Charles “Chuck” Duross, our third guest speaker for this semester’s Let’s Talk about Fraud series, joined us on the evening of March 3 and shared his experiences via Zoom to over 230 participants, most of whom were students studying multiple majors at the University of Arkansas.
The video recording of the event can be found below.
Duross is a former Deputy Chief of the Department of Justice. There he spent a majority of his time working in the fraud section of the criminal division. In fact, Duross was on the opposite side of the table when our previous guest speaker, Richard Bistrong, was being indicted for his role in conspiring to pay bribes to a third-party intermediary, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Duross now works as a white collar criminal defense attorney with Morrison & Foerster and is internationally recognized for his leading role in developing and implementing the government’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement strategy.
During our event March 3, Duross shared some of the more common themes that he has seen during his career. For example, he mentioned that most people don’t go into their jobs with the intent of committing white collar crimes. He cautioned those attending the event that it is often a slippery slope. People take one step past the line, then another, and another before realizing they don’t remember where they started, or even crossing that line the first time.
Check out the recording above to hear more as Duross goes on to share common mistakes he sees business managers make that land them in trouble. He also talks about some of the common rationalizations that business managers tell themselves that mask the true seriousness of their actions until it is too late.
To hear more about Duross’ experiences in white collar crime and business ethics, check out The BIS: Business Integrity School video & podcast series with Cindy Moehring. Moehring and Duross had an insightful discussion full of thoughts on how business ethics and enforcement has changed over the years, and advice he has for students graduating and starting their careers in business.
Coming up next - Let’s Talk participants will have an opportunity to hear from Eugene Soltes, author of our book of the semester, Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of a White Collar Criminal! Soltes interviewed over 50 former white collar criminals while drafting his book, including Bernie Madoff. You won’t want to miss this one!
