NEW!! A 2 Hour Event including lunch! Based on the answers to the survey we sent out last year, we have a few changes to announce.
Starting in January, we'll have an EVERY OTHER MONTH in person, two hour long training and networking instead of every other month for an hour. We'll still have our conference October 10-11, 2024, and our Members' Appreciation Event in December 2024.
Our first two hour event will be January 9, 2024, from 11:00 am to 1:20 pm. Lunch and CPE together.
We meet at the Ballroom at Tanglewood, 5430 Westheimer Ct, Houston, TX
Speaker: William Sparks, CCI
Title: "Case Study: Child Predator Ring Broken by Investigation Partnership with Law Enforcement and the Private Sector"
Date: Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Time: Presentation begins at 11:00 am, break at 11:50 am, Lunch from 11:50 - 12:30, Presentation resumes 12:30 - 1:20 pm.
Description: When Officer John’s department got the complaint, he knew it had to go federal…so he called in Dave and Bill. Information was quickly gathered, and contact was made with Federal Agents on a Sunday afternoon. An Agent agreed to take the lead to determine proper venue for the case and provide a personal introduction to the receiving office. After a few coordination calls, a forensic interview was set with the victim and her parents. What happened afterwards was textbook police work that resulted in the arrest of an egregious predator.
Bio: William Sparks (Bill) draws from past career experiences that allowed him to explore an area where finance and the intelligence community meet. Bill's multi-day cybercrimes and cryptocurrency courses have aided Law Enforcement “boots on the ground” in the ability to recognize, analyze and sweep illicit value to Law Enforcement control where they have legal authority to do so.
William (Bill) Sparks retired from a US Army Special Forces Unit in December 2015. In April 2013, Bill was tasked with establishing a Counter Threat Finance (CTF) cell his unit. After thorough research, Bill identified what was being called virtual currency at the time was largely ignored and/ or misunderstood broadly by the intelligence community as a value transfer mechanism. Bill established a small core of personnel from the unit and began to learn about virtual currency. In 2014, the small cell began training other Special Forces units. The cell later became the to go to guys for the Joint Special Operations University (McDill AFB), Mobile Training Teams.
In November 2015, the team conducted a two-day virtual currency course for the Transnational Threat Section of the U.S. Special Operations Command. Bill’s last operational task in uniform was to map the city of Paris France for cryptocurrency resources and capabilities during the November 13-14, 2015 terror attacks on Paris.
Since retirement from the Special Forces, Bill has trained thousands of Local, State, and Federal officers, analysts, and agents in cybercrime and cryptocurrency.
In 2022, Bill trained approximately 1,000 officers, agents, analysts, investigators, civil forfeiture, financial institution personnel, federal and state prosecutors as well as U.S. military Special Operations personnel. Bill has assisted law enforcement with large and small cases from thousands of dollars to tens of millions in areas of cryptocurrency, gif cards, child exploitation, senior citizen and romance scams.
The key to successful investigation is to aggregate information that demonstrates a particular crime is part of an identifiable and much larger set thus exceeding untold federal value thresholds. Bill has opined officially and unofficially on aspects of some very large and well-known criminal cases that led to many arrests and seizure of millions of dollars. Bill is certified to train law enforcement in many U.S. states and has taught in Indonesia, Malaysia and most recently (Dec 2023) in Uzbekistan.
Bill holds the title of Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator (CCI) from the Blockchain Intelligence Group. Bill is a 2014 graduate of the Joint Special Operations University, Counter Threat Finance Course, and various Financial Intelligence Courses hosted by former New Scotland Yard Investigators as Analysis International.
Bill holds numerous certificates in AI, Databases and Computer Science from the Stanford Center for Professional Development, Stanford University.
Bill served three tours of duty in Afghanistan with the Special Forces between early 2003 and early 2010. Bill’s military achievements, to name a few are the Ranger Tab, Pathfinder Badge, Master Parachutists Badge, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Bronze Star Medal (3) and Meritorious Service Medal (2).
Bill continues to instruct the Regional Counterdrug Training Academy (RCTA) and is a regular subject matter expert presenter at the Advanced Tactical Technology Course – Touchstone, Ft. Bragg (Liberty) North Carolina. In addition, numerous financial institutions have received cryptocurrency training from Bill.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn about child trafficking and predator investigations
- Learn how the private sector and law enforcement work together in trafficking investigations
- Learn how military intelligence training can be successfully transitioned into the private sector
Presentation timeline:
Presentation begins at 11:00 am, break at 11:50 am,
Lunch from 11:50 - 12:30,
Presentation resumes 12:30 - 1:20 pm.
Recommended CPE hours: 2.0 credits.
Event Policies:
Program Cancellation Policy
If you have registered and/or paid for an event and you need to cancel, you MUST cancel online through your account no later than 5 days prior to the event, unless otherwise indicated in specific event policies, to request a refund and/or cancel your registration. The Chapter must confirm event registrations with the venue prior to the event and any changes after this time period can become a financial cost to the Chapter. The Chapter reserves the right to make the final determination on what percentage charge/refund will be returned for cancellations made after the cutoff. The default condition is that cancellations made after cutoff will be charged at 100% and/or no refunds will be allowed. In the event the Chapter determines that partial charges or refunds will be allowed, they will be made on a case by case basis.
In the event of having to cancel one of the events, the Chapter would immediately send an email blast to all registrants with the emails they used for registration. The Chapter media relations officer would post on all social media platforms notifying members of the cancellation, and the Chapter webmaster would also post cancellation on the Chapter website.
In the event an attendee does not show up to the event, the registration cost will be forfeited. If payment at the door was the selected method, then the attendee will be billed for the full cost of the event. The Chapter reserves the right to bar future registrations for any attendees who routinely register and fail to pay and/or attend the event. If you have any questions you may email events@houstonacfe.org."
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
Prerequisites: Not Applicable
Field of Study: Specialized Knowledge
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 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 web site: www.nasbaregistry.org
For concerns regarding course offerings, certifications or complaints, please contact: Sasha Gartman, Training Director at the Houston ACFE.
