Barry C. Melancon, CPA, president and chief executive officer of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), will give the keynote message during the 12th Annual Fraud Conference & Trade Show, Aug. 5-10 at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel in Lake Buena Vista (Orlando), Fla. At the working lunch on Monday, Aug. 6., Melancon will speak on "Fraud and the New CPA."
Elected to his AICPA position in 1995, Melancon directs the operations of the 329,000-member Institute in New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the AICPA, he was the executive director of the Society of Louisiana CPAs for eight years. Melancon began his accounting career in 1979 at the firm of Bergeron & Company, CPAs, in Louisiana.
During the morning General Session on Aug. 7, D. Brent Israelson, president and CEO of iLumin Corporation, will speak on "The Virtual World." Israelson will describe the volatile world of the virtual customer. In these exciting new times, stores are in cyberspace, and the customer rules supreme. But are there new and more sinister crimes on the horizon? Israelson will let us know.
During the working lunch on Aug. 7, Steve Clark will describe how as attorney general of Arkansas he had a really good shot at challenging the incumbent governor, Bill Clinton. And when Clinton began to set his eyes on The White House, Clark began his campaign in earnest. But he was soon derailed when a newspaper article reported that his office had spent more than $115,000 on travel and meal expenses in one year. Clark eventually was charged with felony theft by deception, fined $10,000, and surrendered his law license. He eventually ended up in Austin, Texas, where he was finally granted permission to earn his Texas law license, passed the bar exam, left a $6-an-hour bookstore job, and is practicing law once again with a much more humble attitude.1 Clark will tell how he went wrong and what he did to change his life.
At the opening General Session on Aug. 6, Henry N. Pontell, Ph.D., distinguished white-collar criminologist and scholar, will receive the coveted Donald R. Cressey Award. Dr. Pontell is professor and chair of the Department of Criminology, Law and Society in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine.
Three-in-One
The 12th Annual Fraud Conference & Trade Show is a conference-goer's dream: you have the complete autonomy to strategize exactly what sessions YOU want to attend, to learn what YOU want to learn.
Every year we ask you to put your business on hold, grab a plane, pin on a name tag and spend time with your colleagues. The least we can do is offer you the best possible continuing education on fraud examination available anywhere, anytime, anyplace.
This event is actually three conferences in one; participants can attend any or all segments.
- The four-hour, Pre-Conference, Off-Book Frauds, on Sunday, Aug. 5, will teach about schemes that don't appear in books and records.
- In the 2 ½-day Main Conference, Aug. 6-8, practitioners will choose from 12 tracks (two more than last year) and attend several provocative and thought-provoking general sessions taught by experts - in some cases, the criminals themselves.
- The Post-Conference, Aug. 9-10, is divided into tracks for auditors and investigators, and provides basic level training in the tools and techniques of fraud examination.
By attending all segments, fraud examination practitioners can earn up to 44 fraud-related continuing professional education (CPE) hours.