Trust Creates Vulnerabilities: A Look at Government Fraud and How to End the Cycle

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Trust Creates Vulnerabilities: A Look at Government Fraud and How to End the Cycle

It’s a continuing trend in the headlines: Fraudsters are exploiting government-funded programs or targeting public-sector organizations directly. Fraudsters targeted Medicare. A child nutrition program was exploited in Minnesota. Hundreds of millions of dollars in California welfare benefits were stolen by a Romanian crime ring. 

All these fraud schemes are similar in that they involve government programs, but, according to Linda Miller, there's one more similarity: All these systems were designed for trust. That was the subject of “Designed for Trust, Exploited at Scale: Why Government is Easy to Defraud,” presented by Miller, president of Program Integrity Alliance, at the 37th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference. 

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Aligning Internal Audit and Fraud Risk Teams to Strengthen Fraud Governance

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Aligning Internal Audit and Fraud Risk Teams to Strengthen Fraud Governance

Internal audit (IA) and fraud risk teams share a common goal of helping organizations prevent, detect and respond to fraud. However, unclear responsibilities, duplicated efforts and inconsistent expectations can create friction that limits their effectiveness. During her session on Tuesday morning, Adesola Osuji explored common sources of tension between these teams and discussed how organizations can create stronger fraud governance through clearer roles and collaboration. 

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Inside the Fight Against Deepfakes

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How do experts spot a deepfake? During his keynote at the 37th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference, AI and deepfake detection expert Dr. Hany Farid gave attendees an inside look at the forensic techniques used to identify manipulated images, videos and audio.

Farid explored the growing capabilities of generative AI, the risks posed by emerging technologies like agentic AI, and the reality that humans are often not as good at detecting fake content as they think. His message for fraud fighters: while deepfakes may not disappear, organizations can make bad actors work harder. As he put it, “You don’t eliminate it. You just make it more painful, more time consuming, more risky, more difficult, more skilled.”

A Lesson in the Power of Narrative in the Karen Read Trial

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A Lesson in the Power of Narrative in the Karen Read Trial

“Let’s say you get a call, paramedics are surrounding a body that has visible scratches on the arms and you’re told the victim owns a German Shepherd with a history of aggression. What are you going to think?” 

Derek Ellington, CFE, posed this question and scenario to introduce the power of compelling narratives in his second session covering the Karen Read case. Continuing from his first session on lessons in digital evidence collection, Ellington conveyed an important lesson for fraud examiners in the ability of narratives to influence how evidence is interpreted.   

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Dealing in Diamonds: A Case Study of a Multimillion-Dollar Investment Fraud and Ponzi Scheme

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Dealing in Diamonds: A Case Study of a Multimillion-Dollar Investment Fraud and Ponzi Scheme

It all began when Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent Sarah Halleran received a complaint through the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a public hub for reporting crime. The complaint was from a financial advisor against Adam Lowe, the owner of a Florida company called The Diamond Desk Corporation. Lowe claimed to be a supplier of natural, fancy-colored diamonds, but an FBI investigation team that included Halleran, forensic accountant Lavderim Hysa, CFE, CPA and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Anton revealed him to be the mastermind of a complex multi-million dollar investment and Ponzi scheme. 

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OSINT’s Growing Importance in the Fight Against Fraud

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OSINT’s Growing Importance in the Fight Against Fraud

Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is transforming the way fraud investigators uncover hidden relationships, trace assets and identify suspicious activity, according to a presentation by Stephen Hill, Ph.D., CFE, managing director of Hill Bingham Ltd., during the 37th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference. He showcased how publicly available information can be leveraged to support fraud investigations, due diligence efforts and asset tracing initiatives. 

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Team Collaboration in the Takedown of an Unusual Healthcare Fraud

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Team Collaboration in the Takedown of an Unusual Healthcare Fraud

Operation Nightingale was a complex healthcare fraud scheme that required investigators across the U.S. and multiple disciplines to come together to uncover the scheme and orchestrate its takedown. “No one group or person could have done this themselves,” Mary Wielenga-Cline, CFE, DBA, said of the investigative team’s collaboration during her afternoon breakout session at the 37th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference. She and Freddy Ortiz, CFE, recounted their roles in the investigation and the importance of collaboration in investigative work.

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