Three speakers at our free November meeting:
Jim Kern, CPA, CFE, CVA
Jim leads the Forensics & Litigation Support Group for the accounting firm of Gross Mendelsohn. He specializes in fraud and embezzlement investigations, business interruption loss evaluations, insurance claims, evaluation of accountants’ malpractice, and calculations of the value of stolen or destroyed cash and inventory.
Enjoying the challenge of testifying as an expert witness, Jim knows how to pore through thousands of pages of documents to find the key evidence in a case and is always prepared to defend his position during cross examination.
Likewise, Jim enjoys the puzzle-like aspects of fraud investigation. Jim helps clients determine how a fraud was committed in their business – and how the perpetrator concealed the fraud – by piecing together past actions. He also advises clients on best practices that help deter fraud and unethical actions in the workplace.
*****
Wised Up, a True Crime Story -- Charlie Wilhelm & Joan Jacobson
Arson, loan sharking, drug dealing, and extortion it was all in a day’s work for Charlie Wilhelm. In Baltimore, an organized crime syndicate of over 200 men took orders from him and his partner, strong arm enforcer Billy Isaacs. For over twenty years, Charlie lived the sweet life, making $10,000 a week in untaxed cash. Everything changed in 1995, when Isaacs demanded that Wilhelm take out two men he suspected of cheating him. Charlie Wilhelm didn’t want to kill, but he didn’t want to die, either.
Turning to FBI agent Bruce Hall, who’d grown up in the old neighborhood with Charlie, he became a double agent, working undercover against his former associates. Danger lay everywhere, from suspicious hoodlums to dirty cops and even a Mob tipster working in the U.S. Attorney’s office. One misstep could spell death not only for Charlie, but for his wife and children. Yet Wilhelm’s efforts not only saved lives, they resulted in twenty convictions for offenses ranging from bribery and conspiracy to drug dealing and murder. Charlie Wilhelm will tell his incredible true story of a wild life lived on both sides of the law.
Joan Jacobson is the co-author of “Wised Up,” the 2004 memoir of FBI informant Charlie Wilhelm, and the first book about Baltimore organized crime. She also co-authored an investigative series for The Daily Record about the stalled multi-million dollar East Baltimore Development project and wrote seven research studies for The Abell Foundation, including an analysis of the shortcomings of the City’s tax sale system and its Vacants to Value program. Previously, for 28 years, she reported for The Evening Sun and the Baltimore Sun, covering from cops and obits to investigative stories about misused poverty and housing funds, as well as millions of dollars in unpaid loans and tax breaks given by City Hall to politically-connected developers. She was also a longtime leader of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild’s Sun Unit.
*****
Please register if you wish to attend this free session of the ACFE Maryland Chapter. The meeting will take place at Rockland Center on the Owings Mills Campus of Stevenson University. The University’s address is 100 Campus Circle, Owings Mills, MD 21117. Park on the lower lot of the campus and a shuttle will be available to Rockland Center. CPEs and a continental breakfast will be provided.
