The can't-miss anti-fraud training event for law enforcement and government professionals

John F. Sopko was sworn in as Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction on July 2, 2012. Sopko, appointed to the post by U.S. President Barack Obama, has more than 30 years of experience in oversight and investigations as a prosecutor, congressional counsel and senior federal government advisor.

Sopko came to SIGAR from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, an international law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., where he had been a partner since 2009.

Sopko’s government experience includes over 20 years on Capitol Hill, where he held key positions in both the Senate and House of Representatives. He served on the staffs of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the Select Committee on Homeland Security and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

In his most recent congressional post, Sopko was Chief Counsel for Oversight and Investigations for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. There, he supervised several investigations focused on matters regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Sopko also served as General Counsel and Chief Oversight Counsel for the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, where he focused on homeland security and counter-terrorism investigations and issues.

Jason Blair is a principal auditor investigator with the State of New York Office of the Attorney General (OAG) in the forensic audit section. He works with investigators and assistant attorneys general in the criminal division. At the OAG for more than five years, Blair has investigated nearly 50 financial crime and public corruption cases while collaborating with other state and federal law enforcement counterparts. Blair has testified at numerous grand jury proceedings and hearings, as well as two criminal trials. His cases consist of multimillion-dollar money laundering and securities fraud under the Martin Act, grand larceny, criminal tax fraud and schemes to defraud.

Blair is a Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Economic Crime Forensic Examiner and member of the National White Collar Crime Center. He is the recipient of the 2015 OAG Superior Service Award and a 2018 graduate of the Albany FBI Citizen’s Academy. Prior to joining the OAG, Blair spent nearly nine years in public accounting as a senior accountant and auditor at Toski & Co., CPAs, where he worked with state investigative agencies on numerous cases. Blair received both his bachelor’s and master’s degree in accounting from Western New England University.

Lacey Keller is a Managing Director with Gryphon Strategies with almost a decade of research and analytics experience. She advises financial and law firms on how best to use traditional and alternative data for investments and investigations.

Previously, Keller was the founder and director of the Research and Analytics Department for the New York State Office of the Attorney General. During her tenure, she developed a formidable team, including the first data scientist hired by a state attorney general’s office, that leveraged cutting-edge technologies and analytical techniques to support investigations. Her team was instrumental in many of the most notable cases brought by the Office of the Attorney General, including the case brought against Spectrum (Time Warner Cable) for allegedly defrauding customers over internet speeds and performance. That team also helped author reports on Airbnb, gun trafficking and ticket pricing that national media outlets widely covered.

Scott Borden is a senior agent with a U.S. government agency. Borden conducts criminal and civil investigations which include false claims, procurement fraud, bribery and corruption, and money laundering. He has successfully investigated complex financial crime cases resulting in criminal convictions and significant monetary recoveries for the U.S. government. Prior to his current position, Borden was an agent with the City of Baltimore Inspector General and was the director of investigations at Freddie Mac. He has a bachelors of arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is a Certified Fraud Examiner and Certified Inspector General Investigator.

Benjamin S. Clark is special counsel to the New York State Attorney General’s Criminal Enforcement and Financial Crimes Bureau in Albany. He develops, manages, and oversees long-term investigations and prosecutions of complex financial crime, including securities fraud, money laundering, embezzlement and tax fraud. He has significant trial experience, having brought numerous perpetrators of sophisticated fraud schemes to conviction by jury verdict. Clark received the 2015 Louis J. Lefkowitz Memorial Award for outstanding performance as an AAG which is the highest commendation bestowed on an attorney by the Attorney General of New York. Clark is a member of the Board of the Albany County Bar Association, where he is also co-chair of the CLE Committee, and he is an adjunct faculty member at The College of Saint Rose, where he teaches criminal justice.

After serving 25 years as a Special Agent in the FBI, Michael “Bret” Hood became a member of the ACFE faculty as well as an adjunct professor of forensic accounting for the University of Virginia and Mt. St. Mary’s University. During his tenure with the FBI, Hood worked many complex financial crime, money laundering, corruption and major cases such as the 9/11 terrorist attack, the HealthSouth fraud and the Maricopa Investments case.

Since 2000, Hood has been a master facilitator who has traveled the world teaching public- and private- sector employees how to develop effective anti-fraud, anti-bribery, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering programs. He has published articles in Fraud Magazine, Compliance and Ethics Professional Magazine and ACAMS Today.

Linda Miller is a principal with Grant Thornton’s Advisory Practice and a nationally recognized expert in fraud risk management. Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Miller spent 10 years with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). While at GAO, she led the development of the framework for managing fraud risks in federal programs, which describes leading practices to help federal managers proactively manage their fraud risks in order to prevent fraud from occurring. Miller also helped draft the Fraud Reduction and Data Analytics Act of 2015 and served on the task force that developed the ACFE/COSO Fraud Risk Guide, which guides the private sector in fraud risk management. Miller leads Grant Thornton’s Fraud Risk Mitigation practice.

Kurtis Minder is the CEO of GroupSense, a leading cyber intelligence company. Minder has more than 20 years of information security experience spanning operations, design and business development. He has held pivotal roles at SBC (AT&T), Mirage Networks (TrustWave) and Caymas Systems (Citrix). Launched six years ago, GroupSense set out to provide organizations with an unprecedented program-driven intelligence solution. Minder is a regular speaker at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and has held high-level certifications from Microsoft (MCP), Cisco (CCNA, CCDA, CCNP, CCDP, CSE) and ISC2 (CISSP).

John Pizzuro has 24 years of experience with a state police agency and as commander of a Regional Internet Crimes against Children Task Force. He currently oversees 70 law enforcement agencies comprised of more than 200 people. Pizzuro's unique approach to leadership and partnerships has increased productivity in his task force by 100% over the last three years. His work in neuroscience has provided him with a unique perspective on human behavior, body language and other cognitive behavior.

Pizzuro is certified as a Master Neuro Linguistic Practitioner and has an M.A. in human resource development and training. He currently serves on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Public Awareness and Education Committee and is a co-facilitator for a working group for the National Children’s Alliance. He frequently speaks to organizations and audiences on the stress that impacts the law enforcement community. Pizzuro teaches about personal development, leadership, technology, communication and high-impact performance. He inspires, motivates and empowers audiences to transform their lives by altering their thinking.

James Ryan is a special agent with the Department of Defense – Office of the Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) in Charleston, South Carolina. He has been a special agent with DCIS for almost seven years, working cases of corruption, violations of the civil False Claims Act, cyber data breaches, identity theft, health care fraud, wire fraud, extortion, money laundering and conflicts of interest.

Prior to working for DCIS, he was a special agent with Army Criminal Investigation Command, Major Procurement Fraud Unit, as well as an auditor with the U.S. Army Audit Agency.

Ryan has a bachelors of science in accounting from King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and a masters of science in administration with a concentration in information resource management from Central Michigan University. He holds professional accreditations as a Certified Fraud Examiner and a Certified Information Systems Auditor. He is a certified law enforcement instructor through the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia and teaches procurement fraud, defective pricing and cost mischarging to new DCIS agents at the Special Agent Basic Academy.

Sheryl Goodman has built her career on creating and improving government programs that directly impact the public and private sectors. Beginning her career in the criminal justice field with internships at the State Attorney’s office and the Florida Legislature, she became as a certified police officer in 1984 as well as an auditor and subsequently a senior investigator for the Florida Auditor General. She spent half of her 30-year government career as an Inspector General for both State, County and Local governments.

Today, Goodman is the co-founder President of Procurement Integrity Consulting Services LLC, a company specializing in developing, assessing and structuring strategies to assure contracting integrity.

Dr. David Utzke has a lifelong learning educational philosophy which includes advanced degrees in computer science/programming, forensic accounting, international finance, global macro-economics and cryptoeconomics with 25 years of experience in cryptocurrency technology. Utzke’s interest in cryptocurrencies began in 1990 with the introduction of the first centralized cryptocurrency called Digicash. In 2009, with the introduction of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), Utzke began the development of open-source blockchain forensic investigative techniques now used in his work as an agent with the U.S. government. He has led cryptocurrency initiatives involving several hundred cryptocurrency cases over the past five years, major enforcement actions, and trains and supports field agents in ongoing investigations. Utzke also continues to develop his computer coding skills in Solidity used in 2nd Gen DLT SCS (Smart Contract Scripting) and dApps (distributed applications) platforms.

Malcolm “MK” Palmore has spent a career in service to the U.S. Palmore attended the U.S. Naval Academy and excelled at his military studies. Following his four years as a member and leader in the Brigade of Midshipmen, Palmore was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Following a distinguished and honorable service in the U.S. Marine Corps., Palmore continued his career with the U.S. federal government as a special agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Over a 22-year career in the FBI, Palmore investigated and developed expertise in the areas of hate crimes, domestic and international terrorism, violent crimes, public corruption, crisis management/response (FBI SWAT Certified) and cybersecurity.

As an executive and leader for the FBI in the San Francisco Division, Palmore was the leader of the cybersecurity investigative branch. He led one of the nation’s largest cybersecurity investigative teams, accruing insights into the nation’s most insidious criminal and national security adversaries in the cybersecurity realm. Due to his unrivaled access, exposure and experiences, Palmore developed a unique perspective and ideology on cybersecurity matters.

Palmore currently serves as the field chief security officer (CSO) of the Americas for Palo Alto Networks. Palo Alto Networks is a global cybersecurity enterprise headquartered in Silicon Valley, and is consistently recognized as a leader in the cybersecurity industry. In addition to his duties at Palo Alto Networks, Palmore provides risk management consulting and keynote addresses to the SMB market and frequently serves as an adjunct professor in the academic disciplines of leadership, technology implementations in business and crisis management and response.