The bank robber gets $1,400 and 20 years. The bank president that defrauds the bank of $2.2 million gets the boot. Enron, Worldcom, Adelphia. The headlines emphasize the growing concern of corporate crime at the highest level. Security cameras target the mailroom and loading dock but not the boardroom. Studies, including one from the American Society for Industrial Security, indicate that organizations lose multi-billions of dollars from white collar crime and that many still don’t take incidents to law enforcement authorities.

That’s all changing, however. The high profile incidents are pressuring many organizations to better protect themselves from themselves. Regulations are getting tougher. The fastest growing security association is composed of financial fraud investigators. But there’re still contentions: security directors and managers are hired and report to top management.

The bottom line: security executives, already well versed in policies, procedures and products, need to get up to date on financial management and investor relations concerns, too.

It is anticipated that Enron and Adelphia executives will serve time. There are

others, too.

For example, the chief executive officer of California Micro Devices will serve 30 months in prison for insider trading and pay $632,996 in fines and restitution to shareholders, according to media reports that quote federal prosecutors. Under a plea agreement released last month by the U.S. attorney for Northern California, Chan Desaigoudar admitted that he was aware of “widespread accounting fraud” at Cal Micro in the mid-1990s and misled shareholders. There was a four-year FBI investigation. It led to an earlier conviction that was overturned on appeal.

Prosecutors originally charged Desaigoudar in an eight-count indictment with conspiracy, fraud, making false statements and insider trading.

Building Collapse Investigation

Beyond the actions that the government and businesses have taken following the September 11th incidents, one important outcome will probably be an understanding by builders how to construct high rises that are safer. Just last month, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) began an intensive, two-year investigation to document what exactly caused what NIST officials label “the worst building disaster in recorded history.” The study of the collase of the World Trade Center buildings will be based on the model similar to investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board of airplane crashes.

From local and industry studies of the collapse of the building, it is one conclusion that the structures were destroyed, not because of the impact of the airlines, but because of the intensity of the fires from the airline tanks.

There also have been other studies that stress the need to improve emergency communications among all types of first responders.

On a related note, the recently conducted GOVSEC convention in Washington, D.C., emphasized better emergency response through both procedures and products. Existing and new technology, for example, is being used to secure America’s surface transportation system and facilitate emergency response, especially to ease the evacuation of urban centers.

Uniquely, speakers at GOVSEC talked about how Intelligent Transportation Systems or ITS are now being used to track hazardous materials shipments to ensure the safety and security of these goods.