On a winning streak

The glitz and glamour of the Las Vegas Strip, the most famous casino-lined thoroughfare in Sin City, and an appetite for fighting fraud attracted thousands of attendees to the 35th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference.

With its colorful past as a haven for organized crime, Las Vegas, Nevada, served as an apt backdrop for the gathering of more than 5,800 anti-fraud professionals who networked, shared best practices and learned from globally renowned anti-fraud experts during the event.Fraud examiners from all over the world took advantage of the conference’s stellar keynote speakers, intriguing educational sessions and opportunities to earn Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits. The ACFE’s hybrid in-person and virtual conference exceeded the record set last year in Seattle, Washington, with 5,500 attendees.

“We were both thrilled and humbled by the tremendous turnout for this year’s conference. We know that criminals are constantly sharing ideas and information about how to commit financial crime, so it’s incredibly important that those of us in the anti-fraud community do the same,” says ACFE CEO John Warren, J.D., CFE.

With access to more than 90 educational sessions and more than 100 thought-provoking speakers in the anti-fraud field, attendees had the chance to connect with anti-fraud decision-makers and influencers, who presented the latest in anti-fraud techniques, tools and best practices. Educational sessions addressed some of the most pressing topics in the anti-fraud field, including artificial intelligence, corruption, government fraud, cybersecurity, cryptocurrency and more.

“The 35th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference exceeded expectations with its top-level keynote speakers and targeted networking opportunities, including the Women’s Reception, Educator Reception and Chapter Reception. These events fostered meaningful connections and facilitated valuable exchanges of ideas among professionals,” says ACFE Vice President of Events Leslie Simpson, CFE.

We were both thrilled and humbled by the tremendous turnout for this year’s conference. We know that criminals are constantly sharing ideas and information about how to commit financial crime, so it’s incredibly important that those of us in the anti-fraud community do the same.

Keynote speakers for this year’s event included:

• Damian Williams, U.S. attorney, Southern District of New York.
• Jonna Mendez, former CIA chief of disguise and author.
• Matt Friedman, CEO of The Mekong Club and human trafficking expert.
• Lizzie Johnson, enterprise reporter, The Washington Post.
• Brent Cassity, convicted fraudster, author and podcaster.

In addition, Emmitt Smith, Pro Football Hall of Fame running back, businessman and entrepreneur, shared anecdotes and practical advice during his keynote session. Smith outlined the principles of effective leadership that have propelled him to success on and off the field while shedding light on the importance of integrity and authenticity in the sports memorabilia industry.

Jennifer Griffith, CFE, and Sarah Carver, CFE, U.S. Social Security whistleblowers, spoke to ACFE President John Gill, J.D., CFE, about how they exposed a $550 million fraud scheme within the Social Security Administration (SSA). During their breakout session, they recounted the severe retaliation they faced for speaking out. Their case gained attention after The Wall Street Journal’s coverage in 2011 led to a U.S. Senate hearing and a qui tam lawsuit. Griffith and Carver were featured in the Apple TV+ docuseries “The Big Conn” and have appeared on “60 Minutes” and “American Greed.” They’re advocates for stronger whistleblower protections, SSA accountability and improved oversight. The ACFE recognized their outstanding contributions by awarding them the 2024 Cliff Robertson Sentinel Award, bestowed annually to those who, without regard to personal or professional consequences, have publicly disclosed wrongdoing in business or government.

The following are some of the highlights from keynote speakers during the conference.

U.S. attorney prioritizes swift justice

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams’ discussion with Warren kicked off the conference on Monday. During his opening general session, Williams described to the rapt audience of fraud fighters from across the globe the ways that he’s innovating in the battle against crime as the leader of the most powerful attorney’s office in the U.S.: the Southern District of New York (SDNY).

When FTX went bankrupt in November 2022, it took less than a month for SDNY to charge the cryptocurrency exchange’s CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, with fraud. The speed with which SDNY moved to investigate and arrest Bankman-Fried at his home in the Bahamas isn’t typical of most fraud investigations, which often take years to complete. But enacting swift justice has been a priority for SDNY’s leader. Bankman-Fried was convicted of seven counts of fraud just slightly over a year later in November 2023. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison this year.

“I’ve always believed that we have to collapse that distance between crime and consequence,” Williams told attendees. “Otherwise, the message that gets sent to the broader world, and, in particular, people who may be thinking about breaking the law, is diluted. For me, it was making sure that we showed the world just how quickly the Southern District of New York could move.”

The ACFE honored Williams with the Cressey Award, ACFE’s highest honor, which is bestowed annually to individuals for a lifetime of achievement in the detection and deterrence of fraud. As a U.S. attorney, Williams has made fighting fraud and corruption a priority.

“Mr. Williams is an innovative leader who’s reimagining how a U.S. attorney’s office should operate in the modern age,” Warren said. “His office pursues cases involving political corruption, organized crime and financial misconduct with a focus on speed and precision, leading with the latest technology and the brightest minds.”

SDNY, with its proximity to Wall Street, has handled some of the largest, most high-profile financial fraud cases in the U.S. Williams discussed the challenges of handling such massive cases and moving them through the justice system as swiftly as possible.

Data is where we’re going to make or break our success. If we cannot stay on top of it, we will fall on it, and the bad guys will win.

“If you ask anyone in this district what they know about how I lead, I think they would say that I’m constantly pushing people to do what we do and do it more quickly,” Williams said. “I thought that was the best way to ensure that justice was served in the U.S. courtroom.”

As U.S. attorney, Williams has taken on several other crypto cases beyond FTX. He told attendees he expects the crypto market, and the frauds associated with it will evolve. “The message is that, just like any new version, folks will learn to start playing by the rules, and the bad actors will get weeded out and the folks who are really in it for the right reasons will rise to the top.”

As fraud examiners know, analyzing data is a central part of investigations. Williams described data as the linchpin to all of SDNY’s cases. “Data is where we’re going to make or break our success. If we cannot stay on top of it, we will fall on it, and the bad guys will win.”

In closing, Williams described his new whistleblower program and how he hopes that extending non-prosecution agreements to people who might have knowledge or involvement in a case unknown to the government will better help SDNY catch and quickly prosecute frauds.

“This program really illuminates the path for folks to come forward proactively,” Williams said. “This is not something that we wanted to just have for ourselves, but it was a tool that we wanted that other people could, you know, cut [and] paste.”

As the session wrapped, Williams discussed how he and his cadre of U.S. attorneys prioritize their cases and balance the different types of crimes they prosecute. “I’ve consistently said that safety is a civil right, and like any civil right, in order to keep it, you have to enforce it. So, we are very strategic in how we go about doing that work.”

Honoring investigative journalist Jeff German

At the Tuesday afternoon general session honoring investigative reporter Jeff German, Las Vegas Review-Journal editor Glenn Cook told conference attendees about the time German was on the receiving end of a sucker punch from a Mafia associate. It was 1985, and German was working on a story about a court bailiff mixed up with a local loan shark. People unhappy with German’s reporting smashed his windows and slashed his car tires. But these acts of intimidation didn’t deter German; instead, he confronted the subject of his story one night at the old Sands Hotel on the Vegas Strip.

“Jeff looks him right in the face and says, ‘Hey, when are you going to call off the dogs?’” Cook related to attendees. “And this guy throws his drink in Jeff’s face, and then with the other hand, sucker punches him in the mouth. Jeff needed stitches.”

Once he got a word of a wrong or of someone who needed to be brought to justice, he never stopped writing about them. He never quit on a story.

The stitches didn’t end the story. German continued his reporting. “Once he got a word of a wrong or of someone who needed to be brought to justice, he never stopped writing about them. He never quit on a story.”

On Sept. 2, 2022, German was found stabbed to death outside his home in Las Vegas. He was 69. His alleged killer, a Clark County, Nevada, elected official named Robert Telles, was arrested just five days later. German had written a series of stories examining claims that Telles, head of Clark County’s public administration office, was bullying his staff and having an inappropriate relationship with an  employee. According to Telles’ arrest report, he was upset over the stories German had written about him.

Just before he died, German had started pulling at the threads of a story about a Ponzi scheme that had targeted members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He never got to finish that story, but another journalist, Washington Post reporter Lizzie Johnson offered to pick up where German left off. The ACFE honored German and Johnson with the Guardian Award for their investigation of the scheme. The ACFE presents the award annually to a journalist whose determination, perseverance and commitment to the truth has contributed significantly to the fight against fraud.

Johnson told conference attendees just how meaningful it was for her to take up German’s mantle and finish his story.

“This is a journalist who’s had the kind of career that I hope to have someday, and you don’t want the story to die with him,” said Johnson.

Cook reminded attendees of German’s tenacity as a reporter and offered this piece of advice for fraud examiners: “There are a lot of bad people out there, and the only way to stop them is to be courageous, to understand the righteousness of your work, to never doubt the importance of doing the right thing.”

Fighting human trafficking in the private sector

Matt Friedman, CEO of The Mekong Club, an organization of Hong Kong’s leading businesses focused on ending all forms of human trafficking, explored the violent and terrifying reality of human trafficking schemes around the world, including his own interactions with victims and their stories. But where do we, as fraud examiners, come in? Where do we find the intersection of fraud examination and the dark reality of modern slavery? Friedman said it’s not as far as we think.

Companies around the world use the exploitation of underprivileged people to pad their profits and increase their production. Friedman posited that where there’s the ability to exploit people, there’ll be exploitation. Many of these human trafficking schemes and situations of modern slavery don’t begin as cases of kidnapping but as false promises of opportunity for people to improve their lives and the lives of their families. In fact, Friedman stated that of the known human trafficking cases, 60% are associated with product supply chains. (See “Using Technology to Battle Forced Labor in Supply Chain,” by Ellen Zimiles, Alma Angotti, Tim Mueller, Balki Aydin, Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative and Quantexa, March 25, 2022.)

Young men and boys are offered the opportunity to earn money for themselves and their families through fishing jobs. What first appears to be their ticket to a better life turns out to be jobs lasting years on a boat where they’re forced to pay more for their food and shelter than they earn, imprisoning them to a life of debt with no way out.

The work you do protects your organization. It protects the government, but it also protects the people who are out there in these vulnerable situations. It’s heroic.

When criminals in Cambodia learned they could make money online scamming, they began to target low-income populations in Asia — not to scam them but to enslave them to scam others. Friedman stated that in these rings, a quarter of a million people are forced into scamming compounds with threats.

But as Friedman said, these aren’t isolated incidents, and it’s in our line of work that we choose not to be complicit. He stated that approximately 30,000 people around the world dedicate their work to fighting human trafficking, and they’re burdened by rules and regulations. The rest of the population’s lack of awareness of the problem allows these criminals to continue their work. The onus of combating human trafficking falls to the private sector. Although government entities and organizations work to combat this issue, limited resources and political discourse burden them. Friedman pointed out the conflicting motivations of companies in the private sector, such as the annual profits from modern slavery amounting to $236 billion. (See “Annual profits from forced labour amount to US$ 236 billion, ILO report finds,” International Labour Organization, March 19, 2024.)

However, private organizations around the world are being held to higher and higher standards every year. Starting in 2012, regulations took effect that require companies to combat human trafficking through supply chain legislation. Class-action lawsuits have also forced companies to adjust their practices to align with regulations. Friedman stated that although these cases are often lost, reputational damage is enough to monetarily hurt companies. His message was clear: Combating human trafficking is not only a moral imperative but also a business necessity, and the time for action is now.

Friedman concluded with a story of a banker who approached him at a previous event. The man told Friedman about how he’d saved a young girl from a human trafficking situation after seeing her being victimized at a motel on a road trip. He called law enforcement, who captured the offender. He told Friedman that he works in banking in anti-money laundering and anti-fraud, and has worked on reports for human trafficking cases. Friedman said to the banker, “Don’t you realize you’ve been doing this work all along? By you doing that work to protect the bank and getting those suspicious transaction reports, you’re making the world a better place.”

Friedman then told everyone in the crowd, “The work you do protects your organization. It protects the government, but it also protects the people who are out there in these vulnerable situations. It’s heroic.”

Crystal Zuzek is assistant editor of Fraud Magazine. Contact her at CZuzek@ACFE.com.