Member Spotlight: Robert Perez, CFE
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Robert Perez, CFE, first became interested in the anti-fraud industry when he worked in Houston next to Enron. After seeing the fallout for not only Enron employees, but employees of Arthur Andersen and members of the community, he saw the impact fraud could have on hundreds of people. When he moved back to his home state of Louisiana, he became an indirect tax auditor for St. Charles Parish, where he currently works examining the records of large chemical plants and a variety of smaller businesses.
He is active in his community and serves as the president of the ACFE New Orleans Chapter, as well as volunteers as a reserve law enforcement officer with the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office. He is also certified as an instructor in incident response to terrorist bombings, prevention of and response to suicide bombing incidents, and understanding and planning for school bomb incidents.
The day I found out fraud could happen to any organization
My interest in fraud began with Enron’s collapse. In the early 2000s I worked for a large public accounting firm in downtown Houston and my office was next to the Enron building. I had a few acquaintances at Enron and several friends at Arthur Andersen. Enron paid very well and was perceived as offering boundless opportunities to motivated people. One day, while eating lunch somewhere in the downtown tunnels, two senior leaders from Enron’s tax department sat at the next table. While I knew who they were from CPE events, as a junior staffer they did not know me. Like any dutiful associate encouraged to spot potential client development opportunities and report those back to our firm, I naturally eavesdropped on their conversation.
I heard one of them use colorful language to complain that their new, hypercompetitive “up or out” employee evaluation program was causing strife, cratering morale and driving high turnover. Enron hired talented people and some of those talented people would be involuntary heading out, not up. Later, I recognized that those managers effectively described a toxic culture of pressure, where self-interest and survival trumped team and mission, and could lead to trust violations as Dr. Donald Cressey theorized. I certainly did not anticipate the seismic fraud that followed.
I wondered how it was possible that such powerful and prestigious organizations could so rapidly collapse. Back then when many of us thought of the Big 6, it was Arthur Andersen first and all of those other firms distantly second. Some of my Andersen friends fervently believed that they were a cut above; at happy hours it was not unusual to hear one of them casually refer to Andersen not as their firm, but superciliously as “The Firm.” Andersen definitely had an outstanding reputation and was the top choice for many outstanding accounting students. If fraud could take down Andersen, then it could happen to any organization; to think otherwise is complacency or even hubris. Seeing people that I personally knew lose their jobs made fraud very tangible to me.
Building a local community of fraud fighters
Since becoming a CFE, I have been active in my local chapter. When an opportunity to serve as secretary became available, I jumped at it. I am now the president of the New Orleans Chapter, and I can only try to do as good of a job as my predecessor, Lisa Ferrara, CFE, CPA, with Bourgeois Bennett CPA. My main responsibilities are to serve our members, promote the ACFE and the chapter, help organize events and assist our board with whatever needs to be done. At the beginning of every semester, I do a presentation at the University of New Orleans graduate fraud examination class, and I have also spoken at Beta Alpha Psi events.
What I enjoy most about being involved with the ACFE and chapter is meeting and learning from many capable fraud fighters. One of our board members recently nominated me to attend the FBI’s Citizens Academy, where I had the pleasure of meeting many community leaders (now postponed due to COVID-19). Additionally, I teach a class to police cadets on investigating identity theft. The CFE credential and ACFE’s learning opportunities are definitely what afforded me that opportunity. I encourage anyone to become involved with the ACFE and your local chapter.
As president, I always review event registrations to get a feel for the companies and industries attendees represent. I tend to be busy at events, but I try to say hello to everyone and do my best to remember names, faces and organizations for when I see people at future events. Since networking is an important reason people join the chapter, I try to introduce people as appropriate.
A big achievement for me was that previously, the chapter never had a speaker present on AML, so getting one was my top priority for our last conference. Fortunately, one of our board members has contacts at Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and they provided a speaker. While we have always received great support from federal law enforcement, this was the first time we had a speaker from HSI, so I was excited. The conference was an unqualified success and series of firsts. The result is that several new people are now in our group and we hope to build upon this success.
Integrity in all things
I have volunteered as a reserve law enforcement officer with the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office (LPSO) for over 17 years. Getting into law enforcement was almost accidental. Back then, I competed in rifle and pistol matches, and since the LPSO range is open to the public, I became a regular there. The range master encouraged me to apply and eventually I did. Initially, I only wanted to be a range safety officer, but I just fell deeper into it.
Over the years, I have worked in patrol, bicycle patrol, DUI checkpoints, and as a range safety officer and hunter education instructor. I am currently a Rape Aggression Defense instructor and wear the padded suit during simulations. Through DHS and New Mexico Tech, I am certified as an instructor in incident response to terrorist bombings, prevention of and response to suicide bombing incidents and understanding and planning for school bomb incidents.
Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans. Copyright Robert Perez.
One thing I like about the LPSO is that it is accredited by The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). This requires extensive recordkeeping and subjects the agency to auditors scrutinizing our practices. Being accredited is voluntary and the vast majority of U.S. law enforcement organizations are not. CALEA accreditation demonstrates to our community that the sheriff and leadership are committed to a culture of high professional standards, continuous improvement, transparency and accountability. This commitment by leadership sets a tone of integrity throughout the organization.
I do some photography and videography. I like fine art style black and white, (as seen in my online portfolio) and I do headshots and a few weddings too. Through video projects I’ve become good at capturing and editing sound. One of my favorite projects was when I was hired by an attorney to clean up a low-quality, almost inaudible, wiretap recording. By using specialized software, the end result was pretty amazing. Photography can be expensive, so to keep costs down I learned how to cut custom mats and make frames, which I suppose is vertically integrating the hobby.
ACFE membership is open to individuals of all job functions, industries and levels of experience who are interested in the prevention, detection and deterrence of fraud. Our mission is to support you by providing access to the knowledge, resources and training you need to do your job now and at every stage of your career. If you want to level up your anti-fraud career, we can help. So what will it be?
