Pump up those sales! We’ve got to make the quarter! How often are those command heard and how tempting is it to make the wrong choices in order to please the investing public and Wall Street?
Following six weeks of trial – Bradley Stinn, age 47, – former CEO of Freidman’s, Inc. and Crescent Jewelers, found himself being convicted of securities fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy. Likewise, in addition to Stinn’s conviction, the former CFO, Victor Suglia and form Controller, John Mauro have entered guilty pleas into what was a massive accounting fraud.
So what happened? According to the US Attorney’s news release:
During the period of the conspiracy, Friedman’s was the third largest specialty retailer of fine jewelry in the United States, operating 686 stores in 20 states. The government’s proof at trial established that Friedman’s encouraged its sales personnel to increase sales by inducing customers to finance their jewelry purchases using the company’s installment credit program, which was used to finance more than half of Friedman’s $400 million in annual net sales. A major aspect of the fraud scheme was concealing that Friedman’s was increasingly unable to collect money owed by customers who bought jewelry on credit. Friedman’s collection problems stemmed from the company’s widespread failure to follow its own credit-granting guidelines – guidelines that STINN falsely told investors were strictly enforced. In fact, STINN and other senior executives encouraged routine violations of the guidelines to increase the company’s reported sales.
To cover up the collection problems, STINN caused Friedman’s quarterly reported credit statistics to understate the delinquency of its credit portfolio, and caused Friedman’s to report false earnings numbers. In some cases, the false earnings reported by Friedman’s met or exceeded the public estimates of professional stock analysts, and resulted in the artificial inflation of Friedman’s stock price.
Between November 2003 and May 2004, Friedman’s stock price lost more than half its value. On November 11, 2003, the stock closed at $11.99 per share. On May 6, 2004, the New York Stock Exchange halted trading in Friedman’s stock, at which time the stock was trading at $4.97 per share. On January 14, 2005, Friedman’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Stinn’s lawyer, David Shapiro, confirmed the verdict. “We’re obviously very disappointed,” Shapiro said. “We think it was against the weight of the evidence. We think that there were some significant appeal issues in the case, and we are going to pursue an appeal.”
Was the pressure of financial performance so great that you would jeopardize your freedom and life to hit the numbers?
Every choice has a consequence. As a white collar crime and business ethics speaker, I speak from first hand experience about the truth about consequences. Reality is – no one escapes the consequences of their choices. While Stinn may have looked good hitting the numbers for a time and avoided the consequences – he did not avoid the consequences all together. Prison is no fun and Stinn is facing 25 years for his conviction. Likely he will serve time and that will prove to be a dramatic change from his prior activities. You do reap what you sow.
If anyone reading has any background on Stinn – feel free to comment as I study the behaviors and backgrounds of those convicted of white collar crime.
White Collar Crime Speaker – Chuck Gallagher – signing off…
Motivational Speaker - Chuck Gallagher Business Ethics and Choices Expert 
Chuck,
All I have to say is that you have no clue what you are talking about about Brad Stinn. Yes it is true that the CFO, Victor Suglia, pleaded guilty to accounting fraud. The truth is that Mr. Suglia pointed to Mr. Stinn in order to reduce his own sentence.
Mr. Stinn’s only fault has been to hire a crook CFO – nothing else.
Mr. Stinn was convicted. The buck stops with the CEO and he or she has a responsibility to know what is taking place in the organization. If, in fact, Stinn is innocent it will come out in his appeal. Otherwise, he was judged by a jury of his peers. Every choice has a consequence and failure to know the internal controls of your company in the capacity of CEO can be criminal and obviously was found to be so here.
how much time do you think Brad will get?
Hard to guess based on some of the sentences that have been handed down over the past several years with Enron, etc. My guess is 60 months – but it is only a GUESS!
In thinking about Oshi’s comment another thought came to mind.
As a Senior VP of Sales and Marketing for a public company, I sign quarterly a statement regarding our compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley especially as it relates to our internal controls. The higher up the food chain one is the more they are expected to make sure the company is, in fact, doing what it is expected to do.
Stinn may very well be a good man, but his conviction would be appropriate as CEO since his company seemed to be out of control when it came to compliance with what they stated were controls related to their financing policy.
BRADLEY STINN IS N O T G U I L T Y.
Brad Stinn is a man of integrity, a great father to his children and husband to his wife. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.
Mark – mine are too. Having been to federal prison, I know first hand what he is going through and know from my family what they are facing. Often I counsel families what to expect when facing incarceration, hopefully the Stinn family will grow strong through the experience ahead.
Chuck, you say that bucks stops at the CEO. What about the board? What about their auditors?
Also he was not judged by jury of his peers! Jury asked to see his income statement. What is that has to do with anything? To this jury 6 figures income is a big deal. The truth is that Stinn did not sell a single share! So his income was in 6 figure – name me a CEO of a public company whose income is not 6 figures.
The trial should have never been in NY. The company was based in GA not NY.
There is a reason why the trail couldn’t take place here in Georgia. There wouldn’t be a fair trail. I know I am sending this reply late, but I have been looking everywhere online for somewhere to get my jewelry fixed. My wifes wedding ring lost a diamond and now it looks like I have to buy another one to go in it. I did buy the lifetime plan for it also, but what good is it now…. not worth nothing. I don’t know why you are defending him so much. I guess you didn’t buy any jewelry from Friedmans.
Oshi…you are right in that the board is ultimately responsible. I was not at the trial, so I cannot speak from direct experience here, but most of the time the CEO is accountable for implementing the Board’s directives. Notice – rarely does the board get indicted. Being a CEO isn’t easy, they must do what the Board directs, comply with the law, and meet the shareholder’s expectations. Tough and worth every dollar…
The jury did not ask for Mr. Stinn’s income statement. Many financial documents were requested, but not specifically the CEO’s paperwork. Everybody’s financial benefits regarding the fraud that were material in the case were on the same documents.
Are you kidding me? These people are offering sympathy for this man? His fraudulant behavior threw the already troubled company into a talespin. Then enter the next set of crooks. These people made six figures on the hard work of peons like me. I made $10.50 an hour…I worked 14-16 hour days(most times with no break). Forgive me if I feel no sympathy for him. He lied. Bottom line. The evidence proved this. I hope his sentence is harsh and I hope more execs end up before a judge. I worked for this company for years and the higher ups(always thinking of their own gain) sold all of us out…with NO warning. Theft is theft…white collar is just a “more pleasant” was of putting it.
I was not “at the top” but worked with those people, trust me Brad knew every detail of every stores P&l and directed all charge offs etc. Nothing happened without not only his knowledge but his direction.
Stinn – Former Harvard – Cleveland St. Ignatius Graduate
Another blog posting you might want to comment on:
Oshi, and others,
As a juror in Mr. Stinn’s case I have to say that you really have no clue about what you’re talking about.
1) You claim he wasn’t judged by a jury of his peers. Pardon me, dear, but who exactly would YOU consider to be Mr. Stinn’s peers?
2) We did NOT ask for Mr. Stinn’s income statements at any time during the deliberations. After rendering our verdicts the judge instructed us to rule on how much Mr. Stinn should relinquish (not restitution, by the way) as a direct result of his crimes. We determined that his bonuses and tax gross ups on stock options were fair game – which is where the $1,019,000 came from.
3) Jurisdiction was a matter for the jury to decide – not you. Fraud invovles the distribution of false information to investors. While SEC filings were prepared in GA and CA, they were largely distributed by investment firms in NY. Since the distribution of the information resulted in the crime, NY was the appropriate jurisdiction.
Any other bold assertions you’d like to make without direct knowledge of the situation?
I think it is important to point out that the government’s press release was, in fact, exceptionally overblown in its assertion about what was at the crux of the convictions. The government asserted that a combination of misdeeds including 1) scooping, 2) mishandling of the so-called x-files (accounts that were mis-categorized as “current” for months after they were delinquent because of a computer programming flaw), 3) manipulation of the company’s Allowance for Doubtful Accounts, 4) general mismanagement of Friedman’s credit approval policies, and 5) the unauthorized tax gross up that Mr. Stinn executed for himself on a sizable stock option.
In the end, only one of these lines of argument “stuck” – scooping.
I guess a win is a win…but verbally “spiking the ball after the touchdown” by overblowing the case was bad form on the part of the government prosecutors.
One more ex employee here. As I was in accounting, I know factually that Stinn knew of the practices of loose credit and lack of writeoffs and directed, through and with Suglia to not write off on time (as was the stated policy) or even write off at all. While he did have a high salary, he and Suglia’s incentives were partially based on stock price. What better way to increase your stock price than to show a great P&L? Some of you say he’s some saint and didn’t have a clue are lost in the woods. You weren’t in the meetings or on the conference calls I was and you didn’t hear his (and Suglia’s) directives. Also, for those of you talking about SOX, all of this happened before that act really took effect, so there wasn’t as much government scrutinity as their is now. Finally, E&Y was as much at fault as anyone else. It doesn’t take a genius auditor to see that true write off was much higher than the allowance for write off (as reported on the P&L). The E&Y auditors were either totally incompetent or in bed with Stinn and Suglia. I met the managing partner a few times. I would opt for the latter. But to be open here, I don’t have any ill will toward the company or to any of the executives. I got out of there after the first emergence from Ch 11, so I stuck through the hard times. But I’m just calling it as it is. They’re no better than any of Enron’s cronies.
I agree that E&Y were asleep at the wheel.
However, SOX was in effect during the period of time that was covered in the criminal charges against Mr. Stinn. SOX was actually passed in July, 2002. It was interesting that the passage of SOX came at almost the exact same time as Mr. Stinn’s request for Mr. Suglia to move from Savannah to Oakland so that they could work side-by-side. Could it be that Mr. Stinn wanted to avoid any sort of paper trail that would get him in trouble under SOX? While it didn’t weigh in on our verdict, the ironic timing wasn’t lost on the members of the jury.
As a former management consultant to Crescent, I can assure you that Brad Stinn was intimately involved in all of the details of the business, which he scrutinized daily. As a manager of a business, he didn’t have a clu as to how to deal with all facets of the business. His attention was riveted on the numbers that were manipulated. Some of us lost substantial amounts of money as the result of his misrepresenting the financial condition of the company.
Trust me…..Brad knew exactly what was going on with every aspect of the company, including the hiding of certain accounts to avoid the drop that would occur in the stock price if the accounts were charged-off. If the company would have centralized the credit granting and collection responsibilities in or around 2000 the problem would have been solved. When you let store managers and assistants make credit decisions with little or no training and then pay them a bonus for achieving sales goals, you end up exactly where Friedman’s is now…out of business. I could go on about how and where the company failed, but what’s the point. “It is what it is”.
Just another ex-employee wondering when and what the sentence will be. Or will it be appealed for another 2 or 3 years. Time to pay the piper.
Chuck,
I worked with Brad Stinn at crescent jewelers for many years. I know him to be a ruthless business person. He has little care for anyone but himself and his own well being. I know he has caused thousands of people who gave everything they had to Crescent and Friedmans , only to watch all the hard work go down the drain. The blame can not only fall on Stinn but also on Morgan Schiffs, Phillip Cohen. Now that crescent and Friedmans are gone, Look into the dealings of EZ corp pawn shops. This company is another of the Morgan Schiff: Brad Stinn companies that will sure to follow in accounting nitemares. These people are not ethical and have never cared about all the people that they have hurt. I look forward to seeing them get what they deserve.
Best wishes to all the former employee’s and investors who got a raw deal.
Brad was convicted of something that wasn’t on the indictement….LOOPHOLE…that is why his sentencing is not being held on the date it was assigned…it is being postponed. Case will be thrown out…Prosecutors were looking to make a name for themselves and they were sloppy.
It’s very curious that all of the postings here that support Brad have unique misspellings and poor grammar. Seems like these many people who support Brad are really just one person!!!
Brad got away with alot more than anyone knows ,I watched from the day he took over crescent jewelers.All Brad wanted was to line his pockets and screw over all the hard working people that put everything they had into building a strong company.He saw an opportunity to take advantage of a system that was great when ran by honest people!!His desire to impress all the money people at Morgan ,schiff ,to bad he did not have enough integrity.Hope he recieves the maximum sentence,He should also be held accountable for the money he screwed all the empoyees out of , his greed put alot of people out of a job.
P.S Brad Stinn through Randy Poe and David Halpren authorized rewriting accounts to current status even when no payments were being made, They even allowed completly false accounts to be opened for people that never even exsisted,they all sat in the offices in oakland and laughed at the bullshit they allowed to take place
There are 2 of these Chuck Gallagher Blogs going…check out the other one…same stories and sentiments. Those that worked directly for Stinn at CJ and FRDM know what a sad, pathetic, greedy, heartless individual he is.
I also worked at Crescent Jewelers when the Grabers owned it. It was a wonderful company to work for. I can still remember the day that Brad came to our office in Oakland and wanted to see out P&L and all delinquent accounts. He also started presiding over the Cash requirements. At that time, I felt this man would bring Crescent Jewelers down and it finally happened. It took since 1988 to do it but hmmm the man did it. Just like he did Freidman’s. It’s really sad. The Grabers really took pride in this company and their employees. I pray that justice will hold Brad accountable for what he has done to not only the company but to all the employees that have lost so much because of his actions. He was a man that had knowledge of all aspects of the business and it is wrong to think that a CEO would not know what was going on in the company that he was chief of.
I worked for Crescent jewelers from 1999 until 2004. Brad Stinn and Randy Poe were both people that I met, and did not trust. I was a store collector (I had to collect the past due amounts on all that bad debt!) for 3 years, then the store manager for my 18 months, and transfered to a sales position at another store when my home store closed. There were “ghost” accounts- accounts that were open & past due, but never aged. Some accounts that were past due just stayed on our books at 90 days late, and never charged off. There were times that I earned or lost bonuses because they would only allow a certain dollar amount to go to the outside collection agencies. We were told to get approvals… we would call the RVP and say we have this customer who has a credit approval of X and wants to buy Y, can we approve it with a larger down payment? Then that customer wouldn’t be able or willing to pay the bills… and let me tell you how fun it is to REPOSSESS A WEDDING RING! Yes, I did field repos and took people to small claims court… but only as a last resort.
While I was manager, my store ran at about 88% currency, and we took merchandise back if someone couldn’t afford it, they didn’t get thier cash back if it was after the return period, but got store credit if they had paid more than they owed. My store was in the Washington and Oregon district, and the district managers I worked with were honest guys doing what they were told by their bosses. If they questioned what was going on, they were forced out of their jobs, or they left rather than deal with the dishonesty. I questioned my RVP about credit practices at one point, and was told that I didn’t know what the “bleep” I was doing, my job was to sell, his job was to approve the credit, then I didn’t get spoken to for a month. Nice working environment.
While I am glad that the people who commited fraud and broke the law are being held responsible, I am saddened that a company that had such great potential paid the price for their behavior.
Take it from an ex RVP with the company, Brad held excrutiating P & L reviews lasting upwards of 12 hours at a time where he personally went line by line on each and every stores P & L to nail you on all the lines he could and question what you did not understand about the fact that we “did not sell jewelry, we sold credit” ?
He knew EVERYTHING that went on in EVERY store in that company. We always knew the reason Brad was so involved is because he had so much to hide. I will never be convinced, and neither should you, that Brad was not the leader in this scam !
Well, after reading all these comments above, I have to say that I am truly dissappointed. I dont know any of higher managment, I was a customer. My husband paid cash for my beautiful wedding ring at Friedmans in Pensacola FL. He also purchased a lifetime warranty with this ring. Every 3 months I had to bring it in to the local store to have it examined and then they clerk would sign off on my warranty. We have been very faithful about this since our purchace in 2004. Recently, our local store closed up and I was able to find a store in Foley AL (about 100 miles away) that took over our account. We only were able to visit them 2 times and on the 3rd visit (another 100 mile drive) we discovered that that store had closed up also.
After searching the internet, I find out that Friedman’s Jeweler looks to be completely out of business. I’m sure that everyone involved in this closing has concerns, and I really am sorry to hear that folks have lost their jobs over this, but can anyone please tell me if there is anything I can do about my warranty?
Please help!
Carol I am sure if you find another local jeweler they will help you
Check with Zales. They have hired a ton of Friedman’s employees and I feel sure they want as many of their customers as they can get as well !!
I too worked with Brad Randy and David for over 10 years I was an upper level executive and know without doubt that all of these guys knew exactly what was going on. So much craziness in one business is almost unreal. I recall how when Morgan Schiff was buying Friedmans a Friedman family member was promised a position within the new company only to have Brad back away from the promise. The guy killed himself in his backyard which Brad found amusing. If you don’t think that Ernst and Young were involved follow the board members and Presidents It was not just Mark Pickup who by the way committed suicide as well the day before S.E C hearing. Sorry for the lady above that her Diamond Bond has no value BUT HAS ANYONE ASKED WHERE THE MILLIONS OF DOLLRS made from selloing these bonds went? All money went to Caymon Island accounts I have many more stories
I was a store “partner” (manager). I had one of the highest currencies in the company at one point 93.7%. This was a dramatic increase from the previous month. I went line by line and found those ghost accounts. After taking in account the ghost accounts they wouldnt charge off, I came to the conclusion the currency was really 84% Most managers never really worked the file like I did. I made 13 store goals and 13 collection goals in a row. NEVER knowingly putting bad business on the books. I had seen managers getting fired for finding bad business in the ceilings. I think it certainly could have ended if 1 move had been made. Hire a call center for credit. The pattern really was select managers putting ANYTHING on the books. These managers were the ax men for Brad, even if unknowingly. Also when I discussed this with the new credit guy who looked like mad max. He said it was boarder line illegal what was going on. He had only been with the company 2 mo. I was actually told they held the numbers in the books so we managers could make OUR bonus. Times were sweet. I made almost 6 figures working at that little store. Like the one poster said you cant have managers approving deals unless there is accountability, there was none. I seen a manager in Montclair Ca put anything that breathed on the books. Currency was crashing and she kept her job just to move to another store and sink it. I know I took over that store. I didnt make one quota or collection goal there. Why because I was going against bad numbers. She was sent to another store to sky rocket those sales. 1 year later the currancy couldnt hold the bad business. So of course another move was in order for her. And myself as I was unable to achieve sales goals. I could have as every customer would buy in that area. I declined more deals than I ever approved. And usually was arounf 50% cash which they didnt like. As we were to up sale cash to credit. Which is fine. But go from 100 cash sale to 1000 with the 100 dp with no credit background is a formula for disaster. And that was within the guidelines for credit approval. So bottom line if the head credit guy who had been with the company 2 mo. new what was going on Im sure Brad knew. Come on now people. Brad Stinks
I love this…worked for Crescents for 9 years in oregon and washington…and managed most of that time…Brad, Randy….they are all crooks and they knew what the hell they where doing…i have read all of the above and its true…hope you enjoy jail time Brad!!! dont pick up the soap! and they dont have dry cleaning for your $1,500 armani suits.
JENNIFER GARNER NUDE , http://www.collegehumor.com/user:1897516 JENNIFER GARNER NUDE ,
JESSICA ALBA NUDE , http://www.edge-online.com/users/jessicaalba JESSICA ALBA NUDE
01-28-09 Is sentencing date for the Above the law Brad Stinn as per Eastern district of new york website
Any update on the sentencing? I have been looking on the net but not seen any announcements. I am fairly new to Savannah and have run into several former Friedman employees and management staff. BTW, if you think Stinn was innocent and set up, please let me have some of what you are smoking. Must be good stuff.
A lot of good people were hurt by this fraud. They deserved better and Stinn deserves some hard time.
Catmando
I worked for Friedmans Jewelers for about 10 years, till it finally closed. We gave credit to anyone that had a pulse!! We would be up against a big day from the previous year and basically be forced to sell to risky people. Our p&l’s would be enormous! If we didn’t sell we would hear about it, Brad got exactly what he deserved!
I worked at Friedmans for 4 years and processed the Accounts Payable for Crescent jewelers. I never new Brad personally. I did meet Vic Suglia once though, but I did see how much money they spent. Brads travel reimbursements were outrageous. We paid for his wife to have a personal limo and driver. He also would make absurd purchases while traveleing and they would just pay them. He had a map framed for $200.00 one time. How was this work related? They never paid their bills on time either. I submitted a cash requirements to them once a week showing what was due and they would hardly pay any of it. Vendors plagued me constantly wanting to know where there money was. They were too busy paying Brad his six figure salary I guess. It was common knowledge to employees that credit was pushed at the stores. They would speak about it at monthly meetings. According to a Friedmans COO, credit was essential because people with credit would come back and spend more. It didn’t matter that they never paid their accounts. Friedmans treated their employs abominably. The pay and the benefits sucked and all the perks were given to store partners and sales associates. I think this was a long time coming.
Well from my response on march 27th 2009. (I didn’t get to finish). We would (i use we alot referring to our store) try and sell down to someone who couldn’t afford it, next thing you know a 1500.00 purchase out the door. our store partnerswould call our senior partners(district mgr for approval. People that had good credit do not act in ways our customers did. They didn’t want to pay down and then get re evaluated. And neither did everyone else,because that meant no money. Lets let these poor people charge and charge as long as we got bonuses. I can say I have been treated like a dog because I was not selling. Even got a 2 page email from vp at one time doggin’ me about sales. He had sent to all the stores in our area and get this brad. All we were trying to i
I worked for these people for 4 years somtimes 7 days a week all day and all they paid me was six dollars an hour. I was an assistant manager for a year and was promised a raise and guess what I got NOTHING! SCREW Friedman’s!!!!!! GOOD FOR THEM!
Kyle you my friend were clearly jealous of brad and THE SHARP ONE why didnt you say anything while this was happening? Your a good honest person right?
I had to deal with Rose and Sam Joseph saying why we cant sell and its not good enough, they both deserve prison as well as Brad and calling in his numbers every night after we closed
My husband and I were a Friedman’s Jewelers customers for over 13years. Alaways paid our accounts with them. Then all of a sudden they tell us that their not taking payments. Next thing we know our account with them is sent to a collection service. Also Friedman’s and Cresent are reporting bad debt to my husbands credit. WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS HOW IN THE WORLD CAN THEY GET AWAY WITH THIS? WHEN THEY REFUSED THE PAYMENT. I DO HOWEVER NOW KNOW WHY THEY CLOSED THEIR DOORS!
Sharon – they did not close because of your lack of paying your bills on time. Yes – you are right – they did stop taking payments in their store. However, they also started to mail the bills to you in plenty of time to have received it and make your payments before the due date. They didn’t go out of business (closing headquarters) for 4 months after they stopped taking payments so you would have had PLENTY of time to call the credit card number (published on plenty of websites, on the back of your card, and at local stores that were telling you they weren’t taking payments etc) and have them reforward your bills to you if you didn’t receive them. This is just part of actually being responsible and paying for your bills on time. Good luck. Oh yeah – I might add that blaming Friedman’s is not the smartest thing when it was the Federal Gov’t that were overseeing the liquidation/Credit Card accounts….!! Just some information that you might need.
i would like to know what happend to the money from the liquadating trust fund that was promised to the former employees can someone please tell me?
the money went to:
Sam Cuasano
Steve Moore
Harbinger (the greedy, short sighted hedge fund that bought the company)
Bravo!!! As another former employee who say firsthand in corporate what Brad was capable of there is nothing but pleasure on seeing him go down. Crescent was one of the sleaziest companies you could ever come across and all of the items above speak truths. Good riddance!
So I hear some of these store partners/managers made upwards of 200K a year, basically approving anyone that was breathing. Based on what you former employees know do you think this is true? I’m from Savannah originally and knew the company name long before they went under.
So what was Stinn’s sentence, if anyone knows?
I worked for crescent Jewelers and was in a position of approving credit extension and collection #s