Editorial: Miss Marple strikes a blow

OPINION: The most interesting revelation about this country's most prolific white collar criminal – apart from the fact that he spent $3.4 million of the $17.8 million he stole on prostitutes – is the way he was caught.

Stephen Versalko, who was jailed last week for six years for stealing the cash from ASB investors over nine years, was not caught out by the bank's auditors, a sophisticated software system or a clever specialist fraud detective.

His downfall came instead because an intelligent investor, who had dealt directly with him, had watched a documentary about the downfall of American swindler Bernard Madoff.

The investor was female but her identity has not been revealed. Given that Mr Versalko's modus operandi was to target wealthy elderly female investors, it is easy to imagine her as a modern day version of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.

The Miss Marples of this world are not to be messed with.

After watching the documentary about the Madoff swindle – which was a classic Ponzi scheme where the money from new investors is recycled to pay off those at the top of the pile – our Miss Marple was struck by the similarities between the American criminal and Versalko.

Ponzi schemes inevitably fail after the swindler, who has to find more and more investors to cover the money he has stolen along with the money due to to mature, eventually runs out of steam and it collapses under its own weight.

After watching the documentary Miss Marple rang the ASB and pointed out the similarities between Versalko with Madoff and at a stroke uncovered the country's biggest fraud.

It is an impressive find but there is a really simple idea at its heart – the power of the consumer to smell a rat.

Our Miss Marple thought something smelled and had the courage to report it. No doubt she had doubts. How many people would have the courage to lodge a serious allegation about a respected senior banker based on a hunch after watching something on television? No doubt she thought an institution as august as the ASB – one of the country's biggest banks – would have sophisticated checking and audit procedures that would have picked up anything wrong.

She has proved that old fashioned commonsense is a much stronger force than banking procedures.

Versalko, no doubt in search of some sort of redemption, has pointed out to the ASB that his swindle was easy and offered to help the bank tighten its procedures.

The bank's investors have all been paid back but it is far from a victimless crime. The bank's reputation has taken a bashing and the swindle has cost it dearly.

Ultimately, Versalko's wife and children are the greatest victims of all. In spite of the prostitutes and the years of deception, his wife is sticking by him. Perhaps Versalko's greatest treasure was sitting under his nose the whole time.

- © Fairfax NZ News