When It's Okay to Talk to Strangers: Attending a Professional Conference for the First Time

GUEST BLOGGER

Ross Pry, CFE
ACFE Director of Membership

Attending the ACFE Global Fraud Conference for the first time can be exciting, but also intimidating. With more than 3,000 fraud fighters, 70 breakout sessions, a hall full of exhibitors and the sights and sounds of Las Vegas just a few steps away, where do you start?

I recently spoke with Eric Strom, CFE, who provided advice for first-time conference attendees. Eric will be attending his 11th ACFE Global Fraud Conference this year.

When was your first ACFE Annual Conference? Where was it?
The first conference I attended was the 17th Annual ACFE Fraud Conference in Las Vegas.

What keeps you coming back?
The opportunities to network with different professionals (private sector, legal, law enforcement) who are all involved in fighting fraud is unmatched at any other event. 

What tips would you offer to first time conference attendees?
Bring plenty of business cards and make a point to talk with strangers at every opportunity. After the event, keep in contact with your new friends because they can help with your investigations.

What are the “can’t-miss” events to go to at the conference?
You can't miss the Networking Reception and the closing speech by the fraudster.

There are so many breakout sessions to choose from. How do you pick which ones to attend?Typically start with your track (audit, investigations, legal, etc.) and then branch out if you've already taken a course or if something looks interesting in another track.

What three things should you definitely bring with you to the conference?
Business cards, a cell phone camera to take photos of interesting PowerPoint slides and mouthwash. :)

What is one piece of advice you have for first time attendees to help make their conference a success?
Get out of your comfort zone. Don't hesitate to introduce yourself to someone new and share your passion with them.

Whether this is your first, 11th or 27th ACFE Global Fraud Conference, there are always exciting educational sessions to participate in, connections to make and ideas to take home. I look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas! 

Plan your conference at FraudConference.com.

Convicted Enron CFO Says Committing Fraud is Easier Than Ever

“It is easy to find examples of Enron-like behavior today in companies from the U.S. to Asia,” says former Enron CFO and convicted fraudster Andrew Fastow. In the wake of scandals like the Olympus fraud and the recently uncovered emissions scandal committed by Volkswagen, he believes his story is even more relevant today.
 
“Committing fraud is easier than ever. The tools available to commit fraud have increased exponentially since the 1990s, even since Enron, and more public companies are taking advantage of them,” he told the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. He will be speaking at the 2015 ACFE Asia-Pacific Fraud Conference in Singapore November 4-6 and thinks that fraud is not only growing in frequency, but also expanding its reaches globally. He said, “People are people, no matter what country or region they are from. The drivers of fraud and executives’ rationalizations of actions that may be fraudulent are universal.”
 
It seems like after fraud cases, the first public response is often for the CEO or chairman to step down from the company or organization. While that might placate shareholders and parts of the public, Fastow warns that a more comprehensive overhaul of company culture may be needed. “Culture starts at the top … But it doesn’t start at the top with pretty statements. Employees will see through empty rhetoric and will emulate the nature of top management decision-making. If top management were to make a statement or decision that is misleading, for example, employees will see that clearly, and they will adjust their behavior accordingly in order to emulate it. A robust ‘Code of Conduct’ can be emasculated by one action of the CEO or CFO.”
 
The 2015 ACFE Asia-Pacific Fraud Conference will be one of the largest gatherings of fraud fighters in the region. Fastow believes that the attendees of the conference serve more than just a clerical purpose, but are actually one of the best tools in the arsenal against fraud. “The role of fraud examiners needs to be reinforced and expanded. Fraud examiners must not just be the police who catch the problem that has already occurred; they must become the conscience of the company.”
 
Fastow pled guilty to two counts of securities fraud and served a six-year prison sentence. He has since assisted the Enron shareholders in recovering approximately $6 billion and volunteers his time for speaking engagements at training conferences, universities and business groups around the world. As of today, he is the only former Enron executive that has accepted full responsibility for his role in the scandal.
 
Fastow will speak at the conference along with Christophe Durand, Interpol’s Head of Cyber Strategy, Barry Wong, Vice President and Head of Asia Pacific for customer fraud management for MasterCard Worldwide and James D. Ratley, CFE, the President and CEO of the ACFE.
 
Register now for your chance to attend the 2015 ACFE Asia-Pacific Fraud Conference November 4-6 at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

Freeh Lauds ACFE for Professionalism and Reputation

LIVE FROM THE ACFE GLOBAL FRAUD CONFERENCE

Dick Carozza, CFE
Editor, Fraud Magazine

“What’s critical about your organization and reputation,” said former FBI Director Louis Freeh during the Monday Working Lunch, “is the interaction and interconnectivity that you bring between the government and the private anti-fraud community and establishment. That did not exist for many years for the most of the history of the FBI.”

Freeh said during his FBI tenure he often had ACFE members accompany him and become heavily involved in investigations. Now as chair of Freeh Group International Solutions, LLC, a Pepper Hamilton LLP group, he continues to closely work with Certified Fraud Examiners (CFEs).

Freeh, during his keynote, shared some of the lessons he learned during his FBI tenure and extolled the virtues of ACFE members. 

“One of the biggest things that has changed is the technology that is available to investigators,” he said. “I just spoke at the second circuit [judges’] conference in New York. And the theme of all the judges in that circuit was the impact of technology on being a judge and particularly focusing on cyber crime, cyber technology and cyber terrorism. There were a number from leading technology companies giving insights as it impacts judges — judges who have to explain complicated cases to juries but also have to understand the provenance and integrity of evidence, which now comes from different platforms.”

Freeh reminisced about the state of technology in 1975 in the New York City FBI office. “In one case, we had … to surreptitiously record an organized crime guy’s conversation so we called our lab and we asked for the best cutting-edge technology they had. So they sent up a pair of shoes. The microphone was embedded in the shoes! Probably they were 12 ½ quadruple E shoes. And the first statement by the subject on the tape was, ‘John, what’s the matter with your feet?’ ”

Though technology is now light years from 1975 microphone shoes, some things have not changed, Freeh said. “The most important ‘value add’ that [ACFE members] bring to the anti-fraud community and the law enforcement community is … incredible experience and depth. 

“It’s not a coincidence that two of your largest government communities [with ACFE members] are the IRS and the FBI. Because the synergies and the ability to share information there is unprecedented in our history,” he said. “You bring, I know from my own investigations, and sitting on boards, tremendous credibility because of your education, your certification, your reputation is just a sterling contribution to the anti-fraud community and the efforts that you bring on behalf of private clients and corporations,” Freeh said. 

“Many of you work for the government by contract or otherwise and that information and that relationship is a very, very special one. It evolved over a long period of time. And the Bureau has evolved over a long period of time,” he said. 

“The disability that the Bureau, and most government agencies have, is that they tend to react to external changes and tend to train, equip and pass statutory authorizations as a result of things that are coming to them from the outside as opposed to proactive, inside innovative thinking,” Freeh said.

He said the first FBI bureau investigators in 1908 — Treasury Department employees — weren’t gunslingers or bank robbery investigators; they were accountants. “They had no weapons; they had no authority to arrest anybody. That didn’t come until 1933. But it evolved due to the necessity of dealing with financial crime.” Then more outside changes influenced the FBI to investigate bank robberies, organized crime and narcotics, he said. 

He said that after 9/11, counter-terrorism has become the necessary, but totally, consuming preoccupation of resources and programs and statutory authority. “Now, finally after the recession, the programs and the focus on serious global economic crime and cybercrime have been resuscitated,” Freeh said.    

You can find more coverage from the ACFE Global Fraud Conference at FraudConference.com.

Getting Ready for Fraud Week 2013

GUEST BLOGGER

Scott Patterson
Senior Media Relations Specialist

It is hard to believe that is has been almost 10 months since our last International Fraud Awareness Week. What is impressive to me is that when we wrapped up the week of anti-fraud events and awareness, there wasn’t a sense of, “see you next year!” Instead, organizations continued to sign up as Official Partners and ask about things they could do in the coming weeks and months to further the fight against fraud.

We quickly grew to a list of more than 800 supporters worldwide, many of them already preparing for our upcoming 2013 Fraud Week, Nov. 3-9. And like all of the Fraud Week’s that have come and gone, this year’s grassroots campaign to raise awareness provides unmatched opportunities to advance the fight against fraud.

Supporters host various activities leading up to and during the week to help support the cause. For example, a two-day training conference, “Targeting Fraud – Safeguarding Integrity,” will be hosted Nov. 6-7 as a collaboration between Franklin University, National White Collar Crime Center, Ohio Ethics Commission, Ohio Inspector General and Ohio Investigators Association. The conference is a follow-up to the successful inaugural conference held during last year’s Fraud Week.

It is free to sign up as an Official Supporter of Fraud Week, and the ACFE provides training tools and other resources to help organizations shine a spotlight on fraud. Among the resources we’ve added to FraudWeek.com this year (so far) – links to Fraud Talk (the ACFE podcast series), our Fraud Videos Library and our Fraud Prevention Resources CD-ROM. More tools for raising awareness and fighting fraud will be posted in the coming weeks leading up to November.

Perhaps your organization will use this occasion to survey your employees to assess levels of fraud awareness. One easy way for businesses and government agencies to spread the word is by including anti-fraud information in blogs, social media, e-newsletters and other communications.

Also, it is never too early to start following Fraud Week activities on social media. Search the hashtag #fraudweek on Twitter for real-time updates and information about Fraud Week.

To learn more about International Fraud Awareness Week, and to add your organization as an Official Supporter, visit FraudWeek.com. We look forward to hearing about what you have planned.

ACFE to Co-Host First Seminar Ever in Gulf Region

GUEST BLOGGER

Anil Narayan
ACFE Global Business Development Manager

Bahrain? An event in Bahrain? That was the general reaction from my colleagues in our Marketing department when I announced that the ACFE was planning to hold its first ever multi-day public seminar, Fraud Prevention and Fraud Risk Management, in the Gulf region 22-24 September 2013.

The ACFE Global Fraud Conference, as well as our seminars around the U.S., draws a significant number of attendees from Gulf nations. In many cases, the roundtrip air travel time for members in the Middle East is actually longer than the duration of our multi-day courses – apparently only a minor inconvenience for anti-fraud professionals craving ACFE material.

When the Bahrain Institute of Banking & Finance (BIBF) contacted the ACFE in early January about a collaborative effort, we were immediately impressed with their organisation’s commitment to providing quality training to Bahraini nationals employed in the financial industry. Backed by the Central Bank of Bahrain, BIBF has grown over the last 30 years to also provide educational seminars on leadership, accounting, IT and Islamic Banking while expanding their footprint into 18 countries.

Having such a reputable partner in the region made the decision to hold a seminar in Bahrain an easy one. BIBF has selected the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Manama as the venue for the three-day course. Open to the public, Fraud Prevention and Fraud Risk Management details why traditional internal controls can be ineffective in preventing many frauds and how to combat fraud more effectively and economically. The instructor will also explain how organisations can integrate anti-fraud initiatives into their risk management programs.

If you are an anti-fraud professional living in the Gulf region, we highly encourage you to register for this inaugural seminar. With the expected success of this event, we are confident that the ACFE will be returning to the Middle East in 2014 and in the years to come.

To register and find more information about the upcoming seminar, click here.