The Houston ACFE is happy to partner with Audimation Services to host a virtual fraud series instead of the annual fraud conference.

Presentation 1: Investigative Prep Practices: Eliminating Bias/Hurdles in Sensitive Interviews

Speaker: Brett L. Ward, CFI Vice-President, Business Development & Client Relations, Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates

Description: What are the key components that allow professional investigators to shelve ego, bias and other hurdles prior to a sensitive investigative interview? During times of economical and civil unrest, the challenges to personal communication have elevated beyond simply handling normal anxiousness during these unique conversations. The desire and lone goal of any professional interviewer is the #Truth.

Tenure in this industry often unfortunately leads to complacency in development of skill sets, let alone game plans prior to communication. Exploring potential considerations such as motive, hurdle, circumstance, explanatory denials, psychological minimizations and other key pieces of negotiating the truth are critical in development of empathy dominant communication with victims, witnesses and subjects.

Come learn what a CFI (Certified Forensic Interviewer) from Wicklander – Zulawski & Associates considers critical to positioning for this goal during his investigative prep practices in order to maintain confidence and effectiveness throughout the interview process.

Bio: Brett L. Ward is a renowned speaker for Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates, Inc. (WZ), who has led over 900 seminars on Interview & Interrogation Techniques for private sector, law enforcement and government entities. Mr. Ward, also a consultant for WZ has conducted hundreds of investigations throughout his career with WZ for both the public and private sectors.

Brett began his career in corporate investigations in 1988 with the former May Company - Foley's Division. He held multiple positions throughout his tenure including Area Investigator and Corporate Investigations. Mr. Ward was promoted to Regional Investigations Director over multiple states in 1996 before accepting his position with Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates, Inc. in April 1998. He currently runs the Private Division for WZ, a responsibility including 240+ clients and 150+ contractual and open registration programs around the globe annually.

Mr. Ward graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and received a BS degree in Finance - Business Administration. Mr. Ward currently lives in Houston, Texas with his wife Nancy, and has one son playing college baseball at Concordia University in Nebraska.

Learning Objectives:

• Minimizing and avoiding complacency in interviewing, especially experienced interviewers
• Explore potential considerations such as motive, hurdle, circumstance, explanatory denials, psychological minimizations that interviewers face
  

Presentation 2: Cyber Fraud Trends in Financial Institutions

Speakers:

Amy Wallace, Director, Cyberfraud at Fidelity Investments

Amy Wallace, Director, Cybersecurity Fraud Fusion Center, has over 12 years experience in fraud investigations with a heavy focus in cyber crimes and incidents. She has an established background in transaction and data analysis, organized retail crime, online fraud, exception reporting, credit card/financial fraud, customer service and surveillance.  She worked previously at Citi and JC Penney.  She has an MBA in Cybersecurity from Baylor University and an undergraduate degree from the UNLV.

Maximilian Gebhardt, Director, CyberFraud at Fidelity Investments

Maxmilian Gebhardt, CISSP has a keen focus on financially-motivated cybercrime and fraud in the financial institution space. He was a US government diplomat with the US State Department, and has a strong contact network in the Central and Eastern European region, China, and Latin America. Experience managing big data and analytics infrastructure deployment to identify and mitigate fraud and security concerns, in addition to advising potential investors and businesses operating in unfamiliar markets.  Maxmilian is a graduate of Seton Hall University.

Description: Maximilian Gebhardt and Amy Wallace from Fidelity Investment’s Cybersecurity Fraud Fusion Center will explore real world examples of emerging cyber-enabled fraud trends and techniques used by fraudsters against financial institutions of all sizes, while also sharing some best practice tips for early detection and early mitigation. Cyberfraudsters continue to leverage new and improved channel-shifting and cross-institutional fraud attack methods that hamper detection – while a broader cyberfraud marketplace supports deep fraudster specialization and the development of fraud-as-a-service platforms that allow fraudsters to scale attacks cost-effectively. Max will discuss AI and machine-learning trends in the fraud prevention space, with a special focus on the limitations of some data science techniques and some detection methods.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss trends in cyber fraud attacking financial institutions
• Methods of breach of financial data
• New techniques in combating cyber fraud
  

CPE Credits: 2 CPE Credits for CFE certification

Agenda:

Event Policies:

If you have registered and/or paid for an event and you need to cancel, you MUST email events@houstonacfe.org no later than 5 days prior to the event to request a refund and/or cancel your registration.      

For more information regarding refund, complaint and/or program cancellation policies, please visit the Terms & Conditions section of the website, or email us at events@houstonacfe.org.    

Additional Information:

Delivery Method: Group Live (Delivered online due to Covid-19)
Prerequisites: Not Applicable
Field of Study: Specialized Knowledge and Applications [Fraud]
Who Should Attend:  Anti-fraud professionals, Auditors, Accountants, Attorneys, Investigators, Law Enforcement, Educators, Students
Advanced Preparation: None
Program Level: Basic

NASBA Sponsor No. 125230

The Houston Area Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have the final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.learningmarket.org.