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CONTACT
INFORMATION: National ACFE: www.acfe.com Arizona Chapter: OR mail inquiries to: CHAPTER OFFICERS: President: Lois Folk, CPA, CFE Email: lfolk@cox.net 480-502-3638 Vice President/Membership: Krisa Bark, CPA, CFE krisa.bark@cityofmesa.org 480
644-5986 Secretary: Sherry Parsley, CFE c462c@aol.com 602-909-7623 Treasurer:
Kathleen Barney, CFE kbarney@eidebailly.com 602-264-8632 BOARD MEMBERS: Carla Harris,
CPA, CFE, CIA Troy Hillman,
CFE Denise Lundeen, CFE Denise.Lundeen@starwoodhotels.com Kathy Madison,
CFE Leif Nygaard, CFE,
CIA, CBA, CFSA, CRP Heather Witt,
CFE heather@forensic-cpa.com NEWSLETTER COMMITTEE: Leif Nygaard, Board
Member, CFE, CIA, CBA, CFSA, CRP Email: leif.b.nygaard@wellsfargo.com Derek Barber Email: derekandsherelle@hotmail.com Nathaniel Curtis Email: ncurtis@simonconsulting.net Kathy Madison,
Board Member, CFE Email: kathy.madison@wellsfargo.com |
NOTICE
OF CHANGE IN TRAINING DATES TO THE 3RD WEDNESDAY OF THE
MONTH Some
important changes have been made to our training schedule, which resumes in
September. Over the past year, we’ve outgrown the Liquor Licensing
Board’s hearing room. We have been looking for a new location to better
accommodate our members. Based on your feedback, the 1st floor
auditorium at 800 Free parking is available on the
top level of the garage just west of the building. Sign-in and networking is
11:30am-12:00pm, with meetings beginning at 12:00pm-1:00pm. There is a $10.00 charge for non-members. A
cafeteria is located in the basement for your convenience. PRESIDENT’S
UPDATE:
LOIS A. FOLK, CFE,
CPA
Wow!
What an exciting first year as Chapter President. We have accomplished a great deal since
this time last year. Our membership
has grown from 137 members last year to 219 members today. That is 82 new
members, which equates to a 60% increase in members in the last year. Along
with this growth in membership, we’ve out grown our room at the Arizona
Industrial Commission’s building at 18th Annual ACFE Fraud
Conference, Several
of our chapter members attended the ACFE Fraud conference in |
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PRESIDENT’S UPDATE CONT. Board Election Results: We have
had the most nominees running for open board positions in our chapter’s
history, and as you guessed, the winning results are in:
Congratulations
to our new officers and directors and a big thank you to outgoing board
members. With talent like this it is
sure to be an exciting year. Special thanks
to our volunteer election committee made up of chapter members, Derek Barber,
Ron Zahn, and Ron Ray. Great job you
guys. And a big thank you to board
member Leif Nygaard, our elections liaison and our ever faithful webmaster,
Jerry Mooers. Upcoming Speakers & Continuing
Education (CPE): We have
been able to lock in some very interesting and famous speakers for the up
coming season. While both of these are
reported within this newsletter, I would like to briefly mention them here. On October 17, 2007, “Mr. Enron, Lead Prosecutor” (of the Skilling & Lay trial) John C. Hueston, litigation Partner
at Irell & Manella LLP is coming to speak at our Fall Seminar. His topic is titled, “Behind the Scenes of
the Enron Investigation and Trial:
Lessons for Corporate Governance and the Right Internal
Investigation”. As a forensic
accountant/fraud investigator doing litigation support myself, I hope to
learn some pointers from Mr. Hueston.
I was very excited when he so graciously accepted my offer to come to Some of
you have been asking me “Where have you been getting these speakers – they
have been wonderful?” or “How did you get them to come and speak?” My answer has been: “Using my self taught
good old sales skills”. We are all
taught in business “to just ask”, but a lot of us seldom do. Our
next speaker was discovered by me while watching the CNN television series
“Business Nation”. They were featuring
a program on “Crazy Eddie” the man who perpetrated one of the largest
Securities and White Collar Fraud schemes of its time. Needless to say, after living on the East
Coast and being familiar with this electronics company and the type of fraud
involved I was interested. Sam E. Antar was a former CPA and former Chief Financial
Officer of Crazy Eddie, Inc. during the 1980s. Sam Antar, cousin of Crazy Eddie, (Eddie
Antar) assisted in pulling off one of the largest securities frauds of its
time. With the assistance of my close
companion “Google” I was able to find Sam’s website and started my
correspondence with him. After
explaining who I was and what our chapter is about, Sam was more than willing
to schedule a seminar for our chapter.
He will present how he and his cousin “Crazy Eddie” were able to pull
this off and explain to us what we as
investigators, auditors, and litigation supporters can do to better detect
and prevent this from happening in our employer’s or client’s organizations. Sam E. Antar will be speaking at our ACFE -
Arizona Chapter Spring Seminar on June 18, 2008. Along
with Sam E. Antar, I am about to lock in our ACFE President, James E. Ratley to speak to our members on June
18, 2008. I encourage you to try to
fit the October or June one day training seminar into your schedule. Check out our website at www.cfe-arizona.org and click on
“Training & Events” to view other upcoming events. If you
have any chapter suggestions or request we may fulfill for our members,
contact me at lfolk@cox.net or
480-502-3638. |
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BITS AND
PIECES:
Welcome to our newest members:
Please take a moment to welcome
our newest AZ ACFE Chapter Members.
National Enrollment: Did you know that professionals with the CFE
designation earn an average of 18% more than professionals in comparable
positions who do not hold the globally-preferred designation? The Association of Certified Fraud
Examiners (ACFE) gives you these opportunities!
The Association of Certified Fraud
Examiners (ACFE) is a member-based global association dedicated to providing
anti-fraud education and training. Together with its members, the ACFE is
reducing business fraud worldwide and inspiring public confidence in the
integrity and objectivity of our profession. Come and
discover the three most powerful reasons anti-fraud professionals join the
ACFE… ·
Extensive Networking.
Build a powerful network of
peers by attending regional and international meetings. ·
Industry-Specific Knowledge.
Get the most up-to-date information and knowledge through ACFE’s
bimonthly magazine, Fraud Magazine. You will also receive monthly issues of Fraud
Examiner, the member e-newsletter. ·
Quality Education.
Get the best information available on a wide variety of fraud topics
from the industry’s leading experts at the Annual ACFE Fraud Conference & Exhibition, as well as other professional development conferences and
seminars—all available at discounted rates for ACFE members. We
encourage you to consider becoming a part of the ACFE as an Associate Member
and future CFE! Please be sure to list
ACFE-Arizona Chapter as the referring party on your application
that can be accessed at http://www.acfe.com/Membership/become.asp Monthly Speakers: We are in
need of speakers for upcoming training sessions. Please forward all
recommendations to Carla Harris, Chapter Training Director at harris006@mail.maricopa.gov Training: NOTICE
OF CHANGE IN TRAINING DATES TO THE 3RD WEDNESDAY OF THE
MONTH Upcoming
topics are listed below. Please note that our FALL SEMINAR will
be held on October 17, 2007 from 8 a.m. to noon. Additional information
will be posted on our website (www.cfe-arizona.org)
as it becomes available. Wednesday 09/19/07 (1 Hour CPE) - Benford’s Law, Dr. Ted Cooke,
Central Arizona Project, Assistant General Manager of Financial &
Information Technologies Wednesday 10/17/07 - FALL SEMINAR (8
a.m. – 5pm) (1) Behind the Scenes of the Enron Investigation
- John Hueston, Atty & Partner, Irella & Manella, LLP by the former lead
prosecutor for the trial of Skilling and Lay (2) Real
Estate Bust - Robert F. Long, Long & Associates (3) Fraud
Schemes and the Use of the Mail Fraud Statute - Ray Kolisar, (4) Diploma Mill Fraud - Ann Koenig, SW
Regional Director, AACRAO Int’l. Educ Svcs Watch for details *Tuesday* 11/20/07 (1 Hour CPE) - Detecting and Investigating Pharmaceutical Fraud – A
Primer”. Anne Louise Smith, Advisor, Corporate Investigations &
Michael C. Cava, CPP, PCI, CHS-III, Chief, Corporate Investigations of
Caremark Rx, Inc. COMING
SOON:
"Introduction to Digital Forensics" – A two-day training event
sponsored by the ACFE (National) is coming to Chapter Social Functions: The CFEs first Social Happy Hour was a success.
About 25 CFE members fought the construction on Central to meet up at
Macayo’s Restaurant for drinks, food and good times. The When:
Thursday, August 30, 5:00PM to 7:00PM Location:
Gallagher's Hope to see you there! Thank you for your efforts Ryan Bodnar, Chapter Committee
Member and Kathleen Barney, Chapter Treasurer for making the arrangements for
the Happy Hours. |
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CASE OF THE QUARTER: If you have a case you would like to share, please submit
a brief summary of your case to Kathy
Madison. The case should be 1-2 pages
in a word document format to allow copy/paste into the newsletter. kathy.madison@wellsfargo.com Q2 2007, Case of the Quarter Holly
Frook-Graham a former Board Member of the Arizona Chapter has recently been
included in the latest book by ACFE Joseph T. Wells. Congratulations to
Holly!!!!! Fraud Casebook: Lesson from the Bad Side of Business, Edited
by Joseph T. Wells and published in July 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
is a comprehensive compilation of real international fraud case studies
designed to both educate and entertain the reader. Each case is written by
the fraud examiner with names of individuals and locations changed in
accordance with the publisher’s procedures. "The Million Dollar Breach of Trust" by Holly Frook-Graham, CFE, CPA The Perpetrator Rita
Riell-Corbin was a middle-aged woman who had a kind and caring way about her.
Over the years, she had tended to a number of her own family members when
they were in need. In fact, some had called her “another Mother Theresa”;
however, others knew a different side of Rita-controlling, mulish and
manipulative. The Entity Rita was
the Public Fiduciary of Gila County. She had a staff of five to assist her
with taking care of individuals who were determined by the court to be in
need of guardianship due to mental or physical impairments. These wards of
the county depended on Rita for the appropriate management of their
healthcare, welfare and property. The average caseload was about 60
individuals with most having little to no assets, yet there were a few who
had significant amounts of money. And Rita was there to manage it all. The Initial Discovery This case
came to us (Special Investigative Unit of the Arizona Auditor General’s
Office) through our financial auditors who were on site performing test work
for The Investigation During
our first contact with county management we learned that Rita had resigned
and was in the hospital with stress-related health concerns. She recovered
and we were eventually able to interview her after examining a voluminous
amount of records. Documentation from banks, credit card companies, retail
stores, insurance businesses and others provided a clear picture of Rita’s
spending habits using wards’ monies. Over a five-year time period Rita wrote
695 checks totaling $750,159 to pay for personal expenses at Las Vegas and
Arizona Indian Reservation casinos, family vacations, electronic equipment,
home improvement materials, dining out and more. Documentation for the
misspending of an additional $217,729 was limited. Because of Rita’s theft,
the wards also lost interest earnings on their money totaling $101,717.
Lastly, Rita paid her family members for unsubstantiated purposes. The Outcome As we
discussed the million dollar thievery with Rita she began sobbing and said
“I’m so sorry…The amount just did not seem like it was that much…” The
evidence was strong and she decided against going to trial. Rita pled guilty to fraud and theft, was
sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay $1,177,884 in
restitution. Lesson Learned Management
should not place too much trust in any single person, no matter how great
their work ethic or skillful qualities appear to be. In fact, management
should checkup on those who seem to never take time off and do twice the work
of everyone else. Also, seemingly minor infractions should not be easily
discarded or rationalized away. Finally, management should take a proactive
approach to establishing and maintaining strong internal controls and keeping
a productive relationship with auditors. FRAUD IN THE NEWS: http://www.ocregister.com/news/card-credit-cards-1805526-police-mesa
COSTA Police cruisers pulled in to the
parking lot of Florian Boldoni, 27, of Fountain
Valley; Dan Bercean, 27, of Peoria, Ariz.; and Cristian Manolache 31, of Las
Vegas sit in the Costa Mesa jail, accused of commercial burglary, conspiracy,
identity theft, use of counterfeit cards and possession of card
counterfeiting equipment. Cheap, fast and virtually untraceable, identity
theft continues to plague Americans, costing more than $56 billion and
victimizing millions every year. Credit card skimmers used by
legitimate businesses can be bought on Internet sites, slipped into a pocket
and be used to steal – and store – information from thousands of credit and debit
cards, Fowler said. The pilfered information can be printed on blank credit
stock bought at the local office supply store – or sold to more sophisticated
card manufacturing operations.
"It's very difficult to catch these people," said
Investigator Brad Fowler of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
"They don't stay in one place and the numbers go here and there and
everywhere." A Bloomingdales employee called
police Thursday, reporting two men trying pay with a fake card, Glass said.
Detectives are going through the recovered cards – trying to find the true
account holders, and when, where and how the information was stolen.
Detectives are searching for more accomplices in the scam. Local gas stations
have been hit hard by debit card skimming, with thieves planting skimmers on
ATM pay stations to surreptitiously lift debit card information and personal
identification numbers from hundreds of people. Trying to repair damaged credit is
a frustrating and annoying process for customers, but any lost money is
eventually reimbursed by credit card companies. "It hurts (credit card
companies,) but it isn't enough for them to interfere with yours and my
spending habits," Fowler said. "It's the cost of doing business for
them." With Contact the writer: rhammill@ocregister.com
or 714-445-6694 |
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