Accounting Educators Series: Teaching Fraud: Better than Ponzi

Dr. Johnnie Bejarano is a Program Directorate Analyst for the Strategic Energy Analysis Center, with the Alliance for Sustainable Energy. Alliance is the management and operating contractor for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in Golden, Colorado. NREL is owned by the U.S. Department of Energy and is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center. It is the nation’s primary research and development laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency. At Regis University, he teaches forensic and fraud audit, accounting ethics, governmental and non-profit accounting, financial communication, and other accounting courses. In the local community, he conducts public presentations on anti-fraud and ethics-related topics. In 2022, he earned the Professional Practice Achievement Award, Anderson College of Business and Computing, Regis University, and other numerous teaching excellence awards from other universities. His area of interest is in ethics and anti-fraud mitigation techniques. He holds DBA, MBA, and MA degrees.

He’s a combat veteran with 26 1/2 years of service in the U.S. Air Force, Arizona, and Colorado Air National Guard units. He spent three years as base comptroller at Buckley Air Force Base and was involved in inspector general investigations and reports of surveys as an assistant U.S. property fiscal officer. Over his part-time career, he spent multiple tours in Arizona, Alaska, Florida, New York, Georgia, New Mexico, Wisconsin, HQ/Washington DC, HQ/PACAF Hawaii, and HQ/USAFE Germany. He served a final tour of duty as deputy base commander for support in the Sultanate of Oman during Operation Enduring Freedom in 2002 under combat field conditions. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2003.

In 2011, Dr. Bejarano was elected to the Board of Regents of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), which is the largest anti-fraud-fighting organization in the world with over 90,000 members worldwide. At ACFE, he worked with Cynthia Cooper, author, and WorldCom whistleblower. He recently completed a four-year gubernatorial appointment with the State Board of Accountancy. He is also a member of the editorial advisory committee for Fraud Magazine, a board member for the ACFE’s Colorado Chapter, and involved with the American Institute of CPAs, the Colorado Society of CPAs, Association of Military Comptrollers, Government Finance Officers’ Association, and member of the U.S. Golf Association. For fun, he enjoys spending time with his family and two granddaughters, plays golf, loves sports, and is an avid semi-pro photographer. He studied professional photography at the New York Institute of Photography and Digital Photography at Cornell University (eCornell). He is a firm believer in continuous improvement and is an advocate for lifelong learning. “Never stop learning.”

Falene Young is an instructor of accounting at the University of Colorado Denver. She teaches anything that is set in front of her, which to this point includes business majors and minors, introductory, intermediate, undergraduate and graduate courses, most of financial and managerial accounting, and even a few gritty tax classes. She loves engaging with students in the language of business! Falene works with class sizes ranging from 2 students to 142, and recognizes that there is no “one size fits all” model for engagement and comprehension. Prior to teaching, Falene dabbled in assurance, tax prep and bookkeeping. She received her B.A. in business administration from University of Colorado Denver, her MAcc from Colorado State University, and is proud to maintain her CPA license through the state of Colorado.