Recently, I was scanning through a newspaper when I came across an article about women who seek revenge on ex-boyfriends. While some of the ladies engaged in the sort of slashed tires/Ex-Lax-cake tactics that one might expect, others resorted to arson, assault, and even branding. One woman hid a marble in the door of her ex's Audi GT, where it rattled for weeks until he spent a fortune having the car taken apart. Another plastered her neighborhood with pictures of the boyfriend along with the words "I have herpes."

Wow. Although I have never had reason to doubt the veracity of the New York Daily News, these stories sounded a little ridiculous to me. Of course, the arson and branding incidents are a matter of public record, but the other bunny-boiler behavior sounded like urban legends. After all, who has this much time and money to devote to torturing ex-boyfriends?

Apparently, a lot of people.

Rapper 50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) lost his home on Long Island Friday morning to a suspicious fire that a firefighter says engulfed the house unusually quickly, which could mean accelerants were involved.

50 Cent bought the house in January of last year for $1.4 million, and has been fighting over it with Shaniqua Tompkins, his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his 11-year-old son Marquise. They broke up and 50 Cent told her to pay rent ($4,500 a month) or get out. She filed a lawsuit saying that he promised to put the house in her name and is now breaching that contract.

Baby momma says she was upstairs in the house when she heard something crash through the window downstairs. I'm shocked. Shocked, I say that she wasn't at the point of origin of the arson-er- fire.

Those who got out from the house include Shaniqua, Marquise, her two other children , and Shaniqua's aunt and the aunt's child. No wonder Shaniqua didn't want to get out. They've got quite a family affair going on there, and who wouldn't want to live in a big house for free?

So what are the chances that this is a little case of "if you won't let me have the house, then you aren't going to have it either?" Except if that was Shaniqua's idea, it was a dumb one. I hope 50 Cent is smart enough to have insurance. He'll have the money and she'll be homeless. Not a good plan at all. If there was one, of course.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

News reports say that as the number of mortgage foreclosures increases, so do the number of "suspicious" fires. When the fire occurs mere days before a homeowner will be forced to leave their house due to foreclosure, it obviously creates suspicion.

Some homeowners do it to get revenge on the mortgage company or bank. Others do it thinking that they will collect insurance money that can be used to prevent the foreclosure. Check out this video on setting houses on fire, especially in areas with higher rates of foreclosure.


Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.