The Three Million Dollar Ribbon
2.00 Credits
Member Price $109
Non-Member Price $139
Overview
Two conmen used lies and falsified documents to convince the State of Tennessee to give them a $3,000,000 economic development grant to create 1,000 jobs by purchasing and rehabilitating a vacant factory in rural Tennessee. Instead, they spent most of the money on an extravagant lifestyle and invested over $1M in a scheme to defraud the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) out of over $30,000,000 pursuant to a contract to provide the tarps for areas such as Puerto Rico, affected by hurricanes. This session provides a detailed case study of how the investigators accumulated, organized, and analyzed hundreds of documents, identified the falsifications and misrepresentations, conducted multiple interviews, and ultimately convicted the conmen. This case study provides multiple takeaways for detecting and investigating grant fraud, which is especially relevant in light of the numerous federal stimulus programs in recent years.
Highlights
- Internal Controls
- Fraud Prevention
- Fraud Detection
- Fraud Investigation
Prerequisites
None
Designed For
Finance management, business management, bookkeepers, accountants, grant management, Auditors, fraud examiners
Objectives
- Learn the relationship between the three elements of fraud and how fraudsters think
- Understand how internal controls prevent fraud
- Learn the red flags to look for to identify fraud
- Learn to investigate fraud
Preparation
None
Leader(s):
Leader Bios
Daniel Porter, The Pros & The Cons, LLC
Daniel Porter, CFE has conducted civil and criminal investigations for over 20 years as a licensed private investigator, a loss prevention manager, and as an investigator with the State of Tennessee. While he was Investigations Manager with the Tennessee Department of Transportation (an organization with over 4,000 employees and a budget of more than $1 Billion) he created an investigations section and was responsible for investigations of fraud, waste, and abuse. Currently, he is an investigator in the Special Investigations Unit in the Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury, of the State of Tennessee where he investigates fraud involving public funds. He is a Cum Laude graduate from Middle Tennessee State University’s Criminal Justice Program and a CFE. He has made presentations at AGA, IIA, and CFE conferences as well as to governmental agencies in various states including the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations and the Indiana CPA Society. He has provided law enforcement training certified by the Tennessee Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission. He is a guest lecturer at Middle Tennessee State University and the Vanderbilt University School of Law. He previously served as President and Vice President of the Middle Tennessee Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and was selected the Chapter’s Member of the Year in 2003.
Non-Member Price $139
Member Price $109