9 candidates for ACFE Board of Regents and 2021 International Fraud Awareness Week

9 candidates selected for ACFE Board of Regents’ ballot

Nine candidates have been selected to compete for three positions on the 2022-2023 Board of Regents. The board sets standards to promote professionalism and to ensure the reputation of the CFE credential.

“The Board of Regents is a vitally important part of the ACFE,” said Bruce Dorris, J.D., CFE, CPA, president and CEO of the ACFE. “Please continue to support your colleagues and the profession by voting your choices for our new Regents.”

Beginning Nov. 1 and ending Nov. 30, CFEs will be able to vote online at ACFE.com/BORvoting for their selections to replace retiring Board of Regents members, Lyn Cameron, CFE, Kenneth Dieffenbach, CFE, and Victoria Meyer, CFE. The newly elected Regents will be installed in February 2022 and will each serve two-year terms.

Grant D. Ashley, CFE, CPA, CGMA

Principal

Evergold Consulting LLC

Highlands Ranch, Colorado

As the principal of Evergold Consulting LLC, Grant D. Ashley, CFE, CPA, CGMA, assists his clients in corporate security and product integrity. He has multiple decades of experience in managing fraud investigations after serving more than 28 years with the FBI, where he retired in 2006 as an executive assistant director.

At the FBI, Ashley was responsible for international operations, criminal and cyber investigations, training, laboratory, investigative technologies, crisis incident/hostage rescue and criminal justice information services.

He then went on to work as vice president of global security and enterprise risk management for casino and hotel operator Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., and later as vice president, global security and aviation at multinational pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.

Ashley also served as a nonexecutive director at tracking and locating equipment specialist Datong, PLC, and was on the board of directors for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the George Washington University Trachtenberg School advisory board. He currently serves on U.S. government advisory boards.

Ashley is an ACFE member and ACFE Cressey Award winner. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Accounting from California State University at Northridge, California, and a Master of Public Administration (managing large organizations) from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Zahid Dohadwala, CFE, CA

Consultant

U.K.

Zahid Dohadwala, CFE, CA, has more than 40 years of experience in assurance, forensic investigations and advisory services with professional accounting firms, and companies in the oil and gas, metal and mining industries.

Most recently he was head of global forensic services for 19 years at multinational steel company ArcelorMittal, where he investigated several fraud cases. He has also worked at British Oil & Gas India Ltd., Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Ernst & Young.

He is a forensic accounting expert who investigates and unravels complex financial transactions and schemes. His analysis frequently involves identifying business risks and opportunities, quantifying damages and reviewing accounting irregularities, valuation or suspected fraud. As a consultant specializing in anti-fraud and corruption, he helps clients make informed strategic decisions. He has pioneered a training program for fraud awareness and prevention and is an avid public speaker and thought leader on fraud-related topics. He is also a Chartered Accountant. 

Wendy Evans, CFE, CCEP

Senior Manager, Ethics Core Programs and Services

Lockheed Martin

Altamonte Springs, Florida

As senior manager with Lockheed Martin’s ethics and enterprise assurance organization, Wendy Evans, CFE, CCEP, has a broad range of responsibilities at the aerospace and defense company. These include ethics officer training, resource development and case management.

She also conducts special investigations on behalf of the senior vice president for ethics and enterprise assurance and the vice president of ethics and business conduct at corporate headquarters.

Evan’s career began in law enforcement as a police officer in Louisville, Kentucky. She joined the FBI eight years later, assigned to the Tampa Division (Orlando Resident Agency), where she specialized in both white-collar crime and counterintelligence. Lockheed Martin hired her in 2006 as a security manager, and she became part of the company’s ethics and enterprise assurance organization in 2010.

Evans serves as an instructor for the Society of Corporate Ethics and Compliance’s virtual academies. She is also a member of the Ethics and Compliance Initiative and has been a national speaker on ethics, compliance, security and investigative topics. Evans is a member of the ACFE and has been a CFE since April 2016. She has also presented at annual ACFE conferences on the topic of investigations.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government Studies and Communications (Broadcasting) from Western Kentucky University and has completed two post-graduate MBA courses at Keller Graduate School. Evans and her husband, Doug, have two children, one in high school and one in college.

Emeka Obiora, CFE

Head of Ethics and Compliance

Etihad Aviation Group

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Emeka Obiora is the head of ethics and compliance at Etihad Aviation Group in Abu Dhabi, where he set up the company’s ethics and compliance and anti-fraud programs. He is responsible for the group’s code of conduct, confidential reporting and investigations procedures. He also oversees sanctions, export control, data privacy and anti-corruption compliance programs.

Obiora is passionate about building strong cultures of integrity, ethics and compliance in businesses and believes in the importance of equipping leaders and colleagues to make sound ethical decisions through training, raising awareness and good leadership.

Obiora has more than 20 years’ experience in the ethics and compliance field, and he has held a broad range of related positions in the travel industry, including internal auditor at Virgin Atlantic.

He holds a Bachelor of Law from the University of Nigeria, has a Master of Science in Tourism Management from the University of Surrey, and is also a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He is also a certified global sanctions specialist and an associate member of the IAPP, an association of professionals advocating information privacy. He loves great music and enjoys traveling.

Tania Ramirez, CFE, CPA

Global lead fraud investigations and head of risk and audit

Randstad Canada

Montreal, Canada

Tania Ramirez, CFE, CPA, holds the position of global lead fraud investigations and head of risk and audit at Randstad, a global leader in human resources services. She is responsible for leading fraud investigations across the company’s markets in 38 countries.

Ramirez began her career in 2007 as an internal auditor and then became a fraud investigator in 2013. Today, she exercises both professions concurrently. She has carried out fraud investigations in various industries — both public and private — across the globe, including Canada, the U.S., Mexico, South America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Investigations have involved conflicts of interest, bribery, corruption, bid-rigging, theft of company assets, billing and payroll fraud (and other fraudulent disbursements), insurance fraud, intellectual property fraud, identify theft and cybercrime.

Ramirez’s wealth of experience has allowed her to become a trusted advisor to company executives, peers and colleagues on ethical matters, and she regularly holds fraud awareness trainings. She was featured in the “I’m a CFE” column of Fraud Magazine’s September/October 2021 issue.

Ramirez, who has been a CFE since 2014, also served as president of the board of directors for the ACFE Montreal Chapter from 2018-2020.

Sulaksh Shah, CFE, CPA

Forensic Services Partner

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)

Washington, D.C.

Sulaksh Shah, CFE, CPA, is a forensic services partner at PwC, with over 22 years of public accounting experience. His practice focuses on internal investigations, including financial statement frauds, asset misappropriation, corruption/bribery, Ponzi schemes and tracing of funds. Shah also routinely works on regulatory (non-accounting) investigations.

In conjunction with legal counsel, Shah has represented numerous clients before enforcement agencies such as the U.S. Department of Justice as well as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Earlier this year, he was one of two accountants recognized by the Global Investigations Review as a top Foreign Corrupt Practices Act practitioner.

Shah has led investigations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. He has experience working across several industries, including financial services, industrial products, hospitality, energy, defense, technology, telecommunication, automotive and health care.

Shah frequently speaks on fraud-related topics and has been a featured speaker at national and international conferences, including ACFE, ACI, ABA, SCCE, CBI and PLI events. He has also instructed at Georgetown Law School, University of Virginia, University of Missouri and DePaul University. Shah is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Mumbai, India.

Collins Wanderi, CFE

Forensic auditor, financial and tax crime prosecutor, fraud examiner and security intelligence analyst

Collins Wanderi & Co

Kenya

Collins Wanderi, CFE, is the chairperson and founder of the ACFE’s Kenya Chapter and has a wide range of experience in several fields related to anti-fraud work.

He has been a senior eligibility officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, a prosecutor in the Kenya Defense Forces, and the ethics and anti-corruption commission, forensics and litigation services manager at consulting firm KPMG Kenya.

He was also head of internal affairs at the prosecution unit — asset recovery, evidence analysis and dispute resolution — at Kenya’s Revenue Authority, chairperson on the capacity building committee of the East African Revenue Authorities Tax Investigations Forum and the resource person for the OECD Tax Crimes for Africa.

He is a trained military officer with the rank of captain. He holds a Bachelor of Law degree, a post-graduate diploma in human resource management from the University of Nairobi, an MBA from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and a post-graduate diploma in law and practice from the Kenya School of Law.

He has professional qualifications and experience in cyber forensics and counterterrorism, seizure of crypto assets and currencies, military science, leadership and command, security and crime investigations, intelligence gathering, analysis and production, strategic leadership development, and coaching and mentoring.

Frank Yam, CFE, CISA, CIA

Chairman and CEO

Focus Strategic Group Inc.

Hong Kong

Frank Yam, CFE, CISA, CIA, has over 30 years of experience in various organizations in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, including KPMG, AXA Insurance and Prudential Insurance, focusing on preventing and fighting frauds.

As an expert in computer frauds, Yam was appointed to various boards and committees established by the Hong Kong government. He is an adjunct professor and has been frequently invited to speak at conferences and workshops around the world for the ACFE, IIA, ISACA and INTERPOL.

Having sat on the organizing committees for more than 100 conferences around the world, Yam has developed a good understanding of the education and certification needs of stakeholders globally. Yam is very active in promoting the ACFE and the CFE credential, and he has conducted more than 4,000 hours of workshops on CFE-related topics. He was certified as a CFE in 1997 and later founded the ACFE Hong Kong Chapter in 1999.

He has also served six terms on the board of directors for ISACA Global, an association of IT governance professionals, and on more than 20 of its boards and committees. He was recently honored as the recipient of the ISACA 2021 Outstanding Chapter Leader.

While Yam was raised and educated in Canada, he has spent over 25 years in Asia, and would love to serve as the bridge between East and West, enhancing ACFE’s diversity and inclusion.

Chrysti Ziegler, CFE, CIA, CRMA

Chief Audit Executive

CITGO Petroleum Corporation

Houston, Texas

Chrysti Ziegler, CFE, CIA, CRMA, is the chief audit executive at CITGO Petroleum Corporation and has enjoyed a successful 24-year career in internal audit. After completing post-graduate studies in 2000, she moved to Houston, Texas, to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers until 2008 when she joined utility company NiSource Inc. In 2012, she then moved to energy provider Genesis Energy L.P., and in October 2019, she started her current role with CITGO.

As a longtime member of the ACFE and the Houston ACFE Chapter, Ziegler has served on the Houston Chapter board in escalating roles for the past eight years, including president from 2016-2020 and vice president from 2014-2016. She is a member of the ACFE Scholarship Committee and a core member of the ACFE Women in the Anti-Fraud Profession community. She was also a founding member of the ACFE Chapter Leaders Committee in 2017.

Ziegler holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and an MBA from Texas A&M University. She has been featured in Fraud Magazine (“I’m a CFE”) and Hispanic Executive Magazine (“Chrysti Ziegler Takes Time for Internal Auditing”). She lives in Houston with her husband, two children and two rescued German shepherds.

Paul Kilby is the editor in chief of Fraud Magazine. Contact him at pkilby@ACFE.com.

ACFE offers expanded resources for fraud fighters during 2021 International Fraud Awareness Week

The ACFE kicks off its International Fraud Awareness Week, Nov. 14-20, with an expanded roster of free resources that CFEs can tap to educate others and fight fraud in their organizations.

Pandemic-related guidance still restricts in-person events, but the ACFE is helping supporters of the event overcome obstacles by providing more infographics with data about how the pandemic has affected the anti-fraud profession, animated videos and fraud prevention training guides. Throughout the week, new blogs will be posted on ACFE Insights, and supporters can share what they are doing to raise fraud awareness on social media using the tag #fraudweek. (See ACFEInsights.com.)

The week-long campaign — better known as Fraud Week — gives organizations a dedicated time, with specific reasons, to spread anti-fraud education among their employees and communities. Each year, global organizations of all sizes, and in all industries, sign up as official supporters of the week, and by doing so, they pledge to raise fraud awareness in any way that they can.

“Fraud Week is an excellent opportunity for organizations to demonstrate their commitment to an anti-fraud culture,” says ACFE President and CEO Bruce Dorris, J.D., CFE, CPA.

“It has been uplifting to see so many unique ways that businesses, governments and ACFE chapters have used the week to highlight the important work that fraud examiners do year-round.”

In 2020, 1,373 organizations from 128 countries joined as official supporters. Although the COVID-19 pandemic halted in-person events, organizations forged ahead with virtual trainings, webinars, fraud trivia competitions via Zoom and more. In previous years, supporting organizations erected fraud-awareness billboards in their communities, secured proclamations from local politicians in support of the week, organized a “murder-mystery” dinner with fraud investigations and even held a fraud film festival.

This year the ACFE hopes to see more imaginative ways to spread fraud awareness and training and in turn prevent wrongdoing.

Fraud prevention is key

According to the ACFE 2020 Report to the Nations, organizations that conducted fraud training for employees saw a 38% reduction in median losses per instance of fraud compared to organizations that didn’t conduct fraud training for employees. Those organizations also saw a 33% reduction in median duration of fraud cases before detection compared to organizations without training. (See ACFE.com/RTTN.)

“The Report to the Nations surveys consistently show that most organizations first learn about a fraud by receiving a tip from an employee,” says John Gill, J.D., CFE, ACFE’s vice president of education.

“That’s why fraud awareness training is so critical. The employees are the organization’s eyes and ears. But they can’t help you if they don’t understand what fraud is, what the red flags of fraud are, and how to report it.”

Organizations of all sizes can conduct fraud training and tailor it to specific fraud risks that they face in their industries. Training also doesn’t need to be expensive or time-consuming. The first step in training employees can be as simple as raising awareness of fraud.

However, some organizations balk at discussing fraud with their employees. They might believe that if they raise the subject, employees will be inspired to commit fraud, or they’ll think management broached the topic because a large fraud has just taken place. Some organizational leaders might also fear that if they share their anti-fraud plans with employees, it could expose blind spots and provide them with a roadmap to effectively commit fraud. To help address these concerns, the ACFE established International Fraud Awareness Week in 2000.

There’s no right or wrong way to observe Fraud Week, and registering an organization as an official supporter doesn’t cost anything. This week is an opportunity for CFEs to share anti-fraud knowledge with their colleagues and community while publicly demonstrating their commitment to fight fraud.

Learn more about the week, download free resources and sign up to support at FraudWeek.com.

Sarah Thompson, CFE, is the ACFE public information officer. Contact her at sthompson@ACFE.com.