May 1995 Topics
Dolphin Mind Scam, Bilbrey Treatment,
Conundrum, Perjury, Tissue Checks,
Creative Punishment, and Puff-Adder
 

Some people consider an accountant as
dangerous as an African snake.
 

Fraud In Other Words
Professional Jargon and Uncensored Street Slang
by Larry C. Adams, CFE, CPA, CIA, CISA

 

Dolphin Mind Scam
A medical technology quackery scheme in Colorado and Arizona in 1994 that claimed to mimic the healing powers of dolphins. The “Dolphin Mind Computer” was a small, battery-driven box that emitted weak electrical impulses through a band worn on the user’s head. The device sold for $700. A psychotherapist referred patients to the salesmen. It was not a real computer, but a collection of cheap electrical parts available at a common electronics store. The promotional material claimed that the Dolphin Mind Computer helps to change unhealthy brain wave frequencies into healthy frequencies, allowing the user to become well. It claimed a 97% success rate in curing chronic fatigue syndrome. Its magical healing powers also would soothe serious and debilitating illnesses, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, insomnia, autism, depression, allergies, sleep disorders, back injuries, and arthritis. The device claimed to emit the same frequencies that dolphins use to heal people with health problems. However, the device emitted inexact frequencies, and the frequencies fluctuated as the battery ran down. The Dolphin Mind Computer claimed to erase “genetic tapes” of illness in the brain before physical symptoms could develop. Actually, it had no effect on most of the purchasers of the device. The salesmen refused to make refunds. Medical science has been unable to prove that dolphins and unicorns have real healing powers.

 

Bilbrey Treatment
A magic elixir sold by Michael Kent Bilbrey in 1995. He promoted the potion as an effective remedy for cancer. Aging attorneys and bankers with cancer spent $50,000 to buy doses of the cure. Bilbrey’s Treatment was nothing more than a concoction of cranberry juice, salt, and other common ingredients. There was no basis in medicine or science to support any cure. Patients eventually died of cancer. Bilbrey even tried romancing a daughter of a sickly father in Chandler, Arizona, when other family members became skeptical of the potion. This divided family loyalties while he continued to sell the potion. In 1991, Bilbrey fraudulently promoted another wonder cure, Trizone. He claimed Trizone would cleanse people’s blood of the virus that causes AIDS.

 

Conundrum
Anything that puzzles. A problem for which there is no satisfactory solution. A hard question. A mystery. A riddle for which the answer involves a pun or a play on words.

 

Perjury
The willful telling of a lie, while under oath to tell the truth. The lie pertains to a material matter in the point of inquiry. Breaking any oath or formal promise. Deliberately giving false evidence. Willfully giving misleading or incomplete testimony in a court or by affidavit. Affirming that a previously made statement is true, when the statement is material and the person under oath does not believe the statement is true. False swearing. Subornation of perjury is procuring another person to commit perjury.

 

Tissue Checks
To reduce fraud losses in the 1830’s, some banks used tissue checks. A series of different colored sheets of tissue paper was pasted together. Injury to the check surface would show the color of the next layer of tissue paper and call attention to an attempt to tamper with the check.

 

Creative Punishment
A punishment or a sentence that is tailored to the specific crime as well as to the needs of the defendant and society. The punishment may include direct restitution to the victims, or specific types of community service. White collar criminals may be required to give public lectures to deter other persons from committing fraud, or to teach business groups how to deter fraud.

 

Puff-Adder
A 1930’s term for an accountant. An accountant was an adder of figures. Some persons considered an accountant as dangerous as that particular species of African snake or viper. Bitis arientans (the puff-adder) inflates its large body and hisses when disturbed.
Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language, Gramercy Books, New York, 1989, p. 1163.
Photo: www.cycletothesummit.org.uk/ photoalbumw.php

 

ã Copyright 1995 Larry C. Adams. All rights reserved.
 

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