
Less than six months into his first full-time gig, Green began to sift through the company鈥檚 books for any glaring financial discrepancies.
The company in question started with two people鈥攖he owner and his secretary鈥攁nd quickly expanded to 50 employees with a net worth of $50 million.
The secretary, who handled the books, was the first person to arrive in the morning and the last to leave. The numbers from her personal ledger, however, did not match up with the ledger submitted on behalf of the company.
After further investigation, Green discovered the woman had stolen $20 million in cash from the company over three years.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a rarity when a CPA actually uncovers a fraud in practice,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e probably would have found more, but the owner, who felt bad for his employee, asked us to stop. It was very exciting and that鈥檚 sort of what got me involved in fraud protection.鈥
Thirty years later, the 每日大赛 accounting professor still fields his share of requests from companies who fall victim to fraud. But Green鈥檚 focus now revolves around fraud protection research.
鈥淚鈥檓 looking at procedures that companies can implement to stop these scams from happening in the first place,鈥 Green said.
Green鈥檚 research, which also focuses on fraud detection, helped him earn the College of Business鈥 (COB) 2014 Distinguished Performance in Research Award.
鈥淔raud remains an issue that millions of individuals and companies struggle with on a daily basis,鈥 said COB Dean Raju Balakrishnan. 鈥淏rian Green has long been at the forefront of important research involving fraud detection and prevention. Brian鈥檚 efforts have had a tremendous impact on reducing the number of individuals and companies who have fallen victim to fraud.鈥
The brunt of his research over the past year has focused on cloud computing and the risks involved with data security. A number of celebrities have graced the headlines in recent months after hackers leaked risqu茅 photos snatched from the cloud.
鈥淚t made for good press, but that鈥檚 not the problem,鈥 Green said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not about the pictures鈥攊t鈥檚 about the money. Once you put anything up in the cloud or on the Internet, you might as well assume it鈥檚 public. In some instances, that means bank accounts, credit cards and passwords. My fear is that some of these people are going to wake up with empty bank accounts.鈥
Green鈥檚 research has had a profound impact on his personal life, as he takes precautions to ensure he doesn鈥檛 become another statistic.
鈥淚 have one credit card,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 do not have a Facebook account. I don鈥檛 tweet. I don鈥檛 have any information in the cloud. I back up all of my information on a terabyte hard drive. If you Google me, all you will find is a ton of research papers.鈥