Live coverage from the ACFE Global Fraud Conference, including anti-fraud articles, session highlights, video clips and photo gallery.
Takara Small, a technology expert, journalist, podcaster and media personality, took the virtual stage during the ACFE’s 2021 Fraud Conference Canada to discuss the importance of a proactive approach toward minimizing fraud risk. Her presentation engaged virtual attendees and emphasized due diligence and education.
Read MoreThe Wirecard scandal was one of Germany’s biggest accounting frauds, and many anti-fraud professionals followed the saga of its crash with baited breath. It makes sense, then, that virtual attendees of the ACFE Fraud Conference Asia-Pacific eagerly attended the conversation between Pav Gill, a lawyer best known as the Wirecard whistleblower, and Stefania Palma, a Financial Times Singapore correspondent who helped Gill break the story.
Wirecard, a German payment processor and financial services provider, crashed in 2020 after admitting to a €1.9 billion misrepresentation of funds. While the fraud rocked the fintech world at large, it also forever altered the life of Gill and his former colleagues. Given his significant role in the company’s downfall, Gill offered valuable insight during his conversation with Palma, which offered a platform for him to share his story and to address the lessons learned.
Read MoreDima Ghawi began her session at the 32nd Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference with a question for virtual attendees: “Why do you believe talking about DEI is important?” While she waited for responses to filter through the chat, she shared a story about her friend whose personal and professional life suffered when he felt like he had to hide part of his identity. Afraid to inform his workplace of his sexual orientation because he felt the community would no longer accept him, Ghawi’s friend started drinking heavily as a coping mechanism, which affected the way he performed at work. To summarize her story, Ghawi stated, “It affects all of us when we are being discriminated…emotionally, physically and at a genetic level.” Therein lies the answer to her opening question.
Read MoreSome cyberattacks are so groundbreaking that it takes some time before we can fully examine what happened and what we can learn from the incident. Such was the case with the SolarWinds cyberattack, which was the largest attack of its kind to date. In a virtual session during the 32nd Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference, Stephen Head, CFE, who specializes in information security, recounted the attack and outlined how organizations can take steps right now to build better protection.
Read MoreIf there’s one lesson anti-fraud professionals should take from the trials of 2020, Abed Bazzi, CFE, encourages people to grasp the importance of a robust fraud risk management plan. In his virtual 2021 ACFE Fraud Conference Middle East session, Bazzi, a partner in the Forensic Services practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, emphasized how both fraud risk and actual fraud have increased within the past year, and he urged businesses to build resilience to be ready to respond during crisis moments.
Bazzi began by explaining how the Middle East experienced a “dual shock” in 2020 due to both the pandemic and lower oil prices. These combined occurrences affected the economic cycles, increasing financial pressures on citizens and companies and heightening fraud risk levels.
Read MoreInterviewing suspects can be one of the most valuable and illuminating components of any investigation. It’s crucial for fraud examiners to constantly evaluate and improve their tactics and approaches.
In an enlightening virtual session titled “Interviewing the Fraudster: A Strategic Approach” during the 2021 Fraud Conference Europe, Jonathan Davison shared anecdotes from his professional career to exemplify how interviewing has evolved and explained new strategies that viewers might incorporate into their investigations.
Read MoreDuring the 2021 ACFE Women’s Summit, in the first keynote of the day, the ACFE’s Director of Research, Andi McNeal, CFE, CPA, introduced two women who have been championing the work of whistleblowers, sharing their stories and working to erase the stigma behind whistleblowing.
Erika Cheung and Cynthia Cooper engaged the virtual audience in an enthralling conversation about the ethical underpinnings that drive people to speak up when they see wrongdoing within a company. Cheung was one of the first whistleblowers who reported the medical malpractice at Theranos, which ultimately led to the shutdown of their medical lab. Cooper played a pivotal role in uncovering fraud at WorldCom and is now an influential speaker, consultant and author.
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