My reflections of how the ACFE began

My Take: Views on the news

Dr. Albrecht will teach the session "Having a Successful Fraud-Fighting Career" at the 25th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference, June 15-20 in San Antonio. The conference will be the last for ACFE Founder and Chairman Dr. Joseph T. Wells, CFE, CPA. — ed.

The year was 1986. Joseph Wells, living in Austin, Texas, was the owner of Wells & Associates, a firm of criminologists specializing in fraud detection and deterrence. His firm had a great practice with many notable clients.

One day, while I was working in my office at Brigham Young University (BYU), he called me on the phone, introduced himself and said that he had read some of my fraud-related research and wanted to meet the author. He said that he'd like to bring a video cameraman to Provo to record some footage of me for two new videos he was making — "The Red Flags of Fraud" and "The Corporate Con." He came, interviewed me for the videos and we became instant friends.