ACPEN Signature 2025: The Risk of Fraud in State & Local Government

Frank Crawford, CPA Related Seminars and Products

Crawford & Associates, P.C.

Frank Crawford, CPA, is President of Crawford & Associates, P.C., Certified Public Accountants, an accounting firm located in Oklahoma City, OK. The firm specializes in providing auditing, consulting and accounting services solely to governmental entities and is a member of the AICPA and the AICPA Government Audit Quality Center. Over the last 39 years, Crawford & Associates has provided a variety of audit and accounting services to all sizes of government including many types of financial statement audits and attestation services, fraud investigations, internal control analysis, accounting policy and procedure development, outsourced internal auditing and internal monitoring, developing management anti-fraud programs and controls, quality assurance reviews, training, and expert witness services. 

Mr. Crawford was the recipient of the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) 2014 Private Sector Financial Excellence Award, an annual recognition of one individual who has been deemed by the AGA to have made significant contributions to the field of governmental financial management.  Frank was also recognized as a recipient of the U.S Graduate School’s “2010 Instructor Excellence Award”. Quoting the U.S. Graduate School officials, “Your students and colleagues, as well as Graduate School Staff, honour and value the work that you do here, as evidenced by the many statements of support that praised your skills. Of the School’s 800+ instructors, you are one of only thirteen who will receive this prestigious award this year.” 

In 2012, Mr. Crawford completed a 4 year term as Chairman of the AICPA Government Expert Panel after serving on the Panel for 11 years, and is currently the Chairman of the Oklahoma Society of CPAs Government Accounting and Auditing Committee (27 years), and has also been involved in a number of other AICPA committees and task forces as they relate to governmental accounting and auditing, including the AICPA Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee, the AICPA Government and Not-For-Profit Expert Panel, the AICPA Government Performance and Accountability Committee, the AICPA GASB 34 Audit Guide Revision Task Force, and the GASB’s recent Financial Reporting Model revision Task Force. In 2015, Mr. Crawford completed a 4 year term as Chairman of the AICPA’s annual Government and Not-For- Profit Training Conference after serving on the Planning Task Force of the Conference for 18 years. 

Over the years, Mr. Crawford has assisted both the AICPA and GASB in the development of several implementation guides as a member of an advisory group, task force or technical content provider. His experience with GASB 34 implementation and audit issues dates back to June 30, 1999, as auditor of the first general-purpose government in the United States to implement the requirements of GASB 34. 

Mr. Crawford is also currently working with many of the US states, territories, commonwealths and freely-associated compact governments on audit finding resolution and financial analysis projects and also serves as a technical consultant and advisor to a number of Federal Government Agencies.  Frank is a frequent lecturer, trainer and discussion leader for numerous groups, including U.S. Federal Government Agencies, various local and national CPA firms, a number of State Societies, and has also appeared in several AICPA continuing professional education videos and live CPE broadcasts and webcasts related to governmental accounting and auditing. 

Commonly known as Frankie to clients, friends and family, and Pappy to his two grandchildren, Mr. Crawford has two children and two grandchildren, daughter Madison and husband Jon, son Blake, 5 year old grandson Brody, and 3 year old granddaughter Brenley. Mr. Crawford also has the good fortune to be married to Cindy Crawford (not the supermodel, but better). 
 

David L. Cotton, CPA, CFE, CGFM Related Seminars and Products

Chairman Emeritus

Cotton & Company

David L. Cotton, CPA, CFE, CGFM, is an accountant with Cotton, a Sikich Company, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. He has performed grant and contract, indirect cost rate, financial statement, financial related, and performance audits for more than two dozen Federal inspectors general as well as numerous other Federal and State agencies and programs.

Dave received a BS in mechanical engineering (1971) and an MBA in management science and labor relations (1972) from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. He also pursued graduate studies in accounting and auditing at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (1977 to 1978).

Dave served on the Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards (the Council advises the United States Comptroller General on promulgation of Government Auditing Standards—GAO’s yellow book) from 2006 to 2009. He served on the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Anti-Fraud Programs and Controls Task Force and co-authored Managing the Business Risk of Fraud: A Practical Guide. He served on the American Institute of CPAs Anti-Fraud Task Force and co-authored Management Override: The Achilles Heel of Fraud Prevention.

Dave is the past-chair of the AICPA Federal Accounting and Auditing Subcommittee and has served on the AICPA Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee and the Government Technical Standards Subcommittee of the AICPA Professional Ethics Executive Committee.

Dave chaired the Fraud Risk Management Task Force, sponsored by COSO and ACFE and is a principal author of the COSO-ACFE Fraud Risk Management Guide. Dave has testified as an expert in governmental accounting, auditing, and fraud issues before the United States Court of Federal Claims and other administrative and judicial bodies. He has been an instructor for the George Washington University masters of accountancy program (Fraud Examination and Forensic Accounting), and has instructed for the George Mason University Small Business Development Center (Fundamentals of Accounting for Government Contracts).

Dave was the recipient of the ACFE 2018 Certified Fraud Examiner of the Year Award (“presented to a CFE who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of 2 fraud examination … based on their contributions to the ACFE, to the profession, and to the community”).

Mr. Dennis F. Dycus, CFE, CPA, CGFM Related Seminars and Products

Dennis F. Dycus, CPA, CFE, CGFM, is retired, after 39 years in the Office of The Comptroller of the Treasury of the State of Tennessee as the Director of the

Division of Municipal Audit where he was responsible for the audits of all local governments in Tennessee. His responsibilities included conducting investigations related to fraud, waste and abuse in local governments.

For the last several years, Dennis has developed and/or conducted training programs in all fifty U.S. states and in various countries for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and many state CPA societies and associations. In addition, Dennis has provided training for the United States, GAO, Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency, the GAO and the OMB. He has also worked with numerous state audit organizations and individual professional firms.

Daniel Porter Related Seminars and Products

Daniel Porter, CFE, has conducted and managed civil and criminal investigations for over 25 years as a licensed private investigator, a loss prevention manager, and as an investigator and investigations manager with the State of Tennessee.  He currently provides training and consulting services in the areas of fraud prevention-detection-investigation as well as ethics, productivity, and leadership.

Daniel is a Cum Laude graduate from Middle Tennessee State University's Criminal Justice Program and has been a Certified Fraud Examiner for over 20 years.  He has provided training at AGA, AASHTO, CFE, GFOA, IIA, IIMC, P2F2, and NASACT conferences in the United States and Canada as well as for governmental agencies and professional organizations in various states including the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Kentucky League of Cities, the Wyoming Association of Municipal Clerks and Treasurers, the Indiana CPA Society, the Oregon Society of CPAs, and the Florida Institute of CPAs.  He is a guest lecturer at Middle Tennessee State University and the Vanderbilt University School of Law.