Adjusting to a new reality

The worst of the COVID-19 pandemic may be over, but CFEs still face new challenges ahead and will need to learn from the lessons brought on by the health crisis.

The ACFE Board of Regents sat down with Fraud Magazine, once again via Zoom, just days before the virtual 32nd Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference to talk about shifting interviewing tactics, fraud awareness training, pandemic-driven scams, cyberfraud, the usefulness of artificial intelligence and advice for aspiring CFEs.

The participants:

• Lyn Cameron, LL.B., CFE: Cameron is the senior director of Microsoft’s Business Conduct Investigations Team. She has more than 34 years of investigative experience. For the past 15 years, she’s managed global investigation teams at Microsoft and, previously, at Cisco Systems Inc.
• Kenneth R. Dieffenbach, CFE: Dieffenbach is the deputy assistant inspector general for investigations at the U.S. Department of Energy. He previously worked as the special agent in charge of the Fraud Detection Office in the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General Investigations Division. He’s had a 25-year federal law enforcement career in fighting fraud. (His opinions in this article are his own.)
• Victoria Meyer, CFE: Meyer is director of fi nancial crime consulting at the Swiss International Business Academy in Zug, Switzerland. She began her counter-fraud career 25 years ago investigatin social security fraud in London. Meyer has worked for multiple large international consulting and financial firms.
• Alexandra Sagaro, M.S.S., CFE, FCLS: Sagaro is director of enterprise fraud risk management program at Raymond James Financial, where she develops technology and resources to mitigate fraud risk and investigates fraud complaints. Before joining the private sector, Sagaro worked in law enforcement on state and federal tasks forces for money laundering, insurance fraud and public corruption. Sagaro has had a diversified career in the fraud space spanning over 25 years.
• Hannibal “Mike” Ware, CFE: Ware is the inspector general at the U.S. Small Business Administration, where he provides oversight of more than a trillion dollars of lending authority aimed at stabilizing the nation’s economy and providing vital capital for small businesses. Ware has had a career that spans over 30 years in the inspector-general community