CPE requirements of late (relatively speaking) has emphasized ethics more and more, especially for lawyers and accountants.
Usually, continuing professional education courses contain self-study, whether online or by using traditional materials like workbooks and the like.
Nonetheless, credits may also be gained through attending qualifying seminars, such as those well-liked talks given by those accountants, lawyers, and others convicted of so-called white-collar crimes.
Yes, listening to fraudsters and scammers could satisfy some CPE requirements, depending on the certifying body governing the career in each state!
Okay, so it’s quite an amusing thought, but then again, who else is there better qualified to educate of such things than those with close knowledge by virtue of their criminal activities?
Probably the most well-known of such speakers is Sam Antar, the former Chief Financial Officer for Crazy Eddie’s, his cousin’s eponymous business in consumer electronics.
Rising from a lowly stockboy back when the company was a very modest local neighborhood success, Sam Antar ended up very close to his cousin Eddie Antar due to his role as the pro enabler that greatly facilitated the organization’s widespread accounting fraud.
Given such an insider’s role, it is easy to see why his lectures today can command credits that meet CPE requirements: after all, it takes one to know one!
Indeed, Sam Antar, while acknowledging the depth of his offenses, doesn’t flinch from the truth: he is only on the right side of the law these days because he was caught.
Had the whole Crazy Eddie’s saga never collapsed because of greed and in-fighting among some of the principals required, Sam Antar might well be busy today enabling white-collar crime as he always had, not fighting it himself as he is in a sense forced to do due to economic circumstances related to his now toxic work history and professional notoriety.
