The Art of the Steal

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

More people helped in the preparation of this book than I could name, but I would like to express my thanks to all those who shared their stories of fraud with me, especially Michelle Brown, Jim Fowler, the director of security at Unilever, E. King Rogers, the vice president of loss prevention at Target, and Lewis Kontnik, the publisher of Authentication News.

I would also like to express my appreciation to the three thousand companies and associations that have given me the opportunity to work with them over the years, most notably the Standard Register Company, Profit Recovery Group, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Citibank, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Key Bank, Union Bank of California, First Data Corporation, Data Business Forms-Canada, and Leigh-Mardon-Australia.

I owe a debt of gratitude to all of the outstanding and truly dedicated men and women of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who have supported me over the last twenty-five years and have afforded me the great privilege of being able to teach at the FBI Academy and assist with programs in the field offices of the bureau throughout the United States.

For their editorial wisdom, my thanks to Charles Conrad of Broadway Books, as well as to his assistant, Becky Cole. I could not have written this book without the help of Sonny Kleinfield, and I thank him for all his assistance and encouragement.

Most important of all, a special acknowledgment to my wonderful and loving wife, Kelly, who has supported me and loved me for more than twenty-five years.