Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Box-By-The-Riviera™ who wrote (303274)	3/6/2005 8:45:19 AM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Respond to of 436258

Massive OCD case led to Watertown swindle By J.M. Lawrence Sunday, March 6, 2005 On the surface, Jennifer Shurts looked like a typical con woman. She pretended to sell $850,000 worth of software contracts for a Watertown company, submitted phony contracts and pocketed big commissions. She even used a voice distortion machine to pose as her own clients when her company called wondering why the invoices weren't paid. But underneath the elaborate scheme of lies, phony e-mails and embezzlement from Communispace Inc. and another employer in Tampa, Shurts, 39, was suffering from a common mental illness known as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD, according to experts who examined her. ``I want to acknowledge the seriousness of my crime and I fully apologize for the pain,'' Shurts, a petite woman with a blond ponytail, tearfully told a federal judge last week. Shurts' crimes were driven not by cash, but by an obsessive need to please her boss. ``When she was confronted with failure, she compensated by making up contracts and submitting them,'' said one source familiar with the case. At first, federal prosecutors didn't buy the OCD diagnosis. But then Shurts began deceiving another company, AchieveGlobal, despite receiving notification she was under investigation. No sane person would do such a thing. Prosecutors sought an opinion from a top expert, Dr. Michael Jenike, a professor at Harvard Medical School who treats OCD sufferers at McLean Hospital. He confirmed the illness. In a letter to the court, her father John J. Monteros said his daughter was always a paradox of generosity and moody perfectionism. ``She wanted so much to please,'' he said. Her former boss at Communispace, CEO Diane Hessan, said Shurts' lies almost ruined the startup. U.S. District Court Judge Morris E. Lasker sentenced Shurts to three months of home confinement and five years of probation. A mother of two boys ages 3 and 4, Shurts is now being treated for OCD for the first time in her life.