I’ve got to hand it to Mr. Cooley.  He was right.  Mr. Cooley was my 6th grade teacher at Brady Middle School in Pepper Pike, Ohio.  And this guy was off the wall.  He sometimes intentionally, sometimes not gave us a lifetime of entertainment in one school year.

Over and over again, he told us that years from now (then), we would all remember the Mr. Cooley stock exchange. And now I know why I thought about this morning.

The stock exchange was an unbelievable lesson Mr. Cooley designed to teach us how the stock market worked.  He started by printing out fake money that was distributed to each student in equal amounts.  We could the npurchase shares of any stock we wanted as long as it was traded on the New York Stock Exchange.  Shares were purchased at the actual value reported in the Cleveland Plain Dealer that day.  And as long as you had the money, you could buy and sell as many different stocks as you liked.  Like with the real stock exchange the value of our portfolio fluctuated every day.

There was a “central bank” where money was exchanged for stock certificates and vice-versa.  And of course, each student got a chance to be the banker during the course of the lesson.

At the end of the lesson everyone had to sell their entire portfolio.  And that’s where the fun really started.  Students were asked to donate some items from their homes that weren’t being used anymore.  These items would be auctioned off to the highest bidder in class (with the money earned from the exchange). I think Mr. Cooley even got some local businesses to contribute to the cause.

If I remember correctly, stock in Chubb Insurance was exploding at the time.  Huge gains everyday and even a split at one point.  I’m not sure where the tip came from, but a few of us plowed into it.  Then, we all bought stock in our favorite companies (the ones we actually knew), like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola.

I promise I’m getting to the point.  When something was on the line and there was something tangible to be had, we all ran around like Wall Street moguls.  I wanted the donated TV so bad and I was determined to get it.

One day, my cousin Howard was the banker.  And a small group of us decided, that day, there would be a run on the bank. We exchanged shares with Howard, but he gave us quadruple the amount of their worth.  We’d give him a piece of the pie for his efforts.

In the end, I still didn’t have enough to buy the TV.  I’m not sure what I bought when all was said and done.  But I certainly learned a valuable lesson.

And that brings us to today.  We’ve been talking a lot about crimes of opportunity and we know that businesses lose billions of dollars to internal theft every year.  What we did when we were 12 years old reinforces the notion that access to a valuable asset can tempt anyone.  We had something to gain.  We had inside access.  And we had the opportunity with little oversight.

Most of us grow out of the immaturity we displayed back then, but some never do.  That is precisely two of the big three reasons (Violence, Loss, Dishonesty) businesses need to conduct background checks.

So, thank you Mr. Cooley.  You were right.  I definitely remember the stock exchange.

P.S. I’m not the only one who turned away from a life of crime. Howard is a legitimate business man who owns a high end pet hotel in Cleveland and LA.

It’s that time of year again.  A time for us to enjoy what we all know is the Super Bowl of all holidays, Thanksgiving!  And in honor of the season, we again offer up our annual Background Check turkey honorees.  So without further ado, I give you this year’s Turkeys.

• Lisa Dorhauer who stole over $46,000 from a children’s charity.  Avoidable?  Most definitely.  She had two theft convictions on her record at the time of her hiring.
• Cookie Monster.  Okay, not the real Cookie Monster.  But the Iowa State Fair hired a registered sex offender to greet children in regaled in this character’s costume.  Needless to say, they neglected to conduct a background check.
• Donald Johnson, a NASDAQ employee defrauded investors out  of $750,000.  Guess what, Johnson admitted to consuming Schedule II drugs while on duty as a nurse and falsifying hospital records in order to steal these drugs from the hospital he worked at.
• The EEOC, for overzealous prosecution of not one, but at least two cases this year against employers for unfair background check practices which led to them being penalized (and in turn taxpayers) for nearly $4,000,000.
• Kazimierz Karasek, a truck driver who made an illegal left turn which resulted in his crashing his semi into a commuter train.  Mr. Karasek had over 50 moving violations on his record since 1986.
• The state of Massachussettes for continuing to insist the their state criminal record index, CORI is the only way to conduct background checks.  Tell that to victims of rape, child abuse and a myriad criminal activities in which the perpetrators were convicted of similar crimes outside of the state.
• Peter Gwinnell, and UK man who was hired as a bank CEO after claims of being Oxford and Harvard educated and past employment at JP Morgan.  It turns out that none of those claims were true.
• Adam Wheeler, a man who faked his way into Harvard after claiming to have attended MIT and a prestigious prep school.  Again, neither of these claims were true.  After being convicted for these offenses, Wheeler was recently arrested again for trying to get a job after claiming he graduated from Harvard.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for now.  Need to make our annual pilgrammage to Cleveland for Turkey Day.  Have a safe and happy holiday.  But before I go, take a moment to enjoy my favorite Thanksgiving song of all time.

P.S. This post is dedicated to our director of business development, John Sferry; the only man who loves Thanksgiving as much as I do.

Thought I’d share a little background screening humor thanks to our friend Praj Patel at TalentTech.

Quick and easy isn’t always safe and legal. Check out our satirical video on national criminal background checks and how they can put your company in hot water. Remember, a quality employment background check is accomplished by searching records at the county courts! You can always use a national database search to complement a county criminal record search.

You might recall a story we posted last month about a Sports Illustrated/CNN poll that found 7% of all players on the roster of NCAA Football’s Top 25 list had been charged with, or convicted of criminal activity.

In anticipation the National Football League draft, BleacherReport.com just published a list of the Top 10 Craziest Arrest Stories of Players in this year’s draft.

Lowlights include Notre Dame’s Michael Floyd, USC Quarterback Mitch Mustain and Arkansas Quarterback, Ryan Mallett (formerly the pride of the Michigan Wolverines).  Thankfully, there are no Ohio State Buckeyes on this year’s list.  They must have been busy selling memorabilia or bartering for tattoos.

So, all 32 teams are on notice.  Start the vetting process early and often.  I can hear Hank Williams Jr. now, “Are you ready for some background checks?”

By the way, perhaps another blog post for another time.  We should evaluate which NFL general managers have robbed their teams with awful player selections.  I still can’t get over Ernie Accorsi of the Cleveland Browns drafting of Duke University linebacker Mike Junkin with the 5th pick in the 1st round.  I’m taking nominations now.

If you thought April 15th was a bad day because income taxes are due, employers have much more to worry about!  There appears to be an Internet movement to designate April 15th as “Steal Something from Work Day.”  Facebook already has a group dedicated to the cause and currently retains 1, 487 members. 

In response, April 14th will now be known by U.S. businesses as “Did I Conduct That Background Check? Day.”

As many of us get ready to take some time off this holiday season we reflect on the past year.  Yesterday I came across a great article on Yahoo (Provided by CNN Money) that discussed the “Dumbest Moments in Business for 2009.”  My first reaction was, simply being in business in 2009 was the dumbest moment was it not?  I was really hoping to see a background check whopper in here somewhere but unfortunately the closest they got was the Bernie Madoff Story.  So I guess we will have to live with what we got in the article, enjoy!

Dumbest Moments in Business 2009

Loudmouth CEOs, islands in the desert and bringing dead celebrities back to life. Our annual list of the business world’s bonehead plays marches on.  Read on….

Notre Dame has fired their over-promising and under-performing head football coach, Charlie Weis.  Rumors are spreading like wildfire for who will replace Weis.  Especially after athletic director, Jack Swarbrick promised to return the school to the era of Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian, Frank Leahy and Lou Hotlz.  We’ve already heard the names of some pretty heavy hitters as possible candidates: Tony Dungy, Bob Stoops, Jon Gruden, Urban Meyer, Kirk Ferentz, Gary Patterson, Brian Kelly and Jim Harbaugh.

Not a background check story? Think again.  Everyone remembers a few years back when Notre Dame hired an up and coming coach named George O’ Leary to return the team to prominence following a less than stellar performance by his predecessor Bob Davie.  Unfortunately, O’ Leary only lasted a couple days on the job and was unceremoniously terminated because the school found out through media reports that he committed resume fraud and lied about his academic credentials.  Doh!  A simple Education Verification would have saved them the embarrassment that followed.

Here’s hoping they decide to conduct a thorough background check on whoever they bring in.  It will save them time, money and unwanted media attention.

In honor of my favorite holiday of the year, I give you this year’s Background Check Turkeys:  Those people who thought they could fool us all as well as those who have gotten fooled.  These are my favorites from the past few months. Enjoy!

• Nurse Betty Not Really A Nurse- This nurse of the year recipient was missing a little something from her qualifications.
• VH1 Show “Megan Wants a Millionaire”- How a flawed background check led to tragic consequences.
• Rochville University- Education made so easy a dog could do it.  Just ask Chester Ludlow.
• University of Akron- We’re all for thorough background checks, but DNA?  Really?
• President Barack Obama’s Administration- “Green Jobs” Czar looking for a new job.  Hope his next employer decides to run a background check.
• EmployeeScreenIQ’s Jason Morris- We’ve spent a lot of time this year discussing diploma mills, but Jason’s video on how he got a fake degree takes the cake.  Jason, the Oscar’s aren’t calling!

Happy Thanksgiving!

…..fight against Diploma Mills.  See how misleading that title is? Goes to show how misleading a diploma mill really is.  I wonder if the SNL writers read our White Paper on Diploma Mills before doing this skit on Saturday?

Anyway, SNL did a great skit on fake degrees this past weekend, check it out below.  Stay tuned for their funny parody on employment screening!