June 29, 2017

Investigating Cash Skimming Cases

June 29, 2017/ Courtney Howell

They are impossible to solve. They are too time consuming. The documents don’t exist. Tiffany Couch, CFE, CPA/CFF, Principal Acuity Forensics, reviewed these three myths surrounding cash skimming schemes to start off her breakout session at the 28th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference.

She shared four case studies to dispel these myths and illustrate a few ideas on how to effectively investigate and prove cash skimming schemes. We’ll take a deeper look at one of them, which she dubbed the “Busy Mom” scheme.

June 26, 2017

Convicted Bank Fraudster Thankful to Attendees for Allowing ‘Lex Luthor’ to Talk to the Justice League

June 26, 2017/ Dick Carozza

The contrition of convicted fraudsters* who speak to attendees at the end of each ACFE Global Fraud Conference ranges widely. Some are desperately sorry and others are still rationalizing. Former bank executive James Scalzo, who went to prison for bank loan frauds totaling $1.4 million, seemed to want to convince attendees of the full repentance of his crimes.

June 26, 2017

Fraud and Abuse in the Current U.S. Health Care Environment

June 26, 2017/ Emily Primeaux

Alex is a college student who makes great grades, is active in his college fraternity and has excellent health-care coverage. One day, Alex gives his insurance card to a friend in his fraternity house because his friend broke his arm in an intramural basketball game, but doesn’t have health insurance.

June 22, 2017

Convicted Fraudster: James Scalzo

June 22, 2017/ Emily Primeaux

During Wednesday morning's closing session, convicted fraudster* James Scalzo explained how he believes that when people get to a certain level of authority in the banking industry, they have the tendency to use their influence to push deals through to make their numbers look better and their commissions larger.

June 21, 2017

Keynote Speaker: Eugene Soltes

June 21, 2017/ Emily Primeaux

During Tuesday morning's General Session, Eugene Soltes broke down the psychology of white-collar criminals. "The victims in most frauds are both psychologically and physically distant," he said.

June 21, 2017

Keynote Speaker: Andrew Jennings

June 21, 2017/ Emily Primeaux

Guardian Award winner and investigative journalist Andrew Jennings thanks attendees for his award from his home in Scotland via Skype. Jennings has worked over the past 20 years to expose corruption within FIFA, the International Olympic Committee and other international organizations.

June 20, 2017

Paving the Path to Truth

June 20, 2017/ Courtney Howell

Andrew Price and Lisa Chafin’s breakout session, “Building the Perfect Investigations Team to Find, Eliminate and Remediate Misconduct” kicked off with a two-minute therapy session. Price requested that those in the room turn to their neighbor and share a few pain points they’ve encountered when working on an investigative team. As the room grew louder and as voices grew more animated, Price commented, “It sounds like we’ve got a lot of pain in this room.”

After hearing some of the points — unclear objectives, misaligned priorities, personal conflict — Price and Chafin outlined five key elements of an effective cross-functional investigations team.

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