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This Is How You Spend Stolen Money

So you’ve been embezzling money from your employer for awhile and what’s a girl to do? Well you could spend it on your wedding but if you’re already hitched then it’s has to get blown elsewhere. Besides, the £470,000 that Joanne Kent stole is chump change compared to what Sue Sachdeva had on her hands:

• $225,000 at Karat 22 Jewelers.

• $1.4 million at Valentina Boutique a high-end joint in Mequon, WI.


• $20 million on artwork.

• $649,000 at Zita Bridal Salon, even though she was already married. Probably just wants to wear a gown to slob around in.

• $670,000 at Au Corant a Milwaukee-based fashion retailer.

• $4.5 million on credit card bills.

A decent haul although the new GT leadership can’t be thrilled to have this shopping spree land in their laps.

Btw, congrats to Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, the new auditors, on the pickup. We’re sure it’ll be a breeze from here on out.

Buy Nothing Day. Just In Case You’re Off Friday (or Unemployed)

creditcard.jpgEditor’s Note: Want more JDA? You can see all of her posts for GC here, her blog here and stalk her on Twitter.
If you’re trying to squeeze in one last section of the CPA exam before December hits, you’ve got four days – a handful more if you’re not running off to see family for Thanksgiving. Are you working through the holiday?
Instead of running off to the store to spend money that you don’t have in the name of “economic recovery”, how about “Buy Nothing Day“?


“We’re asking tens of millions of people around the world to bring the capitalist consumption machine to a grinding — if only momentary — halt,” reads the manifesto. “Advertised” as an international event intended to stop the rape and pillage of the planet in the name of consumption (or something like that), it doesn’t stop with avoiding the Friday after Thanksgiving sales.

We want you to not only stop buying for 24 hours, but to shut off your lights, televisions and other nonessential appliances. We want you to park your car, turn off your phones and log off of your computer for the day.

This particular capitalist wouldn’t do well without her BlackBerry and her credit card for a full day, it’s one or the other, with the credit card much easier to keep in my pocket than the device. But whatever.
Other clever ways to spend the day? How about Whirl-mart; an impromptu conga line of shopping carts in the middle of any large warehouse or retail store (Target would work in a pinch) much to the chagrin of store security?
You can even take it all the way and declare a Buy Nothing Christmas if that’s your thing. Why stop with Black Friday? It’s not like you can afford crap your friends and family don’t want anyway, so just don’t do it. Sock away some money and put it into something useful like gold ETFs or at least new gadgets.
It goes without saying that retail has a long hard slog upward this winter. In fact, some stores are opening on Thanksgiving just to get a jump on the holiday season, hoping they can squeeze out every little bit they can to make it through the end of the year. Yeah, good luck with that.