ACPEN Signature: 2021 Business Fraud Update (X4-3237011)

Paul Coggins, J.D., is a partner at Locke Lord LLP, where he co-chairs the firm’s national White Collar Criminal Defense and Internal Investigations practice. Paul served as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas from 1993 to 2001.

He received his B.A. in Political Science from Yale University and both a B.A. and a Diploma in Law from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, before graduating from Harvard Law School. Paul is a former radio host, a published author, a frequent speaker, and is involved in numerous public service organizations.

Paul’s most recent novel (Sting Like a Butterfly) was released in March 2020, and a sequel (The Eye of the Tigress) will be released in August of 2021.

David L. Cotton, CPA, CFE, CGFM is chairman of Cotton & Company LLP, Certified Public Accountants, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. Cotton & Company has performed grant and contract, indirect cost rate, financial statement, financial related, and performance audits for more than two dozen Federal inspectors general as well as numerous other Federal and State agencies and programs. Dave received a BS in mechanical engineering (1971) and an MBA in management science and labor relations (1972) from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. He also pursued graduate studies in accounting and auditing at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (1977 to 1978).

Dave served on the Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards (the Council advises the United States Comptroller General on promulgation of Government Auditing Standards—GAO’s yellow book) from 2006 to 2009. He served on the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Anti-Fraud Programs and Controls Task Force and co-authored Managing the Business Risk of Fraud: A Practical Guide. He served on the American Institute of CPAs Anti-Fraud Task Force and co-authored Management Override: The Achilles Heel of Fraud Prevention. Dave is the past-chair of the AICPA Federal Accounting and Auditing Subcommittee and has served on the AICPA Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee and the Government Technical Standards Subcommittee of the AICPA Professional Ethics Executive Committee. Dave chaired the Fraud Risk Management Task Force, sponsored by COSO and ACFE and is a principal author of the COSO-ACFE Fraud Risk Management Guide.

Dave has testified as an expert in governmental accounting, auditing, and fraud issues before the United States Court of Federal Claims and other administrative and judicial bodies. He has been an instructor for the George Washington University masters of accountancy program (Fraud Examination and Forensic Accounting), and has instructed for the George Mason University Small Business Development Center (Fundamentals of Accounting for Government Contracts).

Dave was the recipient of the ACFE 2018 Certified Fraud Examiner of the Year Award (“presented to a CFE who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fraud examination … based on their contributions to the ACFE, to the profession, and to the community”).

John D. Gill, J.D., CFE, graduated from the University of Arkansas with a Bachelor’s Degree in English. In 1990, he received his J.D., with honors, from the University of Texas School of Law.

Prior to working for the ACFE, Mr. Gill was an attorney in the Austin, Texas office of the law firm of Bragg, Smithers and Curry, where he was involved with civil fraud, insurance, and deceptive trade practices cases. He was the editor of the DTPA Forms and Practice Guide, written by David Bragg and Michael Curry.

In 1995, Mr. Gill joined the ACFE and served as both its general counsel and the manager of the Research Department for nine years. When the Research Department expanded in 2003, he took on the role of Research Director where he oversaw the development of dozens of educational products. In 2009, he was promoted to Vice President – Education. In that capacity, he continues to assist in the production and development of books, manuals, self-study courses, seminars, and conferences produced by the ACFE.

He serves on the faculty of the ACFE and is a co-instructor of the CFE Exam Review class. He is a co-author of The Fraud Examiners Manual. He is the publisher of and a contributing author to Fraud Magazine.

Mr. Gill is a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the Austin Chapter of ACFE, Phi Beta Kappa, and the State Bar of Texas.

Sandra Johnigan is a CPA, Certified in Financial Forensics, and a Certified Fraud Examiner. She currently serves as an Editorial Advisor to the Journal of Accountancy. She served a four-year term, completed in 2016, as a member of the Auditing Standards Board of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). She is also one of the principal authors of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission’s (COSO) Fraud Risk Management Guide. The Guide is intended to serve as best practices guidance for organizations when implementing the COSO fraud risk assessment principle.

Ms. Johnigan is engaged by public companies in civil litigation involving internal controls, disclosures, fraud and accounting issues in SEC filings. Engagements by accounting firms have included the application of auditing standards and accounting principles to a wide variety of issues, including internal controls, allowance for loan losses, financial instruments, revenue recognition and detection of fraud. She has also been engaged by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to her current consulting, Ms. Johnigan was an audit partner with EY, where she served as the National Office Chair of both the Thrift Industry Group and Real Estate Industry Group, and Co-Chair of the Financial Services Group. She previously was chair of the AICPA Forensic & Litigation Services Committee and served on the AICPA Council and the AICPA Forensic and Valuation Services Executive Committee.

Katherine Miller, J.D., is an Assistant United States Attorney and Chief of the Economic Crimes and Public Corruption Section in the Dallas Office of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.

She has handled primarily criminal white collar matters for over seventeen years as a federal prosecutor. She previously served as an Assistant District Attorney in North Texas following several years of private practice at a Dallas firm. She earned her undergraduate degrees from Southern Methodist University and her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law.

Kevin M. Rockecharlie is a Partner-IT Assurance Services at BKM Sowan Horan, LLP in Dallas, TX. Kevin has more than 19 years of experience providing professional IT audit and consulting services to a wide range of industries, including energy/oil and gas, financial services and insurance, real estate, retail, technology and telecommunications, and trusts. Kevin has worked with both public and private companies, and he also has extensive experience with SOX 404 compliance.

Kevin helps his clients understand how IT and accounting work together, and his clients appreciate his enthusiasm, energy and ability to solve technical problems. Prior to joining the firm, Kevin held industry positions at Accenture, Alcatel-Lucent and Dell Computer.

Vincent Walden is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal’s Disputes and Investigations in New York. He specializes in forensic data analytics, continuous controls monitoring, information governance and legal discovery services. His primary area of concentration is in providing leading technology perspectives on both proactive compliance programs and reactive investigations.

With more than 25 years of investigative and legal technology experience, Mr. Walden has extensive experience in anti-fraud and surveillance analytics, anti-bribery and corruption compliance monitoring, sanctions and trade compliance monitoring, and anti-trust compliance monitoring. He also has deep insights in using leading technology approaches to artificial intelligence and proprietary anti-fraud behavioral algorithms.

Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Walden spent 14 years at Ernst & Young’s Forensic & Integrity Services Practice in Dallas, New York and Atlanta, where he most recently served as a Partner for the past eight years. Before EY, he worked at KPMG and Arthur Andersen. During his career, he also served as President and CFO of a privately-funded Internet company, which was subsequently sold to a Fortune 500 Company.

As an industry thought leader, Mr. Walden sits on Compliance Week’s Advisory Board and is featured in many publications including Internal Auditor Magazine, Compliance Week, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review and The Economist. He is a regular columnist for FRAUD Magazine and writes about anti-fraud innovation. As part of COSO’s Anti-Fraud Task Force, Mr. Walden co-authored its “Fraud Risk Management Guide”, which was released in September 2016. He also hosts a bi-weekly podcast show, “The Walden Pond”, which focuses on compliance innovation.

Mr. Walden earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Southern California. He completed the Harvard Leadership Program at Harvard Business School, and is also a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Fraud Examiner. Mr. Walden volunteers as the President of The Association of Certified Fraud Examiner’s Education and Research Foundation, which provides academic scholarships to students and anti-fraud research to qualified recipients.