When I review potential cases of fraud, I must admit I have become jaded. Whether the accolade is “The Forbes’ 30 Under 30 music list for 2021,” or “The Salamander Rescue Society’s Person of the Year,” as an ethics keynote speaker, ethics consultant and book author, I look to the fraud and not the person.
The Chicago Rapper
His stage name is Rapper G Herbo but his given name is Herbert Wright III – so I’ll go with that. He is 27-years-old and he is facing up to 25 years in jail because he was playing at a life he had not yet earned.
According to the Associated Press article by Mark Pratt (July 31, 2023):
“Rapper G Herbo pleaded guilty Friday to his role in a scheme that used stolen credit card information to pay for a lavish lifestyle including private jets, exotic car rentals, a luxury vacation rental and even expensive designer puppies.”
It is somewhat ironic that the man who ran a financial scam was honored by a prestigious business magazine. According to the government prosecutors, his crimes include “conspiracy to commit wire fraud and making false statements.”
In running his schemes, Wright must also forfeit more than $140,000 cash.
In his mind, the rapper erroneously believed that as long as he could obtain stolen credit card numbers, it was much like a well that would never run dry. After all, who would get hurt? He not only stole out of the need for extravagance but he also stole in order to impress everyone with his image and to advance his entertainment career.
Slipping into darkness
It is called the dark web and for about a year, Wright’s unethical promoter fed him stolen credit card information through emails and text messages. Wright, his promoter and his “entourage” paid for chartered flights and expensive hotels through the use of such cards. Said the prosecutors:
“[Wright] used the proceeds of these frauds to travel to various concert venues and to advance his career by posting photographs and/or videos of himself on the private jets, in the exotic cars, and at the Jamaican villa [one of the hotels].”
Am I surprised he allowed his promoter to talk him into stealing fake credit cards and other fake credentials, such as stolen licenses? Not at all. As an ethics keynote speaker, ethics consultant and book author, I have seen this pattern play out in hundreds of settings.
Herbert Wright was so clueless, he rationalized that no one would care about the theft. He posed in numerous pictures with the stolen goods. This linked his thefts to the discovery by the rightful cardholders of the unauthorized purchases of goods and services. It is a fairly iron-clad case for the prosecution. The promoter is also facing jail time.
Ends-Means and other sadness’s
To my mind in an ethical sense, the sadness is that Wright was not without a core of decency and compassion. He was legitimately in the process of starting a foundation to help inner-city children living in the Chicago-area to recover from the PTSD created by ongoing violence and gang warfare. He was well on his way to making a huge difference in this world. In fact, his music was often dedicated to friends who had died of gun violence. It was noble.
Nevertheless, he got suckered by friends, business associates and greed; it is the need for money and the blind ends-means problem that often over-powers those who want to climb without putting in the necessary work brought him down. He had the need for lots of money, but he lacked the means.
It is easy to play the “if only” game here, as in, if-only he had not made bad decisions. But he did. At 27, he is a man who knew that what he was doing was wrong, however, there was no ethical compass strong enough to not take the easy way. I do hope there is some leniency here.
Unfortunately, the children he was trying to help now understand he was as crooked in gaining his over-the-top lifestyle as some of the crooks who commit violence on the Chicago Streets. It is a case of fraud where no one wins.
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