At its recent Global Fraud Conference, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) presented the annual Chapter of the Year Award (Small Market) to the Southwest Ohio Chapter of the ACFE.

The ACFE is the world's largest anti-fraud organization and premier provider of anti-fraud training and education. The ACFE has more than 90,000 members located in almost every country in the world. These members primarily consist of Certified Fraud Examiners (CFEs), which is the ACFE’s highest credential. CFEs are trained professionals who possess a unique set of diverse skills in preventing, detecting, and investigating fraud. The ACFE and its members reduce business fraud worldwide and inspire public confidence in the integrity and objectivity of the profession.

The Southwest Ohio ACFE Chapter, founded in 1993, is one of 196 ACFE global chapters. The chapter provides regular meetings and networking opportunities to CFEs, as well as to other business professionals and university students. Many of the chapter’s attendees have careers which involve preventing, detecting, or deterring fraud. Attendees include investigators, law enforcement officers, forensic accountants, certified public accountants, auditors, security professionals, and more. The chapter promotes its core values of Professionalism, Integrity, Collaboration, and Knowledge.

The ACFE presents the Chapter of the Year Award to the chapter that has excelled in growing and serving its membership during the year. The award is a global award, and the Southwest Ohio Chapter won as the ACFE’s small market chapter of the year, competing with chapters around the world.

During 2022, the Southwest Ohio ACFE Chapter advanced its mission of serving the community by promoting improved fraud detection and deterrence, providing training events to expand the knowledge of members, and fostering opportunities for members to interact and network. The Southwest Ohio ACFE Chapter was named chapter of the year based on numerous achievements, including:

• The chapter’s service to its membership and the community by providing consistent, high-quality, low-cost, accessible continuing professional education events. In its last fiscal year, the chapter hosted eight training events, which included the 8-hour Dayton Fraud, Cyber & Ethics conference. The chapter has made its CPE meetings widely available, offering them in-person and virtually.
• The chapter has grown its membership by more than one hundred percent in five years, and by twenty-one percent just in the last year. The chapter attributes its growth to its excellent content, as well as the availability of this content over virtual platforms. While the chapter is based in Southwest Ohio, in recent years, attendees from all over the country and even the world have participated in virtual events.
• The chapter’s service to the community is reflected in its efforts to promote the CFE credential to the next generation of fraud fighters by promoting and offering meetings free of charge for students of criminal justice, law, or business and through its financial support of the ACFE Foundation.

To learn more about the Southwest Ohio ACFE chapter, subscribe to the newsletter, or attend events, please visit https://swohacfe.org/. Anyone in a business profession or who is interested in learning more about fraud prevention and detection is welcome to attend meetings.