FORENSICS
FACULTY PROFILE
200 YEARS
AGO
IN 1814…
England, 1814. Napoleon Bonaparte had been on a rampage against the British for
years. One day a military officer appeared in the English port of Dover across from
Napoleon’s France. He had news that must be reported: the great Napoleon had
been slain by Cossack soldiers. A heavy mist kept the message from being transmitted by flag signals, so the officer rode off to London with the good news.
When the officer arrived in London, so did a group of others reporting that
Napoleon was dead. People rejoiced, and nowhere was the news more welcome
than at the London Stock Exchange. Hopes and expectations that Napoleon was
dead drove up the price of government stock. Then bad news arrived from official
government sources: Napoleon was still alive. The report of his death was a hoax.
Stock prices sank.
The false rumor led the Stock Exchange to investigate. The investigation found
three people who accounted for large sales of stock at very high prices just before
the rumor was reported. The suspects included two Members of Parliament (MP),
one of whom was a Lord and naval hero, and one of their financial advisors. There
was evidence that on the day of his arrival in London, the military officer went to
one of the suspect’s homes and on the ride from Dover to London paid bills using
notes from another suspect’s account.
The suspects were tried and convicted but Lord Cochrane, naval hero, and MP,
claimed the investigation and prosecution had ulterior political motives. As a
result, after he was officially expelled from Parliament, his constituents re-elected
him. As time passed, many began to question whether Cochrane was really guilty
or whether he had been framed by his political enemies. After all, there was no
evidence that Cochrane had profited from the stock market's rise. In 1831, the
King of England pardoned him of any involvement in the stock market hoax.
Historians now agree that Cochrane was probably not behind the scheme to
defraud investors, but the real perpetrator of the hoax remains unknown.
Would that be the case today in 2014? Learn more about how forensics can help
solve fraud by learning more about our programs.
Source: Paul Johnson, Making the Market: Victorian Origins of Corporate Capital.
Carolyn Hess Johnson
Home: Baldwin, Md.
Profession: Attorney/Full Professor
Hobbies: Running, Reading
Last Book Read: “As They See ‘Em: A
Fan’s Travels in The Land of Umpires,”
by Bruce Weber
Last Accomplishment: My relay team
placed 18th in the Women’s Division
of the Baltimore Running Festival.
Quote: “We learned more from a threeminute record than we ever learned in
school.” (From “No Surrender” by Bruce
Springsteen)
Profile: Attorney, professor, mom, wife,
runner, animal lover, baseball fan,
Springsteen groupie.
Courses Taught: Criminal Justice,
Evidence, Forensic Journal Research
and Review, Forensic Studies Honors