The Psychology of Fraud, White-Collar Crime and Unethical Behavior - A Window on the Madoff Scheme.

   Though CPAs and senior executives have figured prominently in recent fraud cases, people of all backgrounds and professions are capable of committing fraud as we've seen with the Madoff case. 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 no amount of SOX 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 such as the Madoff Ponzi scheme.

   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.  The information you will learn is sound, and extremely powerful.  It will change your way of thinking about the more severe forms of fraud and white collar crime, greatly impact your thinking about developing fraud audit and/or risk management plans, and increase your ability to catch crimes while they are still in the early stage.

    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. This includes being hired by the Institute of Internal Auditors over 50 times and many other accounting and fraud related organizations.

   Joan has keynotes, half, full and two-day seminars on this topic. Please contact us for detailed course outlines.