When Dreams Turn Into Nightmares: How Idealism Can Lead to Fraud in Nonprofits

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When Dreams Turn Into Nightmares: How Idealism Can Lead to Fraud in Nonprofits

In most cases, nonprofits are started with good intentions. Maybe there’s one person who feels a call to improve some area of life around them. Sometimes it’s a group who has a mission to make a difference in the world. So why would anyone try and steal from them? That’s one of the questions ACFE Regent Kenneth Dieffenbach, CFE, addressed in his session, “Fraud in the Nonprofit Sector: Unique Risks and Opportunities,” at the 31st Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference.

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Betrayed Bank Assistant Vice President Embezzles $22 Million as Payback

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Betrayed Bank Assistant Vice President Embezzles $22 Million as Payback

A misplaced paycheck stub started it all. Gary Foster, a former assistant vice president in Citigroup’s internal treasury finance department, said the stub — left next to an office printer — showed that a subordinate made $10,000 more than him.

“I was shocked,” Foster said during an interview with John Gill, J.D., CFE, ACFE vice president – education, at the Wednesday closing General Session. “I was in love with the company. I felt completely devastated. I’m working like crazy. … I felt betrayed.”

During the next two years, Foster’s resentment against Citibank festered. Finally, he realized that he needed some payback for what he deserved.

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When Humanitarians Defraud Those in Need

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When Humanitarians Defraud Those in Need

According to recent data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 79.5 million people around the world were forcibly displaced at the end of 2019. That means 1% of the world’s population are currently refugees. With so many people in need of aid, the work of charitable organizations is more necessary than ever. Unfortunately, aid organizations can prove ripe targets for fraudsters.

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Protecting the Aging Population From Fraud

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Protecting the Aging Population From Fraud

It’s no secret that fraudsters have few, if any, scruples. They are willing to lie to, swindle and cheat anyone who can give them money. As much as we would like to think that certain segments of society should be considered “off-limits” to bad actors, the opposite is normally true. No situation makes this quite as clear as the multitude of scams that target the aging population.

In her session, “Protecting the Aging and Vulnerable Population from Fraud in Uncertain Times,” at the 31st Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference, Nadia Wright, CFE, taught attendees about a number of the fraud schemes that target the aging. Wright, senior fraud investigator for LPL Financial, said most scams fall into one of two categories: the long game or the quick hit.

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Growth in All the Wrong Places: Navigating Fraud Challenges in the Emerging Marijuana Industry

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Growth in All the Wrong Places: Navigating Fraud Challenges in the Emerging Marijuana Industry

“Welcome to campus, for those of you attending this session,” said Justin Breidenbach, CFE, CPA, Associate Professor of Accounting at Ohio Wesleyan University during his Wednesday morning session. Breidenbach streamed his presentation from his office on the empty Ohio campus on the last day of the virtual 31st Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference.

Also an accounting consultant with his own firm, Breidenbach Consulting Services LLC, he wasn’t tasked to actually speak about accounting. “So, how does a CFE, CPA, full-time professor get into something like this?” The “this” he was referring to is marijuana fraud. “There’s a lot of stigma and curiosity about this topic,” he said.

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How to Slow Down Your Hamster Wheel of Emotions During Times of Crisis

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How to Slow Down Your Hamster Wheel of Emotions During Times of Crisis

I don’t mean to be selfish, but boy did I need to hear Lisa Walker’s session this morning. Walker, Ph.D., MCC and owner of Walker Consulting LLC, spoke to attendees about how to effectively communicate, and thrive, during times of crisis.

Combine the pandemic with social unrest and we have the combination of heightened emotions, shifting priorities, tension, discomfort, moments of clarity and the most common word I saw in the chat room of the session, anxiety. But, as Walker pointed out, “We still have to be in control. We have work to do and we have to get things done.”

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Don't be a Typhoid Mary: Health Care Fraud During a Pandemic

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Don't be a Typhoid Mary: Health Care Fraud During a Pandemic

In the early 1900s, a woman named Mary Malone, an immigrant from Ireland, began work in New York City as a cook for a large family. While working in the home, 11 people got sick with typhoid fever. A sanitary engineer — we would call them an investigator or tracer today — traced this outbreak to Mary. He discovered that Mary had worked with eight other families, seven of which who also experienced outbreaks of typhoid fever. And thus, she was given the moniker Typhoid Mary.

“What was interesting about Mary was that she didn’t show any symptoms,” said Jacqueline Bloink, CFE, a consultant and speaker at the virtual 31st Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference.

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