This week’s guest on The Walden Pond podcast is John Warren, General Counsel for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). He has been working for several years with the Institute for Fraud Prevention (IFP), an academic research foundation that has provided financial and data support for over 50 studies in the areas of fraud, corruption and white-collar crime. The ACFE Foundation has now taken over the IFP operations. In addition to giving scholarships, the ACFE will support academic researchers to do serious studies on issues that would benefit CFEs and other anti-fraud professionals.

As the world’s largest anti-fraud organization, John says that the AFCE is well-suited to disseminate research findings to its 85,000 members who can make practical use of the information. In 2020 and beyond, researchers can compete for funding for projects they believe will drive practical results for anti-fraud professionals. If selected to proceed to the selection round, they must pitch their ideas before a Shark Tank-style selection committee. The committee will then decide on the projects they will support based on budget and the value they believe the project will bring to the industry. John points out that the ACFE prides itself on providing data support, since researchers are always looking for good data.

John tells Vince that going forward, he hopes to see corporations and government regulators working alongside academia to solve long-standing problems in the anti-fraud space.

Resources

ACFE.com

Email John: jwarren@acfe.com