ETHICS PRESENTATIONS
FRAUD PRESENTATIONS
ETHICS
Ethics by Degree
If you place a frog in a pot of water and slowly raise the temperature, it will adapt to its environment and slowly boil to death…a death by degrees. Similarly, most people don’t become unethical overnight; instead, it is a gradual process. This session explores how people become unethical by degrees and provides guidance to avoid unethical behavior.
Key Takeaways
- Ethics rules provide guidance in professional situations.
- Unethical behavior is a gradual process.
- Avoid gray areas to avoid unethical behavior.
Ethics Aren’t for the Byrdes in Ozark
Codes of ethics provide guidance to professionals who are frequently required to choose between doing the right thing and the wrong thing. Sometimes, professionals violate their ethical code and do the wrong thing for what they rationalize is the right reason. This session uses the popular television show “Ozarks” and its multiple examples of seemingly good people doing bad things for the right reason to define ethics as well as explore why people make unethical choices and how they justify those choices.
Key Takeaways
- People make unethical decisions that make things happen that create a snowball effect.
- How people make and then justify their unethical decisions.
- How to test situations to avoid ethical missteps.
FRAUD PREVENTION/DETECTION/INVESTIGATION
The Radar Phenomenon: How Trusted Employees Become Fraudsters
Radar O’Reilly, one of the most beloved characters of the TV show M*A*S*H, manipulated his trusting boss to create opportunities to commit fraud, the Radar Phenomenon. This session reviews multiple case studies of real-life Radars, trusted employees who took advantage of trusted bosses and committed fraud. Attendees learn to identify the traits of this type of fraudster that are present in many organizations. Follow this link to read Daniel’s column on the Radar Phenomenon in the July/August edition of the ACFE’s Fraud Magazine.
Key Takeaways
- How internal controls prevent and detect fraud.
- How Radar fraudsters “groom” their trusting bosses to circumvent internal controls.
- How to identify these “Radar” type fraudsters.
Interview Techniques & Detecting Deception
This session will improve your interview techniques and your deception detection abilities. An interview is a conversation with an agenda and that agenda is to gather information. This includes interviews for pre-employment (can the applicant do the job), audit questionnaires (how does this process work), investigative interviews (who had opportunity to commit fraud), and even talking to your kids (who broke the window). Multiple videos from various movies, TV shows, and public figures showcasing the behaviors of liars are included to drive home the lessons learned.
Key Takeaways
- How to prepare for an interview.
- How to create and ask better questions.
- How to observe answers and detect potential signs of deception.
Bears Will Be Bears – Fraudsters Will Be Fraudsters
Bears are intelligent and motivated to find food. When I left some fried chicken in my Jeep while in Gatlinburg, a bear tore a hole in the top and ate the chicken and part of my Jeep. He was just a bear being a bear. I’m responsible because I left the chicken in the Jeep and gave him the opportunity. Similarly, people are intelligent and motivated to survive. If we give them opportunity, they will take our assets. This session reviews the investigation and prosecution of the former director of a conference center who took advantage of lax internal controls of a joint-venture and stole thousands. She was just a fraudster being a fraudster.
Key Takeaways
- How fraudsters think.
- How to recognize the red flags of fraud.
- How to plan and execute a complex fraud investigation.
Two Conmen + One Development Grant = $3M Fraud
Two conmen used lies and falsified documents to convince the State of Tennessee to give them a $3,000,000 economic development grant to create 1,000 jobs. Instead, they spent most of the money on an extravagant lifestyle and invested over $1M in a scheme to defraud the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) out of over $30,000,000 pursuant to a contract to provide the tarps for hurricane victims. This session provides a detailed case study of how the investigators accumulated, organized, and analyzed hundreds of documents, identified the falsifications and misrepresentations, conducted multiple interviews, and ultimately convicted the conmen. This session is especially relevant considering the numerous economic stimulus programs in recent years.
Key Takeaways
- How grant fraud schemes work.
- How to recognize the red flags of grant fraud.
- How to plan and execute a complex grant fraud investigation.
Fraud Investigations from A to Z
Each fraud investigation is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Despite these differences, a series of logical steps must be followed, and specific techniques must be used to reach an accurate conclusion. From handling the initial tip, planning and executing your investigation, maintaining chain of custody over evidence, analyzing data, interviewing witnesses and subjects, documenting your work, to writing your report to communicate your results to management, law enforcement and prosecutors.
Whether you conduct fraud investigations full time or on an as needed basis, this seminar will provide you with multiple takeaways you can immediately implement in your fraud investigation practice. You will be guided through the entire process and provided relevant case studies of actual fraud investigations to reinforce the training.
Key Takeaways
- How to plan a fraud investigation from tip to conclusion.
- How to execute fraud investigations.
- How to summarize and report your results.
When You Hear Hoofbeats, It May Be a Zebra
Young doctors sometimes arrive at an exotic medical diagnosis (You’ve got Kuru!), when a more common place explanation is likely (You’ve got a cold). These diagnoses are known as Zebras and doctors are taught, “When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses not zebras”. This mindset sometimes leads to misdiagnosis and subsequent improper treatment. Similarly, managers, auditors, and investigators often see indicators of fraud, but dismiss them because they assume that it is just a mistake that looks like fraud. This session uses case studies to explore some of the more common symptoms of fraud that are often misdiagnosed.
Key Takeaways
- How fraudsters think.
- How to identify the red flags of fraud.
- How to separate mistakes from fraud.
