Accounting students get insight from The Informant

Money isn’t everything.

That was among the key takeaways from the 12th Annual Pennsylvania Chapter of Certified Fraud Examiners (PACFE) Conference in Hershey, according to Jessica Halligan, among the group of Bloomsburg University accounting majors attending this fall’s conference.

“We discussed lots of different types of financial crimes and fraud that are typically committed, because the criminal thinks money will make them happy,” Halligan said. “Mark Whitacre discussed how he learned the hard way that money is not everything, and it will not bring you long lasting happiness.”

Whitacre, the whistleblower (portrayed by Matt Damon) who inspired the major motion picture film “The Informat,” gave the conference keynote speech, “When Good Leaders Lose Their Way.”

“I learned about the most adequate and effective interview and interrogation practices, darwinism via forensics, open source intelligence, the future of anti-money laundering, and Mark Whitacre’s story about being an informant for the FBI,” Halligan said. “I would certainly encourage other students to attend. Students who are passionate and excited about their future business careers would get a lot out of this conference. I’m so happy I attended, and I look forward to attending in the future years. I made connections I’ll be able to use for the rest of my professional career.”