Wall Street Judge: Cynicism Tempered by Fraud Examiners' Efforts

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Wall Street Judge: Cynicism Tempered by Fraud Examiners' Efforts

Cressey Award recipient Judge Jed S. Rakoff said the real winners of the honor should be the members of the ACFE because they root out fraud to an unprecedented degree. “I wish I could say the same for the federal government,” he said during his Monday Opening Session address. “But I am regrettably, convincingly convinced that the federal government and the federal system of justice has somewhat retrogressed over the past couple of decades … in the prosecution of fraud … when it’s perpetrated by people at the highest levels of the financial establishment.”

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How to Master the Edge of Ethics

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How to Master the Edge of Ethics

Ethical dilemmas. We find ourselves in these situations every day. Do I cut the person off in the lane next to me so I can get to work on time? Do I go back and pay for the grapes that were hidden at the bottom of my grocery cart that the check-out person missed? Do I lie about my address on my daughter’s registration forms to get her into a better public school? Do I report the contract work I did on my tax forms?

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Why Let Truth Get in the Way?

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Why Let Truth Get in the Way?

Imagine you’re driving a car and suddenly a squirrel darts out in front of you. What is your immediate reaction? You’ll swerve or break — or if you’re one of three attendees in the session, “Why Let the Truth Get in the Way: How Our Implicit Biases Affect Investigations,” you’ll accelerate. Do you think about swerving or braking in the split second that the critter crosses your car? 

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Heard in the Halls: Diverse Sessions Provide a Wealth of Knowledge

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Heard in the Halls: Diverse Sessions Provide a Wealth of Knowledge

"I'm looking forward to this session on body language because all of the other sessions I'm going to are very textbook, but this session I don't think you can learn from a textbook. I think you really need to hear from someone who has that experience and exposure to it. So I'm really excited to be able to learn firsthand from someone who can read body language, who can tell you what those red flags are and what certain signals mean." — Patti Buck-Torrey, CFE, Manager of Internal Controls, FedEx Ground

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Why We Choose to Travel Inside the Mind of a Fraudster

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Why We Choose to Travel Inside the Mind of a Fraudster

Andrew Fastow, the former CFO of Enron, often refers to himself now as the Chief Loophole Officer. He bent and molded accounting rules to fit Enron’s purposes. He made the numbers into what helped him and the company’s executives make the most profit and helped shareholders sleep well at night. Technically legal? Yes. Ethical? No.

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Heard in the Halls: Taking Conference Knowledge Into the Field

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Heard in the Halls: Taking Conference Knowledge Into the Field

"What I'm really looking forward to this year is the work we're going to be learning about in international markets. We're an American company and we're expanding into Latin America, and one of the classes speaks directly to fraud in Latin America. So we're really excited to start learning about fraud in other countries and how that impacts us as we expand globally. I feel like that has been a big driver in why I wanted to attend this year." — Samantha Weeks, CFE, Business Risk Analyst, Southwest Airlines

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