Andrew Richards recently retired with over 25 years of federal law enforcement experience investigating white-collar crimes as Supervisor of the Fraud Section of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. He investigated almost every type of scheme and scam committed on businesses, government entities, and individuals. Andrew is a Certified Fraud Specialist, and is registered as a Fraud Expert with Experts.com. He was a National Fraud Subject Matter Expert (SME) for USPIS.

As the primary investigator and white-collar supervisor he covered criminal conduct in both the Western District of Pennsylvania and the Northern District of West Virginia, traveling around the country to complete these investigations. Andrew was responsible for all major fraud investigations (domestic and international), including: commercial corruption; embezzlements; investment fraud; false billing schemes; vendor fraud; bank fraud; extortion; bribery; health care fraud; workers compensation fraud; business opportunity fraud; identity theft; mail fraud; wire fraud; charity fraud; political corruption; money laundering, criminal forfeiture, and investigative support of federal civil cases including qui tam investigations.

Previously, Andrew was the supervisor of the Financial Crimes & Major Crimes Section, as well as the supervisor of the Financial Crimes Task Force of Southwestern Pennsylvania – a nationally recognized multi-agency task force, he investigated gang activity for identity theft, counterfeit checks, account takeovers and criminal forfeiture. Andrew supervised task force members from the FBI, US Secret Service, US Treasury- Inspector General, PA Attorney General’s Office, PA State Police, Pittsburgh Police, Allegheny County Police, Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office Detectives, Washington County District Attorney’s Office, Greensburg City Police, and US Attorney’s Office. Andrew also gave presentations to law enforcement and prosecutors in other states on the establishment of their own financial crimes task force.

Andrew is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh teaching White Collar Crimes, and also an Adjunct Professor at Point Park University’s Criminal Justice and Intelligence Studies; as well as a SME on the advisory panel for Carlow University’s Fraud & Forensics Master’s Program. Prior to his federal experience Andrew was an officer with the Reading Bureau of Police (PA) for five years, with two years on a plain-clothes surveillance team focusing on armed robberies and home invasions. He has a BA in Criminal Justice from Alvernia University and a Master’s Degree in Criminology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

As a Board Member of the non-profit group Senior Action Coalition (SAC), a grass-roots organization focused on the prevention of senior citizens being victimized of their hard earned savings, Andrew helped cultivate the program, and personally made presentations to seniors, their caretakers, law enforcement, and state-wide professional groups. Andrew helped create the SAC model that developed into a national program with actress Betty White as the national spokesperson.

Additional investigations included Richards heading over 50 agents on a homicide of a postal employee; and a multi-faceted white-collar case where one of the witnesses was murdered.

Other professional experience:

• National Subject Matter Expert (USPIS) – Fraud Investigations
• Certification - Certified Fraud Specialist (CFS)
• “Top Secret “ government clearances (25 years)
• Member - International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators (over 20 years)
• Board Member of Senior Action Coalition – non-profit grassroots organization working to prevent the financial victimization of senior citizens.
• Fraud/forfeiture instructor in Macedonia at request of US Department of Justice Criminal Division – Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development Assistance & Training (OPDAT) http://www.justice.gov/criminal/opdat/
• Provided testimony before the PA House of Representatives Consumer Affairs Committee regarding identity theft and security breaches.
• Multiple professional presentations to Pittsburgh Chapter of Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. (CFE) - most recent February 2014.
• Speaker at the IIA Anti-Fraud Forum sponsored by Mylan, Inc., for 250 IA’s & CFE’s for both CLE and CLP hours (Sept 2012).
• Panelist on TV’s NightTalk (WPXI-TV/PCNC) on “Fraud – Federal Investigations” (May 2013)
• Multiple fraud presentations or guest speaker at: University of Pittsburgh; IUP; Carlow University; Point Park University; Duquesne University; and CCAC;
• Fraud presenter at several International Association of Financial Criminal Investigators (IAFCI) state conferences
• Guest speaker at PA Board of Register of Wills State Conference
• Guest speaker at Federal Trade Commission, Pittsburgh White-collar Conference
• Guest speaker at Federation of State Medical Boards of the U.S., Washington DC conference on medical fraud investigations
• Guest speaker at National Credit Union Administration’s workshop.
• Pittsburgh - host/speaker for USDOJ/OPDAT Bosnian delegation of judges, prosecutors and investigators
• Guest speaker at CLE seminar on Identity Theft and related crimes, Wheeling WV
• Guest speaker at CLE seminar on Ethics in Fraud for Allegheny County Bar Association
• Guest speaker at CPE seminar for Allegheny County Chapter of CPA’s on Ethics in Fraud investigations.
• Guest speaker at the US Department of Labor Special Agents’ National Conference, Tampa FL
• Guest speaker at AARP College of Knowledge (with then PA Attorney General and now-Governor Tom Corbett)
• Speaker at CPE seminars on fraud for CPA's sponsored by IUP and PNC Bank.
• Public Information Officer (20 years) – conducted hundreds of news media interviews.
• Congressional & Public Affairs for USPIS, Washington DC, detailed program manager and liaison with U.S. Congress.
• Agency Representative/member of the following Task Force's over his tenure in WDPA or NDWV: Financial Crimes Task Force; Joint Terrorist Task Force (at inception after 9/11); FBI High Tech Crimes Task Force; Mortgage Fraud Task Force; Treasury SARs Review Panel; Crimes Against Children Task Force; Health Care Fraud Task Force; Worker's Compensation Fraud Task Force (National); IdentityTheft/Cyber Crime Task Force; Senior Action Coalition.
• Over 100 presentations to civic groups on fraud awareness and prevention.

Other Professional Affiliations & Memberships:

• ACFE affiliation
• Anti-Fraud Experts
• Criminal Justice Professionals
• Criminal Justice Security Career Institute
• Financial Crime Risk, Fraud & Security (UK)
• Internal Audit Professionals (sub-group) Fraud Prevention, Detection and Investigation
• Law Enforcement Professionals
• Professional Private Investigators
• Surveillance Investigators
• Unity One: International Investigations, Due Diligence, Security, & Financial Fraud

Awards: (selected items)

• United States Attorney General’s Outstanding Contributions in Law Enforcement Award – national nominee
• Special Achievement Award USPIS for $71 million fraud investigation
• Federal Bureau of Investigation Appreciation Award in a fraud investigation
• Special Recognition for the national roll-out of the Senior Action Coalition theme with Betty White as spokesperson.
• Special Award for joint investigations from the Washington County District Attorney’s Office
• Letter of Appreciation, Westmoreland County Officer’s Association
• Letter of Appreciation, US Department of Labor – Instructor at National Conference, Tampa, FL
• Letter of Commendation, US Attorney Western District of PA - Fraud investigations
• Letter of Appreciation, US Attorney, Northern District of WV - Murder in Aid of Racketeering/Fraud Investigation
• Numerous other Certificates of Appreciation on Fraud related investigations and prevention efforts.

Presentations

Andrew has given over 200 presentations to a variety of audiences, including professional groups, business associations, law enforcement associations, and civic groups, as well as being interviewed on TV and radio. Presentation topics include the fraud and embezzlements related to the target audience, citing examples of these schemes that he has investigated over the years for emphasis.

Contact FIS to see if a presentation would be valuable to your group.

• ACFE Presentation Pittsburgh PA - February 2014
• PA Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) - Annual Meeting CPE presenter, Greensburg Country Club, May 2014.
• Richards interviewed on Jamaican Lottery scams – KDKA-TV (CBS)
• Richards interviewed on counterfeit apparel from China
• Richards interviewed on email phishing – KDKA-TV (CBS)
• Institute of Internal Auditors – Speaker along with ACFE President Ratley and convicted Crazy Eddie’s CFO Sam Antar
• Penn State University - CPA and Enrolled Tax Practitioner Seminars (February 2015)
• Andrew Richards TV Interview – Fox TV (October 2014)