Canisius College will welcome Weston Smith to campus on Wednesday, March 4 at 4:30 p.m. in the Regis Room of the Richard E. Winter ’42 Student Center. Smith’s lecture, entitled “Crossing the Line – An Insider’s Story of Fraud,” is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the lecture.
Smith is the former chief financial officer of HealthSouth and the man who exposed the Fortune 500 company for committing $2.9 billion in financial fraud. Smith voluntarily came forward about the multi-year, multi-billion dollar earnings overstatement, and exposed how compromises and competition led HealthSouth to falsify its financial statements. He also revealed the mechanics of the fraud, how the company avoided detection for so long, and disclosed the financial and non-financial red flags that were ignored.
Smith began his career as a certified public accountant (CPA) with Ernst & Young, specializing in audit and healthcare consulting. He was hired by HealthSouth during its infancy and ultimately became the chief financial officer of the company, which grew from one location to more than 2,000 locations across the U.S. and abroad.
Smith has since accepted responsibility for his actions. He was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison (he served 14 months) and was ordered to pay $1.5 million in forfeited assets. Today, he works as an accountant for a small business and travels the country speaking about fraud prevention and ethical conduct.
Smith has been published in Issues in Accounting Education. He has spoken at more than 50 universities and to numerous professional groups across the country and internationally. Smith has also appeared on CNBC, Fox Business Network and other media outlets.
Smith’s lecture is sponsored by the Canisius College Accounting Society and the Joseph J. Castiglia Accounting Endowment Fund.
For more information, contact the Accounting Department at Ext. 5947.
Submitted by: Patricia Johnson, PhD, assistant professor, Accounting
