A no-show job or fictitious employment is a paid position that ostensibly requires the holder to perform duties, but for which no work, or even attendance, is actually expected. The awarding of no-show jobs is a form of

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

corporate corruption In criminology, corporate crime refers to crimes committed either by a corporation (i.e., a business entity having a separate legal personality from the natural persons that manage its activities), or by individuals acting on behalf of a corpor ...

. A no-work job is a similar paid position for which no work is expected, but for which attendance at the job site is required. Upon auditing or inspection, personnel assigned to a no-work job may be falsely justified to the controllers as waiting for work tasks or not being needed "right now." For example: no-show or no-work jobs may be used during illegal activities for scamming a construction project to generate extra payout or to provide

alibi An alibi (, from the Latin, '' alibī'', meaning "somewhere else") is a statement by a person under suspicion in a crime that they were in a different place when the offence was committed. During a police investigation, all suspects are usually a ...

Organized crime and corruption

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' has written: "The no-show job has long played a central role in the annals of

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

and corruption in New York, offering an efficient way for crooked politicians, union officials,

mobsters A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level ...

and all manner of miscreants to funnel kickbacks and bribes to friends, family members, business associates and even themselves". Philip Carlo, in his biography of

Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso Anthony Salvatore Casso (May 21, 1942 – December 15, 2020), nicknamed "Gaspipe", was an American mobster and underboss of the Lucchese crime family. During his career in organized crime, he was regarded as a "homicidal maniac" in the Italian-A ...

, writes that no-show jobs are "a classic

Mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

setup" and that such positions were highly prized among mobsters. A 2012 report of the

Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor (WCNYH) was a regulatory agency in the Port of New York and New Jersey in the northeast of the United States. The bi-state agency was founded in 1953 by a Congressionally authorized compact between New ...

found that "no-show jobs held by relatives of mobsters and other well-connected people continue to vex government officials trying to make the ports more efficient and more competitive". In the past, no-show jobs were also an aspect of corruption in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. No-show jobs continue to play a role in corruption cases in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, where they have had a long history.

Corporate fraud

In the corporate world, "no-show" employees—also called ghost employees—usually have some family or personal relationship to a manager or supervisor. In the corporate world, this is considered a type of

payroll A payroll is a list of employment, employees of a company who are entitled to receive compensation as well as other work benefits, as well as the amounts that each should obtain. Along with the amounts that each employee should receive for time ...

fraud. Fraud

audit An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon." Auditing al ...

s seek to detect such practices.Leonard W. Vona, ''The Fraud Audit: Responding to the Risk of Fraud in Core Business Systems'' (John Wiley & Sons, 2011), pp. 214-15.

Tax consequences

Somewhat related to the aforementioned practice, in jurisdictions with

progressive income tax A progressive tax is a tax in which the tax rate increases as the taxable amount increases. The term ''progressive'' refers to the way the tax rate progresses from low to high, with the result that a taxpayer's average tax rate is less than the ...

ation business owners may place non-arms-length persons (especially family members) on their payroll at salaries for which they perform no work, or alternatively perform limited duties which an arms-length employee would be willing to perform for substantially lower compensation. This results in the salary, if being subject to any tax at all, being taxed at a much lower rate than if the owners had paid themselves the same gross compensation in addition to the salary and/or dividends declared. This practice is generally considered

tax evasion Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to red ...

by government revenue authorities, as opposed to

tax avoidance Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to one's own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable. A tax shelter is one type of tax avoidance, and tax havens are jurisdictions that facilitate reduced taxe ...

, although proving tax evasion in such cases can be difficult.

References

{{reflist Corruption Organized crime activity Organized crime terminology

Organized crime and corruption

Corporate fraud

Tax consequences

See also

References