Follow the money: Stories from the front-lines of the fraud fight
I am a CPA and Certified Fraud Examiner with over 20 years experience as a fraud investigator, corporate controller, and financial analyst. My practice focuses on financial reconstructions, financial forensic examinations, including fraud, embezzlement, income tracing, fiduciary misconduct, loan compliance, and elder financial abuse. I have presented findings at mediations and ADR hearings, and I volunteer my forensic services to Law Enforcement. I am the past Chairperson of the Sonoma County Financial Abuse Specialist Team (FAST) and a past member of the Napa County FAST.
I investigate financial fraud. I seek answers to the age-old question - "What happened to my money?" I provide transparency where there was none. I reconstruct financial history when disasters, incompetence or deliberate malfeasance make financial statements unreliable or inaccurate.
I "follow the money" to investigate embezzlements, unreported assets, and underreported income for disputes including: divorce, bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, delinquent taxes, loan compliance, financing or investments for early stage venture capital and international mergers and acquisitions.
I investigate financial crimes and scams against the elderly and dependent adults and work closely with law enforcement to find and stop the wrong-doers.
I am not deterred by complicated, multi-jurisdictional, multiple businesses, and cash-based groups. The messier, the better. My raison d'etre is to provide transparency and demand accountability.
"The Big Monster Took My Bike" by District Governor Jennifer Strong
District Governor Jennifer Strong was our guest on Thursday, July 14, 2022. Governor Strong provided us with her personal Rotary biography, including her transformation from an everyday, active Rotarian into a Rotarian who finally understood why she is a Rotarian. Jennifer has been a 2016 District 5130 Rotarian of the Year, founding member of the District 5130 Fire Relief Fund, 5130 Grant Chair, and 5130 Youth Exchange Club Counselor. She told us about her huge Rotarian transformational moment and asked us to provide some of our similar transformational Rotarian experiences. Governor Jennifer told us that this is the time to reimagine and rebuild Rotary and that one of the ways we can do that is by connecting with one another and sharing our stories, including our own stories about why we are Rotarians.
Governor Jennifer started in Rotary as a high school student in 1987 at Clearlake High School. She returned to Rotary in 1998, joining the Rotary Club of Lakeport. She is a Certified Financial Planner and like many of us thought that joining Rotary would be helpful for developing her business. She was an active member of her club, including serving as club president, but did not fully understand the power of Rotary until the 2015 Lake County Fire devastated the region. She helped start the Lake Area Rotary Fire Relief Fund, which raised more than $1M for residents affected by the fire. When the Tubbs Fire terrorized Sonoma County in 2017, she helped expand the Fund to provide fire relief to Sonoma County, renaming it as the District 5130 Fire Relief Fund and helping to generate donations of over $3M for disaster relief!
Jennifer’s transformational Rotarian moment came while she was working on the Lake County Fire Relief Fund. At a fire relief event, a little girl approached her and wrapped her arms around Jennifer. The little girl told Jennifer, “The big monster took my bike.” This simple statement shook Jennifer and changed her as a person. After 28 years in Rotary, this is the moment when she “really became a Rotarian!”
Jennifer asked Sunrisers to join into small groups and discuss our own Rotary transformational moments. Past President Rich Randolph talked about his own Rotary moments, including how his long involvement in Sunrise’s efforts in Nicaragua led he and Betsy to host the Fonseca family, who had left everything in Nicaragua and immigrated to the United States as refugees. Rich added that the Fonseca family is doing well!
Governor Jennifer also promised a visit from District Assistant Governor, Brian Reid, in the September time frame will join us to deliver the vision of Rotary International and some of the District’s ideas that will hopefully bring value, resources, and assistance back to the District’s clubs. Thank you for the amazing visit, Governor Jennifer, and we will see you in action this year!
Click HERE to view a recording of Jennifer's program. You will see why Harry is holding that basket. The recording is available for only a short time.
On a regular basis, our resident photo pro Warren Smith, submits pictures of what is going on at the weekly meetings. You can always find the most recent pictures at the websites photo journal called "Meeting Sighting" Please note that all the meeting photos for the entire Rotary year are at this location with the most recent on the last page.
Thanks for all the great pictures Warren!Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!
First it was "Fines". And when that was thought to be "negative" it became "recognitions" and after that "High Five". But Jack has announced a new twist for these moments, designed to fit every celebration as well as sorrowful news. And it does not have to be a "High Five". "Happy Dollars" and "Sad Dollars" can be whatever you want them to be. Or whatever you feel is appropriate.
These six words gleaned from 30 years in Rotary begin to describe my engagement in it!
REARRANGING ~ In 1991 a career promotion landed me a 50 mile commute from home. Previous community connections were gone. My Medical Director, Eugene Whitney prescribed Pleasant Hill Rotary. First as Newsletter Editor on my Kroy typewriter the people places and dynamics of the new neighborhood took identity and my void of connections disappeared. Life had been Rearranged. After serving as International and Foundation Director, in 1993 the club offered me a line to Presidency.
OPPORTUNITY~ Opens continually: Where else could a fairly desk set administrator discover house spray painting, interview international scholars, and, in so many ways, discover enterprises beyond my own comfort zone. In 1999 Menlo Park Rotary gave me the Opportunity to organize and complete a Global Grant for an ambulance in India and secure a a grant for immunizations abroad.
TRANSFORM ~ Rotarians leverage their passion for improving quality of life near and far. I have been inspired by the power inherent in members to share skills ranging from fishing, carpentry, dentistry, optometry, music, bulk carrots into bags ~ all extending the reach of resources beyond the bounds of affordability. More lives than the number of our members here in Santa Rosa alone have been Transformed at The Living Room and Women's Recovery Center.
ADVENTURE ~ River Rafting, Space Walks or talks, hiking in tropical zones, stalking caimans, exploring active volcanoes, beachcombing with high school students, shepherding endangered turtles ~ to name a few put a capital A italic, underline in RotAry!
RESULTS ~ We are never satisfied with the status-quo and are Results driven!
YES!! ~ Surrendering apprehension and sayingYES has never disappointed or overwhelmed me. I have come to learn others are eager to join in and share to vision as well as effort!!
Rotary raises funds for the People of Ukraine who share the same distinctive Rotary blue and gold colors
It was Saturday, and you could tell that the community was waking up from a 2-1/2 year hibernation. And this was unmistakably a Rotary event -- complete with those familiar banners and posters.
But there were also bright, beautiful sunflowers, art work on display, novelties for sale and plenty of music! It was a special function to raise dollars for the people of Ukraine.
Service above self and international outreach. Definitely a Rotary sponsored event!
After being with her all evening, the man couldn't take another minute with his blind date. Earlier, he had secretly arranged to have a friend call him to the the phone so he would have an excuse to leave if something happened.
When he returned to the table, he lowered his eyes, put on a grim expression and said, "I have some bad news. My grandfather just died."
"Thank heavens," his date relied. "If yours hadn't, mine would have had to!"
Do you have a joke you would like to share? Send it the editor.
The Rotary Club of Boston rallied donors from the community and other local Rotary clubs to aid a public-run air ambulance service. With more than $20,000 generated through a crowdfunding site, the club far exceeded its goal of raising $13,500 to install lighting for the grass helipad and a windsock at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston. “The lights are dual-visual and infrared, solar-powered, and can be switched on from the cockpit of a helicopter,” says Geoff Day, the club’s immediate past president, noting that civil aviation regulations prohibited flights to and from the facility during darkness without the upgrade. With the regional major trauma center in Nottingham more than an hour’s drive away, the improvement will save lives, Day says. Extra money that was raised will be used to fund a blood warmer for the helicopter.
Northern Mariana Islands
Blessed with unusually consistent year-round temperatures, Saipan, the most populous island in the Northern Mariana Islands, is hailed as a tropical treasure. But even paradise can use a little sprucing up, figured eco-minded members of the Rotaract Club of Saipan. “We thought about how some of the villages haven’t been cleaned by community service groups,” says Richard Baleares, the club’s president. “So we made it a goal to do a village cleanup before the end of 2021.” Baleares met with Joann Aquino of the Rotary Club of Saipan to pinpoint a worthy recipient: the village of Chalan Kanoa, where on 2 October a mile-long strip of beach was cleaned of litter. “We expected around five people to attend but ended up with a little more than 30 due to the participation of all our [four] amazing Interact clubs and students from the Northern Marianas College,” Baleares says.
This story originally appeared in the July 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Sunrise - Founded June 30, 1986
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The Rotary Club of Boston rallied donors from the community and other local Rotary clubs to aid a public-run air ambulance service. With more than $20,000 generated through a crowdfunding site, the club far exceeded its goal of raising $13,500 to install lighting for the grass helipad and a windsock at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston. “The lights are dual-visual and infrared, solar-powered, and can be switched on from the cockpit of a helicopter,” says Geoff Day, the club’s immediate past president, noting that civil aviation regulations prohibited flights to and from the facility during darkness without the upgrade. With the regional major trauma center in Nottingham more than an hour’s drive away, the improvement will save lives, Day says. Extra money that was raised will be used to fund a blood warmer for the helicopter.
Blessed with unusually consistent year-round temperatures, Saipan, the most populous island in the Northern Mariana Islands, is hailed as a tropical treasure. But even paradise can use a little sprucing up, figured eco-minded members of the Rotaract Club of Saipan. “We thought about how some of the villages haven’t been cleaned by community service groups,” says Richard Baleares, the club’s president. “So we made it a goal to do a village cleanup before the end of 2021.” Baleares met with Joann Aquino of the Rotary Club of Saipan to pinpoint a worthy recipient: the village of Chalan Kanoa, where on 2 October a mile-long strip of beach was cleaned of litter. “We expected around five people to attend but ended up with a little more than 30 due to the participation of all our [four] amazing Interact clubs and students from the Northern Marianas College,” Baleares says.