June 20, 2022

Keynote Speaker: Tony Kwok

June 20, 2022/ Sarah Thompson

"I was able to participate and witness how Hong Kong succeeded to transform from one of the most corrupt places on earth, to now one of the cleanest,” said Tony Kwok during his keynote address Monday morning at the 33rd Annual ACFE Global Conference. Kwok is the former Deputy Commissioner and Head of Operations for Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and told attendees about the importance of stamping out corruption and the fulfillment his work has brought him.

June 20, 2022

Veteran Fraud Fighter Tony Kwok Imparts Important Life Lessons

June 20, 2022/ Paul Kilby

Now in his seventies, Tony Kwok has settled nicely into retirement after spending decades successfully fighting corruption and wrongdoing in his own native Hong Kong and in other parts of the world. Even though he’s no longer actively fighting fraud, he still has some important life lessons for aspiring fraud examiners.

June 17, 2022

Fraud Museum Game: Country Music Hall of Shame

June 17, 2022/ Jennifer Liebman

Past ACFE Global Fraud Conference Fraud Museum giveaways featured artifacts, memorabilia, documents and other pieces of fraud history collected by ACFE founder and Chairman Dr. Joseph T. Wells, CFE, CPA. But this year we’re doing something a little different and featuring some of the most infamous frauds in country music to honor our host city, Nashville, home of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

June 21, 2021

Keynote Speaker Video: Thuli Madonsela

June 21, 2021/ Sarah Thompson

“You need a culture of encouraging people to do the right thing, and also encourage people to admit mistakes when they’ve made mistakes and give them an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves,” said former public protector of South Africa and professor for Stellenbosch University Thuli Madonsela in her Monday morning keynote address at the 32nd Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference. “As fraud examiners, I think our work should include helping people to fix the system.”

June 21, 2021

South Africa’s Connector of Light, Thuli Madonsela, Opens Virtual Conference

June 21, 2021/ Mandy Moody

She was called “South Africa’s Corruption Crusader” by BBC News, was named as one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2014 and received a French knighthood. Professor Thulisile “Thuli” Madonsela can now add one more award to her long list of achievements. At the virtual ACFE Global Fraud Conference today, she accepted the ACFE’s highest honor, the Cressey Award, and spoke about the top three things she has learned over her career.

“I’m grateful for this award because it affirms that my team and I did our work to the best of its ability,” Madonsela said. “It takes a village to do the things in life that are attributed to one person. It took a village to do the work we did in combatting fraud, corruption and all kinds of improprieties in the governance of public affairs.”

June 23, 2020

Javier Pena, Stephen Murphy Spin Hair-Raising Stories of Pablo Escobar’s Terror

June 23, 2020/ Dick Carozza

Pablo Escobar was trapped. The murderous drug cartel lord, and one lone bodyguard, were holed up in a Medellin, Colombia, house, and the Bloque de Busqueda or “Search Bloc”— special operation units of the country’s national police — were closing in.

Javier Pena and Stephen Murphy, retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agents, and consultants and inspiration for the Netflix show, “Narcos,” told Escobar’s sordid story, and their parts in his demise, during the Tuesday afternoon General Session.

“Pablo grew up poor in Medellin,” Pena said. “He started experimenting [with selling] one, two kilos of cocaine. Before it was all over, Pablo Escobar was producing and sending 80% of the cocaine that was reaching the world. … We called him the inventor of narcoterrorism.” At any time, Escobar had 40 to 50 tons of cocaine ready to sell. During Escobar’s heyday, Forbes ranked him the seventh-richest person in the world, Murphy said, with estimated total worth of $8 billion to $30 billion.

June 22, 2020

The Money Pit: Rogue Projects Can Lead to Construction Fraud

June 22, 2020/ Emily Primeaux

“Everyone at some point in their life has picked up a hammer or has walked by a construction site,” said Wayne H. Kalayjian, CFE, PE, SE, managing director at Secretariat International, during his virtual session at the 31st Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference. “They’ve seen cranes and pile drivers … everyone has some sort of intuitive understanding of what construction is.”

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