Employees Want Integrity and Trust When They Report Conflicts of Interest

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Employees Want Integrity and Trust When They Report Conflicts of Interest

Employees may frequently wish to engage in activities within their normal scope of work due to passion, interest, social responsibility or financial gain. It’s your organization’s responsibility to educate and train employees so that they are aware of any potential conflicts of interest in relation to external activities. This will allow both the employee and the organization to avoid compromising situations.

This general approach can provide a guiding pathway to employees who otherwise might be nervous to raise a potential conflict-of-interest situation.

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The Relativity of Ethics

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The Relativity of Ethics

Where do you draw your ethical line? Would you take a coworker’s apple from the community fridge? Would you snag a couple of pens from your employer? Would you pay the parking meter if there’s only ten minutes left on the clock? Would you embezzle $10,000 from a company worth $50 million? In the most recent episode of Fraud Talk, John Gill, J.D., CFE, ACFE Vice President-Education, sits down with Art Markman, Ph.D., a professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas, to discuss how and where we all draw our ethical lines.

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Anti-Fraud Association CEO: The Business Roundtable’s Statement in Line With Fraud Prevention

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Anti-Fraud Association CEO: The Business Roundtable’s Statement in Line With Fraud Prevention

Leaders of some of the largest companies in the U.S. made a surprising announcement when they redefined a corporation’s purpose as not solely providing profit for shareholders. The Business Roundtable, a group of nearly 200 members include the CEOs of companies such as Amazon, Coca-Cola, Deloitte and Nasdaq, released a statement asserting that corporations should be committed to the needs and well-being of all of their stakeholders — including employees, customers, their local community and suppliers —  as opposed to just their shareholders. This statement of purpose marks a departure from the commonly accepted business philosophy that the sole obligation of business is to increase profits in order to maximize value for shareholders.  

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The ACFE's Code of Professional Ethics

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The ACFE's Code of Professional Ethics

On the CFE Exam there are a few questions about the ACFE Code of Professional Ethics. The good news is that most of these questions are very straightforward and shouldn’t give you any trouble. Things like “don’t violate the law” or “don’t engage in conflicts of interest” are pretty self-explanatory. But there are two areas that I have found sometimes cause people a little confusion.

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DNA Test Kits Reveal Decades-Long Fertility Fraud

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DNA Test Kits Reveal Decades-Long Fertility Fraud

Matt White, Jacoba Ballard and Heather Woock all grew up in or around Indianapolis, Indiana, never having met one another and never imagining that they might share the same biological father. In the years 2014 to 2016, all three were in their 30s and all individually decided to partake in the recent popularity of DNA test kits, which led them to discover their shocking biological connection. After a series of messages and meetups with others who shared the same DNA, the half-siblings gradually discovered a whole circle of more than 50 people who share half of their genetic makeup. The uniting parent? Donald Cline, a fertility doctor who secretly used his own sperm to impregnate patients seeking his counsel during the 1970s and 80s.

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