Live coverage from the ACFE Global Fraud Conference, including anti-fraud articles, session highlights, video clips and photo gallery.
In a recent session for the virtual 2020 ACFE Fraud Conference Canada, mindfulness instructor Trish Tutton provided an overview of how mindfulness practices can put our brains in a state where we can be more creative and innovative, and come up with solutions to problems in our own lives, in our work and for our clients.
Read MoreAt the 2020 ACFE Fraud Conference Canada last week, Alex Benay, the Former Chief Information Officer of Canada and a Digital Innovation Expert and Partner at Digital Solutions, KMPG, had attendees engage in a thought experiment to imagine the world 50 years from now. According to Benay’s hypothesis, this kind of thinking is necessary for countries and businesses to reimagine themselves in our rapidly changing digital age.
To understand the scale of change we could witness in the future, Benay began by analyzing the past. Benay noted the dramatic shift in the economic production model that we’ve witnessed within the past 50 years. To illustrate this claim, he offered a list of firsts:
50 years ago: the invention of the first 16-bit mini computer
40 years ago: the first cassette player, making portable music a reality
30 years ago: the first case of genetic engineering in humans
20 years ago: the first Blackberry
10 years ago: the first all-electric car
5 years ago: the first bionic eye
The founder and former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Dick Pound, has spent decades battling corruption and bribery within the International Olympic Committee. His experiences have made him passionate about rooting out any type of fraud, and he believes there are similarities between the high-stakes world of the Olympics and the international business world. “The win-at-all-costs syndrome produces the same kind of conduct in both scenarios,” he told the ACFE. “When things go international, the clash of cultures can exacerbate opportunities and expectations regarding corruption. International aspects make detection and enforcement more difficult.”
Pound will address more than 200 anti-fraud professionals at the virtual 2020 ACFE Fraud Conference Canada, November 1-4. He will share his stories of fighting bribery relating to cities bidding to host the Olympics, corruption in judging sports and pressure on athletes to dope.
Read MoreIn a recent virtual session at the ACFE Fraud Conference Asia-Pacific, Rupert Evill sought to dispel the stigma and disdain surrounding ethics and compliance departments by teasing out the reasons for this stigma and providing attendees with insider tips to make compliance and ethics trainings memorable and effective. As the founder of EthicsInsight, Evill described his work by saying, “EthicsInsight is trying to simplify the way risk is assessed and benchmarked from a controls perspective so then you can really focus on managing the cultural change aspect.”
Read MoreExamples of organizations employing fraudulent practices due to ethical lapses are in the media almost every week. Sometimes they let the bottom line become more important than adhering to their stated ethical values. Other times, they never cared about having an ethical framework in the first place. Regardless of why ethics were ignored, the outcome is almost always the same: fraud.
“I see fraud as a symptom of an unethical culture,” said Dr. Attracta Lagan, co-principal of Managing Values, in her keynote session at the virtual 2020 ACFE Global Fraud Conference Asia-Pacific. Dr. Lagan stressed to attendees how important it is for anti-fraud professionals to look at behavioral science when it comes to instilling and maintaining an ethical culture in their organization.
Read MoreDuring her keynote session at this year’s virtual ACFE Fraud Conference Asia-Pacific, forensics and nonverbal communication expert Kiki Wong explained how we can deepen our understanding of body language and use that knowledge to conduct more thorough and effective investigations and interviews. As head of forensics at The Forensics Company and director at The Silent Company, Wong has spent years researching micro facial expressions, handwriting analysis and lie detection. Her presentation focused on various in-depth examinations of both nonverbal and verbal deceptive measures to be attuned to when investigating fraud.
Read MoreCarson Block, the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Muddy Waters Capital LLC, made headlines at the beginning of 2020 when he posted a report to Twitter accusing Chinese coffee company Luckin Coffee Inc. of fraudulently inflating sales. In April, the company admitted that more than $300 million of its sales from 2019 were fabricated. Block told the ACFE that when he’s looking at companies to short, he starts with the basics. “It usually starts with companies or stories that seem ‘too good to be true,’” he said. “Then we read transcripts of senior managers speaking to see how promotional the management seems to be.”
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