Weld’s white-collar crimefighters

GREELEY – Start with one prosecutor who specialized in economic crimes while working in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Add an investigator with a background in both law enforcement and accounting, and you’ve got a white-collar crime fighting force to be reckoned with.

The Weld County District Attorney’s Office in the past two years has won convictions against white-collar criminals that resulted in sentences of more than 15 years in prison, five years in community corrections, 56 years of probation, five years of work release and 100 hours of community service.

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Credit for the success of the county’s program to wipe out white-collar crime goes to the dynamic duo of District Attorney Ken Buck and Chief Investigator Tony Molocznik. The background and expertise of both men, brought together, allows the county to tackle complex financial crime cases that give larger agencies pause.

Buck was elected district attorney in 2004, but his career got complex early. Just one year after graduating from the University Wyoming School of Law, he was tapped by then-Wyoming Congressman Dick Cheney to work on the Iran-Contra investigation in 1986. A year later, he was working as a prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. He joined the Colorado U.S. Attorney’s Office in 1990, where he worked mostly white-collar crimes.

20-year man

Molocznik was joining the Weld County District Attorney’s office as an investigator around the time Buck was starting at the Department of Justice. In fact, he celebrated 20 years of service on Sept. 15.

His unusual combination of experience in law enforcement and accounting, married with a Certified Fraud Examiner designation, makes him uniquely suited to aggressively pursue very complex financial cases. The irony is that he pursued one career – accounting – to escape another – law enforcement.

“(The accounting degree) was actually to get me out of law enforcement,” he laughed.

Early in his career, Molocznik served as a Greeley police officer. He was on the force for 10 years, serving as a detective for a majority of that time, but felt burned out on police work. Accounting promised to be something he would enjoy while maintaining his salary level. Molocznik returned to school, earned his degree and spent several years as an accountant for a national nursing-home company.

When the company tried to promote him to a position in Houston, Molocznik decided to weigh other career options that would let him stay in Northern Colorado. He landed the investigator job at the district attorney’s office and hasn’t turned back since.

In 1995, he added to his expertise by becoming a Certified Fraud Examiner, which also provides continuing education on the latest crimes and how to detect them.

Weld County’s white-collar criminals haven’t caused any deaths, like the high-profile international fraudsters Buck encountered in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, but their activities have affected a variety of businesses, individuals and families financially and emotionally – often violating a deep-seated trust.

“These are people you look at every day, that you go to lunch with,” Molocznik said.

‘Resources are everything’

According to Molocznik, “in white-collar crime, resources are everything,” and Weld County isn’t blessed with the same level as state and federal investigative agencies.

To resolve the resource issue, in 2005 the district attorney’s office began a one-of-a-kind program – the White Collar Crime Task Force. Buck quickly realized upon taking office that complex financial crimes were not getting any attention for lack of funds.

“I didn’t even ask (county commissioners for more money to fight white-collar crime),” Buck said. Most crime-fighting funds are spent apprehending and prosecuting violent offenders.

Instead, Buck invited representatives from all of the banks in Weld County to a meeting, where the White Collar Crime Task Force was born. The bankers agreed to raise and donate money into a blind fund for the district attorney’s office to use to contract with part-time investigators and industry experts to pursue financial bad actors.

Buck and Molocznik believe it to be the only organization of its kind in the country.

“We’ve been criticized for this because it’s outside of the box,” Buck said.

The negative reviews, some coming from area attorneys, often focus on the fact that the money comes from banks instead of taxpayers. But because of the way the fund is set up, the DA’s office doesn’t know which banks are participating and how much they are contributing.

Molocznik gets to dedicate only a part of his time to white-collar crime, so the additional staffing has made a big impact, he said.

Mortgage fraud rises

The task force is constantly evolving, as the resources required depend on the fraud du jour.

In response to the overwhelming number of foreclosures in the county, the district attorney’s office has contracted with an industry expert whose job it is to help identify anomalies in mortgage paperwork in cases of suspected fraud.

“We have to retool every time there’s a new trend in fraud,” he said. “Without the task force, we wouldn’t be able to afford that expert.”

It isn’t unusual for a single complex case to take a year or more to investigate. The length of each case adds to the burden of an increasing number of financial crimes.

“There are so many out there that we can’t take them all,” Molocznik said. Right now, the DA’s office has 30 white-collar cases under investigation.

Even with resources, white-collar crime investigation can be a daunting task. Molocznik said that the key is to compartmentalize a part of a larger fraud.

“There are a number of aspects that can be pursued in most cases,” he explained. “We have to digest what we can handle.”

But it is important to take time with white-collar cases, since they often involve long, confusing paper trails. If the cases are put together well enough, prosecutors won’t have to worry about trying to bring a jury up to speed on financial and accounting processes.

“I try to put together such a good case that it won’t go to trial,” Molocznik said. Of all of the white-collar cases prosecuted since 2005, none has gone to trial.

Financial crimes often take a long time to surface and take longer to investigate, but there is one element that Molocznik feels makes these cases. In white-collar crime investigation he has access to a witness with no voice that testifies literally in black and white.

“Bank records and accounting records talk to you,” he said. “They tell a story.”

The best part is, the records don’t lie.

Formalize task force?

After 20 years on the job, Molocznik said retirement is just emerging as a glimmer on the horizon, but is still some time off. There are a few things he would like to see accomplished in the white-collar crime area before he decides to hang up his deerstalker.

He would like to see other local agencies get access to the expertise needed to take on complex financial cases. In a perfect situation, local law enforcement, the District Attorney’s office and expert consultants would join together in a task force to fight white-collar crime.

“I’d like to see that become formalized,” he said.

But getting there will be a challenge. Many investigators shy away from taking white-collar crime cases because of the level of involvement required. Molocznik points out that most of the complex cases take six months to one year or more just to bring to the prosecutor. Because of that, the results are hard to measure, he explained. An investigator working only complex financial crimes might only have one case to a peer’s 10 less-complex cases.

“It takes dedication and commitment,” he said.  

Molocznik knows what it feels like to work a very in-depth case for six months, only to have the district attorney turn it down as not prosecutable. That is something, he said, that you can’t let bother you.

Buck said the office is lucky to have Molocznik not only for his financial and fraud training, but also because he enjoys the complex work involved.

“This would not have gotten off the ground without Tony,” he said.

Molocznik counters with praises for Buck’s understanding and dedication to prosecuting white-collar crimes.

“I know it’s the only reason we have the white collar crime task force,” Molocznik said.

In the end, it is the combination of the two law men, along with a banking industry fed up with the professional criminal element, that is supporting the increased focus on white-collar crime.