The Friendly Fraud Buster

Spartan Spotlight: Joe Dervaes ’63

Joe Dervaes ’63 was inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

It started off casually. The sneaky, tech-savvy treasurer of a public utility district in Washington state reprogrammed the computer system so it issued a check to him and recorded it as a payment to a vendor.

In the beginning, he wisely waited for the accounting clerk to go on vacation so he could approve the transactions himself. But after some success, while remodeling his house, he got cocky and didn’t wait until the clerk was on vacation.

Once the clerk noticed something fishy, Joe Dervaes ’63 of the state auditor’s office was called in to crack the case. “It was very demanding because it involved computer manipulations, and it took several days to unravel it,” says Dervaes. “The total loss turned out to be $236,925.23.”

Thanks to Dervaes, that treasurer spent 15 months in prison and lost his certified public accountant credentials.

Confronting criminals is tricky, and it’s something Dervaes does with a whole lot of empathy. “Once they’re caught, a lot of times they think their life is coming to an end and everyone will hate them. My response is: No, they won’t hate you. They will hate what you did,” he says. “Auditors are not trained to be mental health counselors, but I try to explain to them that life may be different in the future, but it does go on.”

This unique skill set is what propelled Dervaes to become just the fifth person ever (out of nearly 90,000 members) to be inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) last June.

A Tampa native, Dervaes studied business administration at UT and played baritone and euphonium in the marching band. “We participated in Gasparilla and the local parades. We’d put on concerts in Plant Park by the river,” he says.

After graduation, he joined the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. Toward the end of his training, an auditor for the base was recruiting trainees with accounting experience. This launched his first career: auditing for the Air Force (1963-1983).

What followed was a second career (1984-2006) in the Washington State Auditor’s Office, focusing on local government fraud – specifically employee embezzlement.

As Dervaes gained expertise, he doled it out widely to help others, developing fraud detection manuals and training programs, giving speeches through the ACFE and writing an article in every issue of ACFE’s Fraud Magazine for 13 years.

Says Dervaes: “Fraud audits are stressful and sometimes complex. But afterward, you can sit down and learn the key concepts and share them with the rest of the world so other people don’t have the same experiences. The educational part – that’s the fun part.”

By Madeline McMahon

Photograph: Courtesy of Joe Dervaes ’63