Darcy Fitzhenry, CFE

Darcy Fitzhenry, CFE, has a thirst for knowledge in the fight against fraud. As an investigative analyst at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and as a director of the ACFE Calgary chapter, Fitzhenry uses his background in financial services to aid his investigations.

My greatest achievement is a combination of smaller achievements — seeing a suspect plead guilty, identifying risk for a firm, attaining another professional designation or seeing my children attend university.

I enjoy working with the local ACFE Calgary chapter because we keep things informal and fun while maintaining the professionalism required of the Certified Fraud Examiner credential. I was recently elected one of seven directors. We work closely to manage the affairs of the chapter and to promote the ACFE and fraud prevention in general. We also arrange and organize guest speakers and training seminars that are beneficial to local CFEs and anti-fraud professionals.

Most of my time growing up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada — where I still live to this day — was spent freestyle skiing in the winters and playing tennis in the summers. I also enjoyed hiking, camping and hunting.

When I was young, I never gave much thought as to what I wanted to be when I grew up. In my teenage years, I gained a strong interest in computers and computer programming, but it wasn't until early adulthood that I was pulled into the excitement of the stock market. It was at my first job as a securities trader for a major Canadian bank more than 20 years ago that I realized the financial services industry was where I wanted to be. I've also worked as a financial advisor, a branch manager, a corporate finance manager and a compliance officer.

A friend I made during my time as a trader took a position with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in the Integrated Market Enforcement Team (IMET). IMET was looking for someone with a securities background to help investigate and provide advice on capital market offences, such as insider trading and market manipulation. I jumped at the opportunity to enhance my skills, develop new ones and use my background in financial services to work in criminal investigations.

I completed my MBA through a distance-learning program at the Edinburgh Business School. At the time, I was traveling often and was unable to attend a traditional program. So my experience was many long nights with a pot of coffee and Internet chats with fellow students.

I am a strong believer in lifelong learning. Since earning my CFE credential, I also have completed many other certifications. The study of other areas has helped me think more critically and approach problems differently. It also has allowed me to build a network of individuals from a variety of roles and industries, allowing me to draw on their expertise.

The CFE credential immediately gives you credibility and great connections within the fraud-fighting community. I have been approached, and have approached, other CFEs with questions, discussions on current trends and topics that provide valuable insight. I believe the CFE credential helps me combat and prevent fraud.

The greatest lessons learned will come from your failures. Learn from those failures and don't repeat them — that's what will make you a great fraud examiner.

Most of our IMET files will start with a complaint or referral. We will complete a work-up to determine whether there is sufficient information to proceed with a full investigation. I am usually tasked with conducting the initial open source background and database checks to identify potential individuals, companies and methods used to commit the fraud. Given my background in financial services, I also provide the team with specialized information on banking, domestic and international securities markets, and financial and corporate structures to aid in the investigations.

A very memorable case I worked on was a Ponzi scheme that involved the use of a wiretap. In this case, the criminal did his best to minimize any documentation to investors, didn't use a bank account and conducted almost all of his business by phone, text or face-to-face meetings. Some of the money was paid to the culprit in cash or a family member's bank account. However, a significant number of transactions were paid from one investor to another — one investor believed he was making an investment while the other believed he was being paid out on his investment by the former.

Given the lack of documentary evidence, we used a wiretap to further our case. We weren't prepared for the amount of calls or text messages our suspect made; he spent more time on the phone than both of my teenage sons combined! It took many resources to identify the calls and messages that were relevant to the investigation, and then to match them to identify the fraud.

I love the challenge of putting together the pieces of the puzzle to determine what, if anything, could put a firm at risk. Now I work cases to put the bad guys in jail, which is very satisfying when I succeed.

Emily Primeaux is assistant editor of Fraud Magazine.

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