Dr. Sam Foote, the whistleblower who brought the U.S.
Veteran Affairs (VA) scandal to light in 2014, will be awarded the ACFE
Sentinel Award at the 28th
Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference
in Nashville, June 18-23. Foote will join more than 3,000 anti-fraud
professionals at the event, and will join the ranks of previous Sentinel Award winners
including Olympus whistleblower Michael Woodford and Pamela Davis, who helped
expose corruption under former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Foote worked as a physician in the Phoenix VA Health Care
System for nearly 24 years before he began noticing questionable procedures.
Although he saw overworked staff and patients waiting months to be seen, he
noticed administrators at the hospitals were receiving bonuses for slashing
wait times. After investigating, he discovered that many administrators were
altering official wait time records, and directing their subordinates to do the
same.
Foote brought his concerns to the attention of the VA
Office of Inspector General, but received no response. He retired in December
2013 and decided to write letters to government representatives and go to the
media with his story in hopes of forcing the VA’s hand. His diligence in
exposing the story led to a full congressional investigation and the
resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. It is currently estimated that “there
could be as many as 40 veterans whose deaths could be related to delays in care,”
per U.S. Representative Jeff Miller (R-Fla.)
The conference is the world’s largest gathering of fraud
fighters and will feature more than 70 breakout sessions presented by top
experts in the anti-fraud field. Sessions will cover topics from case studies
of fraud in NASA to battling ransomware and attacks from the Dark Web.
For more information on the event, visit FraudConference.com. To request a
media credential or schedule an interview, contact Public Information Officer
Sarah Hofmann at SHofmann@ACFE.com.
About the
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
Based in Austin, Texas, the ACFE is the world’s largest
anti-fraud organization and premier provider of anti-fraud training and
education. Together with more than 80,000 members, the ACFE is reducing
business fraud worldwide and inspiring public confidence in the integrity and
objectivity within the profession. For more information, visit ACFE.com.