Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work (12 page)

“Burning the midnight oil again,” came a voice from the doorway.

“Oh,” she jumped, turning around, “Dave, you startled me!”

“Sorry, just passing through and saw your light on,” he said, approaching. “Must be something good, judging by your concentration.”

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“Oh, just something I’m playing with,” she said, nervously shuffling some papers on her desk.

“Personal business? On company time?” he joked.

“Hardly. More like company business on personal time,” she smiled back playfully.

“And I thought I was the only one overworked here,” he said, leaning over her desk to take a look at her computer screen.

“Sorry, can’t look,” she said, standing up to block Dave’s view.

“Excuse me,” he said, pretending to pout and backing off. “I thought you trusted me! We’ve known each other for a month now—

and I always buy you coffee in the morning.”

“The coffee is free, Dave. You’re going to have to do better than that,” she quipped. Dorothy and Dave had gotten to know each other pretty well since he first approached her in the cafeteria. The morning coffees had turned to the occasional lunch, and they had drinks together once after a company function. They shared stories about the company and laughed about some of the more colorful staff, but nothing out of the ordinary or inappropriate. Dorothy’s focus was always on her work and career, and her dad’s advice about mixing business with pleasure was etched in her mind. Not that she didn’t find Dave attractive—all the women did—but she really didn’t know much about his personal life, and felt that she should never cross that line.

“Do you really think they’re going to support you on this?” he asked probingly.

“Well, Jerry said he would consider anything I come up with as long as I have the data.”

“Yes, but Jerry’s not the decision maker here,” countered Dave.

“Well, who is, you?” she laughed.

“Frank’s really the one you have to convince. He’s the roadblock here, you know. He only likes ideas he comes up with, and regardless of what marketing says, unless development approves it, it’s history.

Jerry just doesn’t have the in with the big boys like Frank. Frank will quash it the first chance he gets.”

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“I think he’ll like my idea,” she said, feeling a bit defensive, “and Jerry will make a good pitch for it.”

“I would line up a few more ducks before I float anything to Jerry,” Dave suggested in a paternalistic tone Dorothy had heard that Dave sometimes used with others.

“So I guess Frank hasn’t liked any of your ideas yet,” she said pointedly. “You’ve been here a long time by Garrideb standards; what’s your track record?”

“Boy, you get feisty at times, don’t you,” said Dave, diffusing the growing tension in the room.

“Sorry, it’s just that I’ve been working on this for over a month now, and I don’t want to think that politics is going to stand in the way.”

“This is a big company now, Dorothy. There’s going to be politics. And,” he said interrupting her before she could respond, “you’re not very comfortable with things political, I’d say.”

“We’re not all big shots like you, Dave. I’ll get this through on my own.”

“I’m just suggesting that sometimes it’s wise to work with others.

One hand washes the other, you know.”

“Please,” she said dragging the word into two syllables and rolling her eyes. “I know, you’re going to make me an offer I can’t refuse, right?” she said, turning back to her computer screen.

“Well, maybe . . .”

5

Enter the Psychopath, Stage Left

Lawrence took the collection plates down the stairs to the church basement. He poured the money onto the table in the kitchen and the committee members began separating the bills and coins into piles for counting and depositing in the safe. The normally talkative members of the collections committee always grew silent as they counted. When everyone finished, the committee members rotated two positions to the left around the table in the church’s kitchen and they recounted the piles of bills and coins for accuracy. The totals, written on small notes, were collected and handed to the new church treasurer, who made the entries into the ledger.

As the group rolled the coins into paper wrappers, the treasurer added up the numbers. “This is a good week; there’s enough to cover the mortgage payment and utilities, plus some left over for the restoration fund.”

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“Amen,” sighed the others. This had been a rough month for the parish. Many were shocked about what had happened, but all had come to the painful realization that they had been taken in by one of their own.

The detectives had explained to the congregation during a parish meeting that they were victims of what experts call an “affinity”

fraud—a deception in which a person uses the appearance of shared personal beliefs and values to con a group into investing in phony business deals. Sam had been that person. He had joined the church nine months earlier and had become an active parishioner. He was bright, well liked, and, above all else, trusted. So much so that several members had invested their own money in some business deals he had going. These “opportunities” seemed safe and profitable. The early dividends were sizable—and had been for some time, judging by the high-quality clothes Sam wore, the luxury car he drove, and the big house he owned across town.

Sam’s approach was always the same, according to the detectives.

He would move into town, join a church or temple with a large congregation and several donation-funded community outreach programs, and then become increasingly active as a volunteer. Newcomers always attract attention and stimulate curiosity, and Sam’s seemingly endless energy, unwavering sincerity, and positive outlook led many parishioners to seek him out for friendship. Conversations would naturally turn toward how he made a living, and Sam would share his story. In so many words, Sam explained that he was once a high-flying investment banker who realized the shallowness of his chosen profession only after his young wife and infant daughter died in a horrible car accident. His resulting bout with depression, alcohol, and pills finally led him to understand the Creator had something more in store for his life. Sam quit his job and moved out of his fancy penthouse apartment to fulfill his newly found purpose. Because he continued to do well with his investments, he didn’t have to work, but could dedicate his life to helping others, and give back to the community in the name and spirit of his lost family.

Eventually, folks from the parish approached Sam, seeking per-Enter the Psychopath, Stage Left

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sonal financial advice. Some invested in the programs he managed, and after the dividends started coming in, many more followed. His obvious skill at managing money made him a natural candidate for church treasurer. Soon the congregation voted to invest money from the building fund and the after-school tutoring program in Sam’s programs. They had grown tired of no-interest savings accounts and high-interest loans eating away at their weekly intake from parishioners. Sam’s generosity and willingness to help others was the opposite of all that was bad about the banking industry. Financially, things could not get better.

But then, one day, Sam disappeared. He didn’t show up for services, and no one had heard from him for a week. When the mortgage company called to say the last payment check had bounced, people grew concerned. Discovery of the emptied bank account and safe-deposit box led them to call the local police. Few suspected that theirs was the fourth religious group he had targeted during the past three years.

Sam, now living in a different state, clicked the computer mouse on the latest headline about “Sammy the Slimeball” ripping off innocent churchgoers. Sam kept up on the progress the police were making—or not making—in tracking him down by reading the press coverage on the Internet. “We want to thank our generous neighbors, especially those of differing religious beliefs in our community, for their spiritual support and financial contributions in our time of need. Our children’s education program and food for the elderly programs have continued with their help, and our treasury restoration fund is growing,” reported John, the new treasurer.

Sam smiled as he put on his tie, picked up his suit jacket, and headed out for Friday services.

Psychopaths often are cunning, master manipulators, able to influence individuals into fulfilling their own selfish ends. They hide their
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true motivations and project carefully formed personas to capitalize on the needs, expectations, and naïveté of individuals useful to them.

When finished with their victims, they move on.

When trying to manipulate several people simultaneously, particularly in a group of peers, there is the risk that someone will suspect the truth and raise doubts about their aims, possibly jeopardizing their plans. Therefore, many psychopaths focus their efforts on one person at a time because it takes a lot of effort to maintain multiple façades in a group, each one custom-designed for the intended individual, especially if the stories involve complex lies and deceit. Some psychopaths, however, enjoy the challenge of running several different deceits concurrently while assuring that their victims never share information with other potential targets, or better yet, never even meet one another.

Unless caught and prosecuted for breaking the law, psychopaths suffer little consequence for the physical, emotional, psychological, and financial abuses they leave behind. The sad fact is that few victims—coworkers, partners, and spouses—report them to the authorities (or to their friends, for that matter) because of the shame they feel for being conned. Even in large firms, such as banks and brokerage houses, frauds and scams sometimes are not reported for fear of damaging the reputation of the firm. Psychopaths know and use this to their advantage. Others are too intimidated by fears of reprisal or litigation to speak up, being thankful that the psychopath simply is no longer in their life but has moved on to some other unfortunate person or firm.

Administrators and staff in prisons and psychiatric hospitals are painfully aware of how psychopaths operate in groups. In these structured settings, it takes little time for psychopaths to figure out the two main participants in the power structure—inmates versus guards and patients versus doctors or staff. Given this knowledge, they effectively make use of the group dynamics and role expectations of the different players. For example, some psychopaths successfully manipulate prison officials to get themselves transferred to a forensic hospital,
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where they enjoy more freedoms. By manipulating psychological test scores—some psychopaths are as test wise as many psychologists and psychiatrists—they can convince staff that they are “crazy” and don’t belong in prison. Once in the hospital, they manage to manipulate and control other patients. Some manipulate the forensic hospital staff to be transferred out of the hospital back to a prison setting using similar maneuvers (“I’m not crazy like the others”).

“On Sunday he prayed on his knees.

On Monday he preyed on his fellow man.”

—Caption from the
Vancouver Sun
, May 20, 2000

Bryan Richards wheedled his way into a religious community by convincing its members that he was “one of them.” He is a member of a line of distasteful predators who attached themselves to religious, ethnic, cultural, or special-purpose groups in which the members share common interests and typically are very trusting of others who profess to share their beliefs. Many Christian groups, for example, readily open their hearts to any newcomer; especially those who profess to have “found Christ.”

Unfortunately, these groups often also open their wallets, unwitting players in what is known as affinity fraud.

As described by Douglas Todd and Rick Ouston in the
Vancouver Sun
, Bryan Richards, whose real name is Richard Bryan Minard, is a smooth-talking, woman-chasing, Net-scamming evangelist who blew into a small Canadian town with a convincing line that he was a Christian, just like the members of the unsuspecting group he had targeted. “Don’t despair. God’s always there.”

He ran a local low-wattage radio station and described himself as “the rock jock who spins for Jesus.” He also ran numerous scams, including selling members time-shares in resorts he didn’t own and vacation packages he never paid for, and pirating music
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for his 30-minute “Christian Power Hour” program. He also ran a Christian dating service, had numerous girlfriends, and “chased the unmarried women.” He attempted, and often achieved, “instant intimacy” by spinning a bewildering line of tall tales that many found exciting and fascinating. His checks bounced.

As one of his victims said, “My feeling right now is that if [he]

weren’t on this earth, it would be a better place.”

Affinity groups—religious, political, or social groups in which all members share common values or beliefs—are particularly attractive to psychopaths because of the collective trust that members of these groups have in one another. Those who perpetrate affinity and similar frauds rely on the common belief system of the group members for cover. Common belief systems allow people who may be very different in many other aspects of their lives to find common ground for social interaction. As long as the psychopath can accurately es-pouse these beliefs while in the presence of group members, the true motives are less likely to be discovered. Religious belief groups, open to new members joining their group from all lifestyles, readily assume that those who join them hold similar beliefs and values, and tend to focus on professed beliefs and values and to forgive past transgressions. These noble qualities, unfortunately, make them easier targets for manipulation by unscrupulous fraudsters. While most people join affinity groups to associate with those who share their values, beliefs, and interests, psychopaths join to take advantage of them by hiding within a well-defined set of personal expectations.