Agent Depicted in Film to Address Fraud Summit

Mortgage scams, accounting fraud and such recent scandals as the $50 billion fraud by Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff have led to public skepticism and a call for more fraud-fighting skills and control. Anti-fraud experts will gather on Friday, March 27 at the School of Management to discuss these issues and others at the fourth annual UT Dallas’ Fraud Summit.

Former FBI Agent Eric O’Neill, the real-life hero behind the movie Breach who helped capture the most notorious spy in U.S. history, Robert Hanssen, will kick off the daylong conference.

O’Neill will offer an inside look at the Hanssen investigation and discuss the making of the film and special investigative techniques.

Currently a partner with The Georgetown Group, a fraud investigative and consulting firm, O’Neill now draws on the same investigative acumen he used as an FBI counterintelligence operative to assist clients in the private sector. At the conference, he will discuss broken trust in the highest echelons of government against the backdrop of the current global economic crisis to demonstrate that trust is an increasingly valuable commodity.

“We are in a period of history where a degree of skepticism is healthy and where a higher degree of diligence is required in establishing financial and business associations,” O’Neill said.

The conference will also feature Jim Ratley, president of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), who will discuss “Conducting Investigations in Today’s Corporate Environment.”

Co-sponsored by the School of Management’s Center for Internal Auditing, the conference brings together a cross-section of government and law enforcement representatives. Speakers will discuss key fraud issues such as fraud investigation techniques, anti-fraud software and healthcare fraud.

“In these tough economic times, companies are finding that it’s even more critical to seek the specialized skills of fraud experts who are armed with the latest skills. At the conference, experts, many of whom are actively involved in fraud investigations, will discuss the latest information on the newest tools and techniques in the internal auditing field,” said Mark Salamasick, director of the School of Management’s Center for Internal Auditing program.

All proceeds from the conference benefit the Internal Auditing Education Program (IAEP), which is one of the world’s premier institutions for internal auditing education. In just six years, the IAEP program at UT Dallas has become the second largest university program of its kind in the United States and largest graduate internal audit program worldwide.

Professional Association co-sponsors of the event are the Dallas chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Dallas chapter of the ACFE, the North Texas chapter of Information Systems Audit and Control Association and the Dallas chapter of the Association of Government Auditors. Corporate sponsors that helped fund the event include: Audimation Services, Deloitte, KBA, Solomon Edwards Group and Weaver and Tidwell.

The conference is sold out with nearly 400 professionals who specialize in the areas of internal auditing, information technology, compliance and fraud investigation attending. For more information and an agenda for the conference, please visit www.dallasiia.org.

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