Fraud Examiners: Get Deeply Into the White Collar Criminal Mind to Develop Outstanding Interviewing Skills

Course Description:

Developing a solid fraud program has become an area of great interest for fraud examiners. However, before you can develop an excellent program or be as effective as possible during interviews, it is first critical to fully and completely understand exactly how the white collar criminal thinks. By getting completely into their heads, you will have a much clearer understanding as to:

1. The different types of wrongdoers and criminals, and how to work with each type,
2. Why so many fraud programs and other efforts have failed to be that effective in the past,
3. How you need to think- and act- to increase the chances of catching criminals in the act, and
4. How difficult it is- and why whistleblowing hotlines and similar measures are simply not enough- to get those who observe wrongdoing to speak up.

Case studies will be used to help you unravel exactly how the con artist thinks and acts. You will also learn how to refine any audit, risk and fraud programs you currently have to allow for the variety of criminal behavior out there.

Critical to any fraud program is the ability to gain outstanding and pertinent information from your clients on where they see vulnerabilities and not inherent risks, but risk and fraud schemes that could be occurring NOW. On the second day, Joan will teach you a proven step-by-step process for conducting excellent interviews that will bring compromises to the surface if and where they exist. Twenty years in development, this process has been devised by Joan and her senior consultants at JPA International, Inc., considered one of the pioneers in the world for developing influencing and interviewing skills for auditors, risk assessment procedures and fraud profiling. Please note that the interviewing method you will be taught is deliberately a step-by-step process for conducting typical fraud interviews that is not based on interrogation methods (though dozens of subtle tactics will be taught); but it does model the processes used by the FBI in the United States. It also includes many tips from other fraud examiners who are perceived as successful by their peers in gathering information effectively from their clients. Participants will be developing and conducting a mock interview as part of the training, and other exercises occur throughout. At the end of the two days, you will know how to read a person's "tells", what question you want to ask at that particular moment- and why, how to best record the information- and why. You will also learn how to make it much much safer and easier for others who see wrongdoing to speak up.

Seminar instructor Joan Pastor has:

• Worked as the head facilitator for the National Security Agency.
• Facilitated off-sites with all the intelligence agencies of the Dept. of Defense as well as representatives from the White House under the Clinton Administration.
• Trained FBI professionals and police departments on white collar criminal and fraud interviewing skills.
• Opening keynoter for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
• A core commentator on webinars, teleseminars and television for the AICPA, BRISK, and talk shows.
• Facilitated many off-sites with executive teams from a number of private and public companies in numerous countries.
• Recently she was awarded the Gallery of Success, by her alma mater Temple University in Philadelphia, PA

Attendees will learn the tools for making it safe for people to open up and share deep information (information that you will be able to use to enhance many of your audits), for probing details to get to root causes, to get people to speak up about fraud they KNOW is going on (and you don't), and to have a lot of fun in the process!

Learning Objectives:

The key Learning's of the Criminal Mind part of the workshop are -

1. Discover why it is so easy for the average person to commit fraud.
2. Learn why "defense mechanisms" are critical for you to know- and to know how to work with
3. A 5-part behavioral profile (developed by Joan and taught to elite intelligence forces), meaning a pattern of traits and behavior that differentiates the average white collar criminal from the particularly heinous.
4. How to identify each group (there are about 6) of the worst criminals with a focus on the two most common types found in white collar crime.
5. Company practices that encourage or discourage hard core criminals from picking your organization over another;
6. How much other damage these types of people can do in an organization that is not necessarily illegal, but still ends up being extremely costly to the organization in terms of money, productivity, reputation risk, and low workplace morale;
7. How all this applies to multinational, global organizations (and what to do about it)
8. Specific things internal auditors and fraud examiners can look for to identify red flags;
9. How to gain the "buy-in" of your Board, executive and management teams to the ROI on developing an ethically-based organizational culture

The key Learning’s of interviewing skills part of the workshop are -

• Learn how to help people feel safe enough to open up even before the interview begins
• Learn the stages of an excellent interview process
• Understand all the reasons interviewing people can be difficult and what to do to prevent or mitigate each problem
• Learn how to ask questions in specific ways to increase the amount and quality of information you receive
• Learn how to handle people who go off the subject, overly quiet or talkative people, and difficult emotions that can come up in yourself and others
• Learn how to take notes in such a way that actually helps people to open up and share more information
• Learn a proven interview process that takes you away from a checklist approach but still covers all the areas you need
• Learn a simple but powerful critical skill for determining if a person may be straying from the truth
• Learn creative and important ways to set up the interview and the environment to increase rapport and open discussion
• Learn an abundance of subtle cues for encouraging people to open up and give the information you need
• Learn how to close the interview properly

Who will Benefit:

• Internal and external audit professionals
• Internal control professionals
• Finance and accounting management
• Compliance professionals
• Loss prevention and risk specialists
• Security professionals
• Fraud examiners
• Procurement/purchasing and Payables Specialists

Topic Background:

Though senior executives have figured prominently in recent fraud cases, people at all levels and of all backgrounds and professions are capable of committing fraud. Understanding the psychological forces behind fraudulent behavior is critical to detecting, preventing and dealing with fraud.

One of the least discussed reasons behind unethical behavior is related to a small group of people who, with the right combination of inner traits and smarts, can cause the most damage to an organization. It is this small (estimated 5-7%) group who can be the deadliest killers of all to your company, and almost no amount of audit rigor or financial analysis is going to smoke them out. It is this group that is behind most of the larger (and costliest) fraudulent crimes. In this course, the distinction between these two groups of criminals will be made clear, with suggestions and discussions on what can be done about it in your organization.

Joan Pastor, PhD, a noted clinical and industrial-organizational psychologist, first began studying this phenomenon when she saw a bright man single-handedly destroy a small (but highly successful) brokerage firm she was consulting with 20 years ago. She continued to observe this phenomenon in various forms over the years. By bringing both clinical and business research together, she has identified a syndrome, or a pattern of traits and behavior that explain these type of people, how to identify them, and external conditions in a company that encourage these people to make their plays. As a Certified Speaking Professional, Joan delivers her programs with humor, timely references, original research and implementation experience at many major clients. She has over two decades of speaking, coaching, consulting and training experience.

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