Javier Pena, Stephen Murphy Spin Hair-Raising Stories of Pablo Escobar’s Terror

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Javier Pena, Stephen Murphy Spin Hair-Raising Stories of Pablo Escobar’s Terror

Pablo Escobar was trapped. The murderous drug cartel lord, and one lone bodyguard, were holed up in a Medellin, Colombia, house, and the Bloque de Busqueda or “Search Bloc”— special operation units of the country’s national police — were closing in.

Javier Pena and Stephen Murphy, retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agents, and consultants and inspiration for the Netflix show, “Narcos,” told Escobar’s sordid story, and their parts in his demise, during the Tuesday afternoon General Session.

“Pablo grew up poor in Medellin,” Pena said. “He started experimenting [with selling] one, two kilos of cocaine. Before it was all over, Pablo Escobar was producing and sending 80% of the cocaine that was reaching the world. … We called him the inventor of narcoterrorism.” At any time, Escobar had 40 to 50 tons of cocaine ready to sell. During Escobar’s heyday, Forbes ranked him the seventh-richest person in the world, Murphy said, with estimated total worth of $8 billion to $30 billion.

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Keynote Speaker Video: Matthew Caruana Galizia

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Keynote Speaker Video: Matthew Caruana Galizia

"If my mother's memory and legacy are destroyed, the criminal and corrupt that she investigated, and who are responsible for her assassination, will have triumphed. And the universal values that my mother worked so hard to defend will have failed,” Matthew Caruana Galizia told attendees at the 31st Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference. Matthew accepted the posthumous 2020 Guardian Award on behalf of his mother, journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was murdered in a car bombing in Malta in 2017.

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Seen on the Screen: How COVID-19 Might Shift the Anti-Fraud Profession

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Seen on the Screen: How COVID-19 Might Shift the Anti-Fraud Profession

“I believe COVID-19 will change the anti-fraud field by increasing our reliance on data analytics, electronic documentation and digital communication. In-person interviews and access to physical assets, such as inventory and offices, are going to be rare as companies continue to shift to remote work. The anti-fraud field must continue to evolve its methods detect and investigate fraud as the fraudsters are already finding new methods and reasons to conduct fraud through the new normal.” — Keith Louie, CFE, Senior Auditor at PayPal

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What Interviewers Need to Know About Memory

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What Interviewers Need to Know About Memory

Have you ever told a story only to have someone tell you that you remembered it incorrectly? If so, you probably said something like, “I could have sworn that was what happened!” As I, and my children, get older, I admit that this happens to me more and more. It’s harmless in most circumstances, but dangerous for witnesses who are being interviewed in an investigation of a crime.

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Keynote Speakers Video: Javier Pena and Stephen Murphy

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Keynote Speakers Video: Javier Pena and Stephen Murphy

Retired DEA agents Javier Pena and Stephen Murphy took attendees at the 31st Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference through the wild story of how they tracked infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar for six years before capturing and killing him. Escobar was known for his extreme violence and immense wealth while he ran the Medellin drug cartel in Colombia.

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Keynote Speaker Video: Nicholas Thompson

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Keynote Speaker Video: Nicholas Thompson

"When new people come in because there's change, it's sometimes harder to spot anomalous behaviors,” said the editor in chief of WIRED Nicholas Thompson in his Tuesday morning keynote address at the 31st Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference. “Of course spotting anomalous behaviors is how a lot of fraud detection works. You know the patterns of what we do, you look for things that don't quite fit those patterns and you identify that as fraud."

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Thou Shalt Not Steal: How Religious Groups Can Fall Victim to Fraud

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Thou Shalt Not Steal: How Religious Groups Can Fall Victim to Fraud

According to the Pew Research Center, 84% of people around the world affiliate themselves with a religious organization. With such a large majority of people connected to religion, churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious centers are seen as pillars of the community. They are often involved charitable works such as distributing food and supplies for the needy or providing moral counsel for congregants. In the U.S., religious institutions are classified as tax-exempt and viewed as public charities; they are technically nonprofits for tax purposes.

However, even groups that purport to do good works and are supposed to be run by people of unblemished character can fall victim to fraud. In his session “Fleecing the Flock: Reducing the Risk of Fraud at Religious and Community Organizations,” at the 31st Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference, Rollie Dimos, CFE, told attendees that unfortunately organizations like churches can provide fertile ground for fraudsters. Dimos, the director of internal audit for the Assemblies of God National Office said, “[Fraud happens] even in these organizations with high morals, high ethics, high integrity.”

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