On Thursday, October 12, 2017, the Pearl Initiative organised a lecture for the students of Zayed University in Dubai, UAE as part of its series of student presentations around the Gulf Region aimed at raising awareness about the topics of business ethics, integrity and anti-corruption. Over 40 students from the College of Business attended the lecture. the purpose of this series is to bring successful business leaders and students together and to inform students on how these topics are applied in practice by businesses in the Gulf region and how they contribute to the overall success and growth of an organisation.

The lecture was delivered by Mr Ali Salim and Mr Abuzer Sigriwala, both Managers in Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services at EY with over 9 years of experience each in the field. Mr Ali Salim initiated the interactive session with a personality type exercise that got the students engaged and introduced the students to the fraud triangle which highlights the main causes of misconduct.

Mr Ali and Mr Abuzer discussed the concept of fraud and detailed the different types of fraud such as corruption, asset misappropriation and financial statement fraud. The discussion also highlighted ways in which organisations can identify red flags and why it is imperative for organisations to put fraud prevention policies in place.

Mr Ali and Mr Abuzer then went on to explain the characteristics of a fraudster and provided the students with the behavioural red flags displayed by perpetrators through statistics and examples based on their experiences. The lecture was then opened up for Q&As.