Author and speaker Craig Stanland wants CPAs to learn to look closely at financial crimes and understand the pressures, rationalizations, and small choices that can lead individuals to make decisions they never thought possible. 

“Every single one of us is capable of making a horrific decision we never thought we’d make in our lives,” he says. “That’s a hard pill to swallow, and it’s one of the most important conversations we can have.”

He describes fraud as a series of doorways. Opportunities to act dishonestly appear in front of people every day, yet most don’t choose to walk through them. Why is that?

Stanland points to the fraud triangle, the familiar model built around pressure, opportunity, and rationalization. In his view, pressure is often the least understood leg of the triangle. “People think opportunity is the primary driver of fraud,” he says. “But we don’t walk through the door to fraud without the pressure driver.”

Stanland knows first hand about the pressure driver, which in his case was financial. In response to a market-driven drop in income, he committed an $800,000 fraud against a Fortune 500 company, for which he ultimately served time in federal prison. 

Rationalizing a Series of Choices

Stanland notes that someone can be a good person and still commit a serious crime. His story raises an uncomfortable question: How does someone who never imagined themselves capable of fraud gradually become the person who commits it?

He says pressure can alter a person’s thinking. Rationalization makes a troubling choice feel temporarily acceptable. The micro decisions that follow slowly change what feels normal. He hopes his perspective will help business leaders understand fraud through a different lens.

A Story Worth Telling

Stanland, the author of Blank Canvas: How I Reinvented My Life After Prison and a speaker who helps organizations understand the human side of fraud risk, shares his story in the fall 2026 issue of NewsAccount, now available digitally. 

Additionally, he’ll speak at PEAK: The Colorado Accounting and Finance Summit, Nov. 11-12 at the Sheraton Denver West. His keynote session, “How I Got Caught: A Deep Dive Into an $800K Fraud,” will examine the systems and processes he learned as he moved from the lower levels of a sales organization to near the top. He’ll discuss how he exploited a contract, the red flags that emerged, and the evidence investigators used to build their case.

How Would You Have Caught Him?

Come to Stanland’s PEAK session prepared to be a part of the investigation, because once he presents the facts of the case, he turns to his audience to ask: How would you have caught me? It’s a unique opportunity to learn how to look past policy language and identify the most important point of intervention. 

He encourages accountants to hear his story and ask the awkward questions they may be hesitant to ask. “I’m an open book,” he says, adding that the Q&A portion of his presentation is among the most valuable parts of the program because every question reflects a different experience.

“I pour it all out during this presentation,” he says. “Come and be open to learning.”

Check out the fall issue of NewsAccount for more on Craig Stanland. Click here to register for PEAK: The Colorado Accounting and Finance Summit, Nov. 11-12 at the Sheraton Denver West.

NewsAccount Reader Pulse: Take a look at the fall issue and let us know what your favorite read is.