NCJ Number
129033
Journal
Security Management Volume: 35 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1991) Pages: 54-58
Date Published
1991
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article describes the fraudulent operations of a financial cult whose members work largely for private security firms and suggests ways private security firms can counter the abuses of such cults.
Abstract
In the mid to late 1970's in Morristown, N.J., a group named the Circle of Friends, composed of as many as 100 members who were mostly women, described itself as a capitalistic commune devoted to health, wealth, and wisdom. The group's leader was a 58-year-old Hungarian immigrant named George Jurcsek, a self-proclaimed guru, stock market wizard, and real estate mogul. Members of the lower echelon of the group worked primarily as security officers with many working double shifts. Salaries were sent to the group's post office box. Members were encouraged to enroll in colleges, receive education loans, and then defer payment. When charges were brought against the group for the student loan scam, other frauds surfaced. Members would work for two different private security firms at the same time and have someone else sign in for them at one job while they worked another. Sex was used as a means to keep supervisors from revealing the practice to company heads. Overall, the cult exploited its members and encouraged them to break the law and manipulate others for cult leaders' profits. Measures security companies can take to counter such cult activities include the fingerprinting of employees, verification of employees' social security numbers, and the verification of employees' addresses to determine they are not post office locations.