these schemes target individuals, many set the assets of businesses and enterprises in their crosshairs. Without stringent preventative measures, many companies don’t realize the scale of the risk until it’s too late—and are left trying to stay afloat while desperately trying to claw back a portion of their losses and field potential liability if customer or investor assets have been lost.
The Bottom Line on White Collar Crime Today
Because of the scale of the threat, white collar crime is taken very seriously at a federal level, with the FBI, SEC, and NASD working with state authorities to bring perpetrators to justice. Penalties for committing a white collar crime include prison, fines, and paying restitution—although many cornered white collar criminals submit to negotiated repayment programs, avoiding the involvement of law enforcement agencies altogether. As we touched upon earlier, data reveals that this is clearly a path that many organizations prefer.
However, out-maneuvering the perpetrator of white collar crime requires deft workplace investigations, and most organizations call in expert investigatory assistance in this area. Skilled and licensed corporate investigators can carry out forensic accounting, gather evidence, conduct suspect surveillance—even going undercover when necessary to paint a clear picture of the crime and provide proof that will stick. In this vein, a high caliber of documented evidence is your best protection against loss of assets and potential liability for the company itself.
Better yet, prevention is an excellent place for the savvy business owner to begin. Criminal behavior is bred in toxic working environments and when un-vetted employees are allowed to join your workforce. So, alongside rapid, discreet, and diligent investigations of white collar crime, the team here at Lauth Investigations International also assists with preventative corporate culture audits and comprehensive background checks—drawing on many of the same databases used by law enforcement agencies to keep your company’s assets safe. Do you need support in navigating the choppy waters of white collar crime? From effective prevention to covert workplace investigations, the seasoned corporate team here at Lauth Investigations International can provide just the skillset required to help you reach dry land unscathed. Reach out today to discuss your needs and receive no-obligation guidance on our diversity of investigative and preventative services.
