ACFE Publishes 10th Edition of the Report to the Nations

FROM THE PRESIDENT AND CEO

Bruce Dorris, J.D., CFE, CPA

With the publication of the 2018 Report to the Nations, I am struck by how this study, like the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners itself, is in many ways a tribute to the vision and dedication of our founder and chairman, Dr. Joseph T. Wells, CFE, CPA. When Dr. Wells created the ACFE, he did so because he recognized there was a fundamental flaw in how organizations were attempting to prevent, detect and investigate fraud. His goal in founding our association was to establish a body of knowledge and training that would help anti-fraud professionals reduce the incidence of fraud and white-collar crime.

One thing Dr. Wells came to recognize in the early days of the ACFE was that the anti-fraud profession suffered from a glaring weakness: we simply did not know enough about the crimes we were trying to fight. So, with the aid of ACFE researchers John Warren and Andi McNeal, he set out to address the problem by commissioning the first Report to the Nation in 1996.

The 2018 report is the 10th edition of Dr. Wells’ study, and the Report to the Nations remains the most comprehensive and widely quoted source of occupational fraud data in the world. Based on information from real fraud cases as reported by CFEs from around the globe, the report continues to be a tremendous resource for those interested in how occupational fraud is committed, how it is detected, who commits it, and how organizations can protect themselves from it.

On behalf of the ACFE, I am proud to present the 2018 edition of the Report to the Nations.