In Memoriam of Dr. Joseph W. Koletar, CFE

It is with great sorrow that we announce the death of Dr. Joseph W. Koletar, one of our three founding partners.  Joe died on November 24, 2023 after a period of declining health.  A biography of Joe can be seen by clicking the “About” button on this web site.  He was a walking treasure trove of stories and experiences in reducing fraud risk and investigating cases of suspected fraud.  He was a co-author of the seminal book on the psychology of fraud, A.B.C.s of Behavioral Forensics.

Joe was a veteran investigator and consultant in the mitigation of white collar crime (fraud).  He was brilliant in his insight and quick with his wit.  We respected him immensely and will deeply miss his wisdom, his humor, and his ability to offer new insights relevant to the subject under discussion.

Joe is survived by his spouse, Martha, and we offer her our condolences.  She was very helpful to him in navigating the mysteries of today’s technology, allowing him to participate with us in virtual conferences and presentations. 

-The Partners of Behavioral Forensics Group, LLC.

Read on for some recollections of Joe, and why we loved him.

Memories of Joe Koletar, my fellow founding partner at the Behavioral Forensics Group LLC

 From Sridhar Ramamoorti, Managing Partner & CEO, Behavioral Forensics Group LLC

Soon after Arthur Andersen collapsed in the wake of the Enron matter, I joined Ernst & Young’s Litigation Advisory Services (LAS) practice on July 29, 2002.  EY LAS-New York-based Joe Koletar and I met soon thereafter (probably at one of the many meetings LAS had in Las Vegas, a favorite place for internal meetings for then EY LAS managing partner, Michael Emmert). Joe and I hit it off almost immediately.

Some interesting, even charming recollections I have of Joe Koletar’s wit and humor are:

• In one of my early conversations, I asked Joe when it comes to fraud what is the difference in approach by CPAs vs. CFEs? He gave me a rather insightful answer: “Well, you CPAs go from the numbers to the people, we CFEs go from the people to the numbers. We reverse the arrow of causality in the right direction!” Indeed, this recognition forms the backbone of our co-authored book, A.B.C.’s of Behavioral Forensics: Applying Psychology to Financial Fraud Prevention and Detection published by Wiley in 2013. In the book we posit that fraud is a human act and that in the final analysis it is the people behind every fraud and their motivations that most merit our study and examination.  (Joe was also one of the very few “Fellows” named by the ACFE).

• Upon learning that Joe Koletar was the inaugural Chairman of the Board of Regents of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), I had asked him how long he had known ACFE Founder & Chairman, Joe Wells. I became a CFE in 1995, and in 2006, as a Grant Thornton corporate governance partner, was serving on the Board of the Institute for Fraud Prevention (IFP) that had Joe Wells as the President of the Board of Directors. And in Joe Wells’ presence at an IFP meeting, and to much mirth, Joe Koletar remarked, “Yes, indeed, Joe Wells and I know each other for some 50 years…from the time when the earth was still cooling!”

• After retiring from the FBI, Joe spent several years with Deloitte. He led their practice’s “table top” exercises for the security around the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, which included a scenario wherein CNN founder Ted Turner might be kidnapped! Subsequently, he came to Ernst & Young LLP.

• In August of 2014, less than a year after our ABC book was published, B4G partner and another 25-year FBI veteran, Vic Hartman arranged for the FBI to invite us to Indianapolis to present to some 200 FBI Special Agents who worked in the white-collar crime space (many participants were CPAs and lawyers). Vic moderated, and Joe, Daven and I were on the panel—it was quite amazing to see the FBI showing a keen interest in the ABC book!  It was the clearest evidence yet that our book on “behavioral forensics” represented a pioneering contribution to the academic and professional literature.

• I greatly respected Joe’s work on “Rethinking Risk” (published by the American Management Association) – a superbly titled, well-written, and insightful book in which I am acknowledged. Joe thanked me for arranging an interview for him with then Managing Partner of the National Corporate Governance Group at Grant Thornton, Mr. R. Trent Gazzaway, in Chicago. Even today, I draw the attention of my students to the narrative on page 5 of the book (it’s vintage Joe!). On that page, Joe makes reference to the old TV show, The Twilight Zone, that ran from 1959 to 1964 (i.e., before I was born). One particular episode features an inveterate gambler who has gambled away everything, including his job and his family.  He has just a few dollars left in his pocket when he is struck by a cab when crossing the street. Upon waking, he finds himself in a casino. Taking the few dollars he has left in his pocket, he begins to gamble…and lo and behold! he wins every time.  It is truly remarkable because he has never ever experienced such a string of incessant wins. Joe writes beautifully, “He could not lose and concluded from the little he could remember of the accident that he was in Heaven.  As the evening wore on, the realization began to set in that he was in fact, in Hell. For a gambler, a world without risk is no world at all.”

• Here is another sparkling sample of his writing from our 2014 academic article in the Journal of Forensic and Investigative Accounting (JFIA), titled “Bringing Freud to Fraud: Understanding the State-of-Mind of the C-Level Suite/White Collar Offender Through “A-B-C” Analysis.”

“This backdrop highlights questions predicated on a central theme: Why do well-educated, well paid, apparently ―nice people indulge in such conduct? Why does an individual commit fraud? Clearly, some of these C-level suite, white-collar criminals are so wealthy that they would not appear to need the money. To understand this requires understanding fraud. Fraud is perhaps best defined as:

All multifarious means which human ingenuity can devise, and which are resorted to by one individual to get an advantage over another by false suggestions or suppression of the truth. It includes all surprise, trick, cunning, or dissembling, and any unfair way which another is cheated. 2

As compact as Black‘s definition is, ―fraud still encompasses a huge range of human activity.  The word itself is malleable. Standing alone, ―fraud is a noun, as in ―A fraud was committed. If we add ―”de” in front of it to form ―defraud, it comes a verb, as in ―Sam defrauded Bill. If we add ―”ulent” to the end of it, it becomes the adjective ―fraudulent, as in ―Dan engaged in fraudulent behavior. A multi-headed hydra in its diverse manifestations, even the word ―”fraud” appears capable of showing itself as different parts of speech to suit the occasion.

Indeed, frauds take on a dizzying variety of forms, from the corporate frauds mentioned above, to the welfare recipient selling his or her food stamps at a discount to gain cash to buy alcohol or drugs, to the scam artist calling old people at home to sell them overpriced or worthless goods, to the person filing an inflated insurance claim.”

Yes, Joe Koletar had a way with words.  His speech and writing had a great impact on the reader or listener. Joe was insistent with me and Board-certified psychiatrist, Daven Morrison, MD, that we formally set up a firm to pool our talents and distinct perspectives on the topic of fraud. It is fair to say that without Joe’s importunate urging, Behavioral Forensics Group LLC would not exist today.  He loved his wife Martha, and was extremely proud of his lawyer-daughter, Lauren. When announcing the arrival of his grandchild, he wrote me, you may congratulate me, but do not call me a “Grandpa!” I will miss him dearly.

Memories of Joe Koletar, my fellow founding partner at the Behavioral Forensics Group LLC

from Daven Morrison, MD, Founding Principal, Behavioral Forensics Group LLC

I first met Joe at the reconstitution of the Institute of Fraud Prevention. Sri had invited me to attend. Joe was very much interested in promoting the idea of fraud as a result of gang-like behavior – not one person. That led to the “Bad bushel” idea, that ultimately was part of the first paper that became our book, the A.B.C.’s of Behavioral Forensics: Applying Psychology to Financial Fraud Prevention and Detection. I remember getting to know him over a series of meetings exploring why fraudsters do what they do and having a lot of laughs.

• Joe was a great storyteller-teacher. He would often relate a series of features to a story and then something that would provide a bright yellow line directly to a conclusion. Something to the effect of “the person who committed the murder was generally well known to the investigations team as clearly being very tall. A confident fellow who wanted to show how bright he was and how he could help the “bumbling police.” This guy showed up wearing massive shoes. Then when the meeting was over he stood up – standing over everyone in the room. Then, Joe would say, “and this, ladies and gentlemen, is what is known in the business as a “clue.”

• In San Diego, we were delivering a program for NACVA early on in our partnership. We had notebooks for all the participants and I was carrying them around the hotel for some reason in a box. Joe looked at me and said, “You know, Daven, you need a mob name. I think we’re gonna call you ‘Davey Boxes’, as you sure seem interested in taking care of those boxes.”  Although the nickname didn’t stick, I always loved it.

• He shared an interest in Jerry Post, MD, a recognized expert in international security and a long-distance profiler of men such as Saddam Hussein who threaten the U.S.  He shared with me how he and Jerry had a good conversation about their work at AOOP one year when Joe was our guest. Joe had told me how he approached interviewing many times over the years, and at that meeting he had shared some of those ideas with Jerry. Then he noted Jerry stopped him at one point, looked him in the eye and said: “I bet you (Joe) were a really good interviewer.” Joe was genuinely proud that Jerry drew that conclusion and wanted to share this compliment with me.