EmployeeScreenIQ Blog

Nurse of the Year is a pretty impressive feather in the cap of a health care practitioner.  That type of honor can place a nurse looking for a job in high demand.  In the case of Betty Lichtenstein of Norwalk, CT, she  claimed to have won the Connecticut Nurse’s Association’s “Nurse of The Year” award in 2008.  It turns out Nurse Betty wasn’t really a nurse, but she pretended to be one.   Oh, and the Connecticut Nurse’s Association doesn’t exist.  In the words of Homer Simpson, “DOH!”

Nurse Betty was hired on by a Connecticut doctor after committing resume fraud and had been treating his patients.  Word to the doctor: You might think about ordering a background check next time including a professional license verification and past employment references.

‘Nurse of the Year’ Charged with Not Being A Nurse

NORWALK, Conn. – A Connecticut woman who authorities say spent more than $2,000 to stage a dinner honoring her as “Nurse of the Year” has been charged with pretending to be a nurse at a doctor’s office. Betty Lichtenstein, 56, of Norwalk was charged Thursday.

Prosecutors say Dr. Gerald Weiss believed Lichtenstein was a registered nurse, especially after she was named the Connecticut Nursing Association’s “Nurse of the Year” in 2008.

According to the arrest warrant, that association does not exist.

The state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit began investigating after a patient complained about Lichtenstein.

She faces up to five years in prison if convicted of reckless endangerment and criminal impersonation charges.

Lichtenstein did not return a telephone message for comment.

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According to the New York Times, Indira Noel, the director of intergovernmental relations to New York state senate democrats, forged the signature of an employee on an applicant release form in an effort to discredit him by proving he had lied about his education.  As many of you know, a candidate must sign a consent form that allows the employer to conduct a background check. Most academic institutions will not provide education verifications without seeing the executed form.  (Check out our study on the acceptance rates of electronic signatures).

How did this person manage to keep her job?

Senate Aide Admits to Forgery in a Bid to Fire An Employee- Dominick Tao

A top State Senate aide pleaded guilty on Friday to disorderly conduct after being accused of forging the signature of an employee she supervised. Prosecutors had said the aide wanted to obtain the employee’s college transcripts in an effort to discredit him by proving he had lied about his academic credentials.

The aide, Indira F. Noel, 44, was charged by the Albany County district attorney’s office with criminal possession of a forged instrument and with offering a false instrument for filing, both misdemeanors that could have sent her to jail for up to a year.

But in a deal reached with prosecutors, Ms. Noel pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct and paid a $250 fine.

Ms. Noel, the director of intergovernmental relations for Senate Democrats, was suspended for two weeks without pay in 2007 when the forgery allegations became public. Democratic leaders said on Friday that she would not face any more punishment.

“When the incident first occurred, disciplinary action was immediately taken,” said Austin Shafran, a spokesman for the Senate president, Malcolm A. Smith. “Now the case has been resolved fully, and we are moving forward,”

In recent months, Ms. Noel had received a pay increase despite the charges pending against her. The $11,000 raise brought her annual salary to $118,000. Mr. Shafran would not say whether Democratic officials were aware that Ms. Noel was involved in plea agreement talks at the time she was granted her raise.

Ms. Noel’s lawyer, E. Stewart Jones, said her guilty plea ended months of negotiations with prosecutors. “The end result speaks for itself,” Mr. Jones said. He said that Ms. Noel had paid her own legal fees.

The case started after the employee, Jean Pierre, a policy analyst for the Senate Democrats, was fired two years ago. He filed a criminal complaint against his boss, Ms. Noel, accusing her of forging his signature to get records from the State University at Buffalo to make a case to fire him.

Mr. Pierre could not be reached on Friday, and his lawyer declined to comment. Mr. Pierre also filed a lawsuit last year against the state for unlawful termination that is continuing.

Ms. Noel started working for the Senate in 2005 when David A. Paterson was the minority leader. Since then, she has become friends with Mr. Paterson, who became governor last year, and his wife, and has joined them in their home to celebrate holidays like Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve.

Marissa Shorenstein, a spokeswoman for Mr. Paterson, said the governor would not comment on Ms. Noel’s plea, but added that he had not intervened on her behalf.

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Nick wrote about a similar topic earlier this week!  In Nick’s posting he references an Ohio “hold harmless” law that allows employers to give thorough references on past employees.

I recently found this posting on HR Recruiting Alert that lends the same message. In it the author sites the case ‘Luttmann V. Tiffany and Co.‘ .

What should companies say when they get reference calls about a former employee who was fired for misconduct? Here’s some help from a recent court ruling.

An employee’s boss caught him tampering with the company payroll system to lower his federal tax withholding. His actions were against company policy, and he was fired.

Eventually, the manager got a call from another employer asking for a reference for the former employee. He told the caller the man had been fired for misconduct.

The prospective employer asked the employee to sign a release so it could get more information about his termination. He refused and didn’t get the job.

I am happy to see more of these cases come out.  Employers should always tell the truth when a fellow employer is conducting a background check.  Even though this was a ‘victimless crime’ imagine if he did something more serious.  One small incident can cripple a small business.  Not sharing this type of information could put another company at risk!  Always consult with your labor attorney first but creating a good reference policy and telling the truth is always a good practice!

Read the full blog here!

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In yesterday’s online edition of the New York Times we found a great article.   When verifying employment are employees being found guilty by association?   Being in the background screening industry for over 15 years I have to say this is a new concept to me.  I have many relationships with many HR professionals and I don’t know of any that subscribe to this practice.  I could not recommend hiring an executive from one of these corrupt companies but I would be surprised if their general labor pool had any idea of what was happening.  I would love to hear your take on this!

Can an Employer’s Past Follow Its Workers?

JOB hunting in this market is hard enough. Pity the candidate coming from Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, the Stanford Group or another company tainted by bad news of one sort or another.

Many recruiters and hiring managers do not hold the employee responsible for the possible sins of the employer. But others may. With unemployment at a 17-year high and the job market flooded with flawless C.V.’s, candidates in question may have to work especially hard to convince managers that they are not damaged goods.

“As a recruiter, you are automatically going to jump to conclusions because of the company they worked for,” said Shawn Desgrosellier, managing partner at Kaye/Bassman International, an executive search firm in Dallas. “Your wish is that H.R. will want to evaluate them based on their competencies, skill sets and qualifications. However, by working for an Enron or one of those types of companies we all know, it’s probably going to hurt you — to what extent, no one knows.”

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The Daily Monitor, a Ugandan newspaper, has exposed a con taking place at the country’s largest and oldest university.  Makerere University has become the target of a degree fraud scam most likely perpetrated by members of its own staff and a contractor hired to speed up the degree issuance process.  The newspaper was able obtain a fake transcript from the university and then receive verification from the Academic Registrar that the transcript was genuine.

This is a trend that I think will definitely increase over the next few years and criminals get smarter and technology becomes more advanced.  Schools should conduct background checks on employees that will have access to confidential student information and important tasks such as issuing degrees and awarding financial aid.  There are numerous opportunities to commit fraud in these areas.  Schools need to recognize this and protect themselves as much as possible.

In addition, employers should always conduct education verifications on prospective employees whose position requires a certain level of education and/or a primary course of study.  There is no question that fake degrees are being sold worldwide.  The question is:  Who’s buying?  Could it be your applicant?

Makerere certifies fake transcripts

By Edwin Nuwagaba – October 27, 2008

Kampala

A criminal gang in Kampala is selling fake degree transcripts from Makerere University at Shs250,000, a Daily Monitor investigation can reveal.

While the trade in fake transcripts has been going on for many months, the forgery has become so sophisticated that the university cannot distinguish the fake transcripts they issue from genuine ones.

Following earlier reports of its transcripts being forged, Makerere set up an office earlier in the year to help employers vet documents submitted by prospective employees. However, the racket, which has contacts within the university, issues ‘fool-proof’ transcripts that the office cannot identify as being forged, leaving thousands of employers vulnerable to applicants getting jobs for which they are not qualified.

In an effort to expose the loopholes in the verification process, Daily Monitor paid a racket member Shs250,000 for a fake transcript which came with a certified copy. When Daily Monitor submitted the fake transcript to the university for verification, it was certified as a genuine transcript.

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Be sure to check out our Internal Resource for Identifying Known Diploma Mills.  It can be downloaded at http://university.employeescreen.com/white_papers

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According to a careerbuilder survey in 2006 57% of hiring managers say they have caught a lie on a resume.   Topping the list were lies about past employers (18%), Academic degrees (16%), Technical skills (15%) and Accomplishments (8%).   employeescreenIQ figures show that around 56% of all resumes screened show some sort of discrepancy, even after eliminating ‘common mistakes’ from the overall statistic.

 Just ask the former Notre Dame Football Coach George O’leary or the former Dean of Admissions at M.I.T. Marilee Jones; if you lie on your resume you will be caught!  It always amazes me that even after signing a disclosure allowing an employer to conduct a background check an employee will still submit false information.  Because of these statistics more and more employers are verifying education and employment on all job applications and resumes.

A resume is nothing more than a sales pitch, it’s the candidate’s opportunity to tell you exactly what you want to hear (or what they want you to hear).  Last May I was quoted throughout an article in SmartMoney Magazine brilliantly titled, “White Lies on Resumes Raise Red Flags for Employers”.  This article outlined some great examples of corporate embarrassment:

 Of course, high-profile resume padding is nothing new. In 2002 Bausch & Lomb’s chief executive, Ronald Zarella, was found to have lied about having a master’s degree in business administration from NYU. Kenneth Lonchar, finance chief of Veritas Software, resigned in 2002 after the company learned he misstated his educational credentials, including falsely claiming to hold an MBA from Stanford. Sandra Baldwin, president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, left office in 2002 after admitting she lied about having a Ph.D. in English (she never actually completed her dissertation). And the list goes on.

The emergence of defamation claims were common place in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.  Courts began upholding defamation lawsuits based on negative employer references that could not be established as fact.  This led to employers divulging only basic information such as dates of employment, title and salary.

Neutral reference policies are no longer a concern for employers as many courts have begun to uphold the theory of “negligent referral” .  Rob Thomson, Communication Manager of employeescreenIQ wrote an excellent article for our newsletter a while back called “Employment Verifications: Less May No Longer Be More!”  In it he states:

 Negligent referral is defined as “the failure of an employer to disclose complete and factual information about a former or current employee to another employer.” For example, suppose a former employee causes damage or harm at the new workplace that might have been predicted based on prior behavior that was known, but not disclosed, in a neutral employment verification by the former employer. This may also be considered negligence, even if the employer has a documented neutral reference verification policy.

In recent years many states have enacted “job reference immunity statutes” which presumably provide protection for employers that choose to provide more in-depth information about former employees. The consensus of these statutes in the legal community is that while they codify immunity for employers providing employment references, in practice they may not provide a significant upgrade in protection over existing employment laws. Job reference immunity statutes generally establish a presumption of good faith on the part of the former employer, meaning that it must be shown that the employer knowingly provided false information, or acted with malice, depending on the statute, to establish negligence.

Conducting education and employment reference checks is one of the most important services offered by employment screening firms.  Historically companies have been littered with employees that were under qualified and overpaid based on previous positions.  Spending a little money can save a company a lot of heartache and embarrassment.  I have consulted with hundreds of HR Departments, and I ultimately leave it with them like this; whether you do it or we do it for you, it absolutely needs to be done.

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