Luncheons.(National Association of Credit Management conference)

Loss Prevention Luncheon

Annually, the Loss Prevention Department presents the Bronze Vigilance Award to the Law Enforcement Officer of the Year at the Loss Prevention Luncheon held during Credit Congress.

This year, the Bronze Vigilance Award was presented to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Commercial Crimes Bureau Forgery Fraud Division. Their Department was recognized this year for their outstanding work on a series of five "Bust-Outs" that were raided, netting organized figures, warehouses of stolen products and pounds of the drug opium--aid for with the proceeds of these financial crimes.

Detectives Ralph Richards and Tim Williams were the recipients of the award on behalf of their Department. Following the awards presentation, the Detectives gave a detailed description of how these crimes were perpetrated. The subjects of these companies used multiple aliases, provided credit references for themselves, submitted over forty stop payment checks and submitted fraudulent documentation. Applications submitted provided false and misleading information to obtain open lines of credit with their suppliers.

The companies that were taken down by law enforcement were A to Z Trading, Multistate Sales, Buzz Tex International, Zodiac and Casta. These companies were all run by organized crime and caused losses to all industry groups, from food products to construction materials. Due to the actions of these agents, the Loss Prevention Department was able to reunite its members with millions of dollars of product that had not been paid for. The investigation is continuing regarding other companies being operated by these organized crime entities.

For more information about the services and activities of the Loss Prevention Department, log on to www.nacm.org, and click on Loss Prevention.

CFDD Awards and Installation Lunch