2024 Fraud & Forensic Accounting Conference

Dr. Deniz Appelbaum, Chair and Associate Professor of the Department of Accounting and Finance at the Feliciano School of Business of Montclair State University in New Jersey enriches her academic pursuits with a practical view, after twenty years of experience in operations, credit, and business development in the corporate world. Dr. Appelbaum has published over 25 manuscripts in Accounting Horizons, Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting, Auditing: Journal of Practice and Theory, Journal of information Systems, and in other academic and practitioner journals, based on her research regarding analytics, AI and machine learning, big data, blockchain, municipal reporting, and fraud detection. Dr. Appelbaum has conducted research with Proctor & Gamble, Dunn & Bradstreet, AICPA, GASB, the Volcker Alliance, the Asian Development Bank, and KPMG. Dr. Appelbaum emphasizes the use of data analytics and appropriate software tools in the classroom, to prepare accounting and auditing students for the technically advanced modern business environment. The accounting and auditing professions are currently undergoing huge disruptions due to technical innovations, and Dr. Appelbaum is devoted to preparing her students and the profession for these changes.

Brooke Barnett-Bernal is a partner with Long Law Firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and primary practice areas include professional liability defense, design and construction law, commercial litigation, insurance defense, condominium law, and business transactions. Her clients include architects, accountants, engineers, surveyors, attorneys, small business owners, condominium associations, government agencies and insurance companies.  She frequently represents accountants in the accountant review panel process, which is unique to Louisiana.   Mrs. Bernal serves on the adjunct faculty of the LSU Law Center and teaches a course in trial advocacy and evidence.  She also participates in the Trial Advocacy and Persuasion Program at the LSU Law Center as faculty instructor and section leader.  Mrs. Bernal is admitted to practice before all state and federal courts in Louisiana, as well as the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  She is featured on the 2022-2024 “Louisiana Super Lawyers” list, a distinction reserved for only 5% of attorneys in Louisiana and holds an AV Preeminent Rating with Martindale-Hubbell.  Mrs. Bernal has co-authored numerous papers, articles, seminars and presentations on evidentiary issues and accounting malpractice, among other topics, and speaks Spanish. 

Christian L. Hart is a Professor of Psychology at Texas Woman’s University, where he is the Director of the Psychological Science program and the Director of the Human Deception Laboratory. His research focuses on the topic of lying and deception. His two books, Big Liars and Pathological Lying: Theory, Research, and Practice, cover much of his research on people who lie prolifically. Some of his recent research has explored the personality traits of people who tend to lie excessively, psychological tools for identifying pathological liars, mechanisms for accurately predicting when people are likely to respond honestly versus dishonestly, and the moral analyses that give rise to excessive lying. His work has been covered widely in the press, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Public Radio (NPR), the London Times, CNN, and CBS News. Dr. Hart holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology and teaches courses on deception and forensic psychology. Before becoming a professor, Dr. Hart was a Lieutenant Commander in the U. S. Navy, where he served as an Aerospace Experimental Psychologist and taught at the Navy Test Pilot School.

Francine McKenna is an educator, a writer, and a speaker. She authors the newsletter The Dig, where she scrutinizes accounting, audit and corporate governance issues at public and pre-IPO companies.

She has been a full-time Lecturer at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an adjunct professor for the Masters of Accounting program at University of Miami and for the MBA program at American University’s Kogod School of Business in Washington DC, an adjunct professor teaching custom-developed graduate-level courses in accounting ethics for the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, and a guest lecturer teaching a custom-developed Maymester course on reporting on corporate fraud at Baylor University. McKenna is a frequent speaker at universities, conferences and other forums. She was honored in 2020 as the Dreier Chair in Accounting Distinguished Speaker at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA.

Beginning in 2006, McKenna was an investigative reporter and feature writer for publications including Dow Jones MarketWatch, Forbes, American Banker, Financial Times, Chicago Booth Review, the Pro-Market blog of the University of Chicago’s Stigler Center, Accounting Today, and Boston Review. At MarketWatch, and for The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, McKenna reported on public company accounting, fraud and financial investigations, and the potentially dubious financial reporting practices of pre-IPO companies. Her column “Accounting Watchdog” appeared at Forbes.com. Her column “Accountable” appeared in American Banker. You may also know her writing from her blog, reTheAuditors.com. McKenna was a member of the inaugural class of Journalism Fellows at the Stigler Center of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She was twice a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Financial Journalism, for reTheAuditors.com and for her magazine articles at Forbes.

McKenna was BearingPoint’s first female Managing Director in Latin America, responsible for the Industrial, Automotive and Transportation practice for the firm in the region. She directed the Y2K Project Management Office for JP Morgan in Latin America. Earlier in her career she worked as an accounting manager, financial reporting manager and controller in private industry. She began in internal audit at Chicago’s Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust.

McKenna has lived and worked in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Italy, and is fluent in Spanish as well as her native English. Before turning to journalism and academia, McKenna spent more than 20 years in public accounting and consulting, including as a managing Director for KPMG LLP/BearingPoint in the U.S. and Latin America, and auditing the firm itself in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley era as a Director for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

McKenna earned a Master’s in Liberal Arts degree from the University of Chicago and an undergraduate degree is from Purdue University’s Krannert School where she majored in accounting. She is a registered CPA in Illinois.

Holly Sharp is the Director of Consulting Services and a shareholder of LaPorte CPAs & Business Consultants, where she has been employed since 1980.  She is also an adjunct professor at Tulane University, A. B. Freeman School of Business, where she has been employed since 1999.  She is the past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Center for Development and Learning, the Treasurer of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, and Secretary of the Parking Facilities Corporation.  She is the past president of the Preservation Resource Center, Women’s Professional Council, and New Orleans Estate Planning Council.  She received a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Tulane University in 1979, and a Master of Science in Tax Accounting from the University of New Orleans in 1981.  She is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Fraud Examiner, and Certified in Financial Forensics.

Holly is a frequent lecturer on damage calculations and has authored or co-authored several publications on damage calculations including the AICPA Practice Aid “Measuring Damages Involving Individuals.”

Dr. Robert A. Warren spent 25 years with the Internal Revenue Service investigating complex schemes involving tax fraud, money laundering, currency structuring, and related financial crimes. He began his career as a revenue agent in the Examination Division in the District of Columbia, where he served as a technical tax advisor on the successful criminal investigations of a public housing manager, a former Treasurer of the United States, and a former President of the District of Columbia School Board. Dr. Warren transferred to the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS in 1994 and graduated from the Special Agent Basic Training program at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, GA. Over the next 22 years, he investigated a wide variety of white-collar fraud cases involving human trafficking, bankruptcy fraud, and identity theft, along with traditional cases involving income tax evasion. From 2001 to 2005, he served as a supervisory special agent in Milwaukee (WI), and ended his career as a senior analyst in the Financial Crimes Section at IRS Headquarters in DC. Dr. Warren received numerous awards during his career, including three U.S Department of Justice Awards for Public Service presented by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. He retired from the IRS in 2016. Dr. Warren worked for the accounting firm of Coopers and Lybrand prior to joining the IRS. Dr. Warren holds both an MBA and an undergraduate degree in accounting (summa cum laude) from the University of Maryland at College Park, and a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) from Case Western Reserve University. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and earned the Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF) designation from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

Mike Willis is the Associate Director of the Office of Data Science and Innovation at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission where he is responsible for leading the design and implementation of technological processes,  tools and innovations to support the many data analytical needs of the Commission, including the creation, implementation, and maintenance of forms, tools and processes designed to capture, analyze and disseminate structured data submitted by SEC registrants through their filings with the Commission.  He is also the SEC’s representative on the Regulatory Oversight Committee and is currently serving as Vice-Chairman.

Jason MacMorran is a Partner in EisnerAmper’s Financial Advisory Services Group with more than 25 years of experience. He specializes in business valuation, transaction advisory services and commercial litigation across a range of industries, and leads the firm’s Forensic, Litigation, and Valuation Services Group.

Jason provides valuation and transaction consulting services to individuals, growing companies and private equity, including financial due diligence and transaction support, financial reporting valuations, and tax valuations. He also serves clients and attorneys in complex valuation and economic damage matters, serving as a court appointed neutral, and providing testimony in a range of venues, including federal district court, federal bankruptcy court, state court, and international arbitration.

Jason has been an active member in the profession, having served nationally on the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ (AICPA) Business Valuation Committee, and as faculty for both the AICPA’s ABV Exam Review Course and Expert Witness Skills Workshop. He has also served on AICPA conference planning committees, various technical task forces, and he speaks nationally and locally on technical valuation and litigation topics. Jason was honored as the AICPA’s 2014 Business Valuation Volunteer of the Year and was in the AICPA’s inaugural Standing Ovation class for forensic accounting and business valuation professionals. Locally, Jason has served on the Society of Louisiana CPA’s board of directors, was its 2019-2020 chair, and has served on its Forensic and Valuation Services Committee since 2009, chairing that committee in 2013 and 2014.

Special Agent Josephine Huffman received a Master of Science in Accounting from University of New Orleans. She has over ten years of experience in the accounting field, and previously worked as a tax accountant at a big 4 public accounting firm before moving to revenue accounting at a large oil and gas company. SA Huffman began her career with the FBI in 2020 as a Forensic Accountant and became a Special Agent in 2021. SA Huffman is assigned to a Public Corruption squad in the New Orleans Field Office.

Christine Cheng, PhD is an assistant professor at the University of Mississippi’s Patterson School of Accountancy. She has also had the honor of being a visiting scholar with the Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Economic and Risk Analysis Office of Structured Disclosure from late 2020 through summer 2022 and is a current member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board Taxonomy Advisory Group. Christine has focused her teaching and research on combining accounting and data analytics, most notably for tax and fraud. Her research appears in both practitioner and academic outlets, including the Journal of Forensic and Investigative Accounting, the Journal of Forensic Accounting Research, Accounting Horizons, and more. One of her working papers also recently won the 2023 Public Interest Section Best paper Award for the American Taxation Association Midyear Meeting. Christine has won several international and school based teaching awards and is the 2023 Graduate teacher winner of the American Accounting Association/J. Michael and Mary Anne Cook/Deloitte Foundation Prize, which is the foremost recognition of an individual who consistently demonstrates the attributes of a superior teacher in the discipline of accounting. 

Roger W. Harris, J.D., CCEP, CFI is Executive Counsel and Assistant Legislative Auditor for Investigations for the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office, where he supervises a 16-person, award-winning investigative audit unit.  Roger has over 30 years of experience handling fraud matters as a law enforcement officer, a commercial banker, an investigative auditor, and an attorney. Roger has been involved in all aspects of fraud investigations during his career and has aided in the prosecution of hundreds of alleged fraudsters.

Roger testifies in state and federal courts and before legislative committees on fraud matters and has qualified as an expert witness. He routinely speaks on fraud, forensic accounting, and cybercrime topics at a myriad of conferences and seminars. Roger works closely with federal, state and local law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies across the state on fraud matters, and is a recent recipient of the New Orleans-based Metropolitan Crime Commission’s Excellence in Law Enforcement Award. Roger is a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent® rated attorney, a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional, and a Certified Forensic Interviewer. He holds degrees in finance and law from Louisiana State University.

Stacey Ferris, CPA, CFE, MAcc is an Assistant Professor of Practice with Virginia Tech’s Pamplin School of Business.  She has over a decade of experience in forensic accounting, audit and internal controls consulting, and continues to work active cases.  From 2021 to 2023, Professor Ferris lectured on blockchain and digital asset accounting in the University of Maryland’s graduate accounting program, culminating in the Digital Asset Taxonomy published in the Journal of Accountancy in July 2023.

She regularly speaks on digital asset and forensic topics with the ACFE, NACVA, and the Government Blockchain Association.

Scott Holt is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) specializing in supporting law enforcement agencies with large, complex financial investigations. With 16 years at Deloitte, Mr. Holt has primarily worked with Federal Government clients, including the Department of Defense, the Small Business Administration, the Department of the Treasury, and multiple law enforcement agencies. Notably, he also contributed to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy unwind, helping to untangle and validate creditor claims against the estate related to swaps, mortgage-backed securities, foreign exchange futures, warrants, and debt/equity issuances. Over the past decade, Mr. Holt has led a team of forensic accountants, open source analysts, data scientists, and cryptocurrency analysts in large, criminal financial investigations. His cases have included bank fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, cryptocurrencies, Ponzi schemes, and human trafficking. Mr. Holt has testified to his findings in New York, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia. In addition to his investigative work, Mr. Holt has developed and delivered training programs aimed at enhancing investigative techniques and sharing best practices. Originally from Louisiana, Mr. Holt holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and a Master’s degree in Accounting from Tulane University.