Friday, January 16, 2009

30th McMaster World Congress



Email Address: info@chrismathers.com

 

Employee fraud, identity theft among topics at 30th McMaster World Congress

Steve Arnold
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jan 14, 2009)

One used to carry around a hockey bag full of cash, looking for someone willing to help "launder" dirty money.

The other was a corporate star who couldn't live with what she saw as scandalous accounting.

Both are the star attractions of this year's McMaster World Congress.

Under the aegis of the university's business school, the 30th edition of the congress brings together academics, practitioners and students to grapple with a central problem of modern business. This year, the theme is economic crime prevention.

Chris Mathers and Sherron Watkins know a lot about that crime, and the crushing impact it can have on the lives of individuals and on society as a whole.

Mathers spent most of his adult life in the company of criminals, working as an undercover agent for the RCMP -- posing as a drug trafficker, a gangster and finally a money launderer. In that guise, he helped criminals turn the dirty profits or drug-dealing and other crimes into "clean" cash.

Mathers will tell how he did that, and how it hurts legitimate businesses, as the keynote speaker at the conference's dinner tonight.

For Mathers, it's all about maintaining confidence in the public markets where pension funds are invested and where ups and downs can affect the price of almost everything.

That message has become especially important in the current downturn where plunging stock markets have uncovered massive frauds such as Bernard Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme in the United States and the recently revealed financial sheet fraud at Satyam Computer Services in India.

"An economic downturn like this is like low tide in a harbour," Mathers said.

"The lower the tide gets, the more things are uncovered."

The Madoff scandal is one example of that effect -- as markets sank and investors needed sudden cash to cover margin calls on failing stocks, they tried withdrawing money from their accounts with investment superstar Madoff. When the demand for money flowing out exceeded his ability to bring money in, his elaborate house of cards collapsed.

The result has been massive losses to charities and individuals who had invested with Madoff and, so far, at least one suicide.

The star attraction at tomorrow night's dinner will be Watkins, former vice-president of Enron Corporation, the one-time energy business star that collapsed into the largest and most destructive bankruptcy in American history in 2001.

She is credited with being one of the first people to raise concerns about the way the company was using accounting tricks to inflate its profits in order to keep its stock prices soaring.

Between the dinners, participants will hear sessions on the impact of financial assault, identity theft, mass marketing fraud, corporate values, civil remedies for corporate crimes, and how the Hamilton Police Service tackles urban economic crime and employee fraud.

The event continues through Friday at the Hamilton Convention Centre.

sarnold@thespec.com

905-526-3496