Our Conferences

Presenter Bios

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Laurence Bardfeld, Esq.

Laurence Bardfeld is a retired Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) who worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida for almost 35 years. For the last 20 years, he worked in the Financial Crimes Section, investigating, prosecuting and trying various white-collar cases. These economic crime cases included mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, health care fraud, tax fraud and public corruption. He also worked as an AUSA in the Narcotics and Violent Crime Section, investigating, prosecuting, and trying various narcotics and violent crime cases, including large scale drug distribution networks, child exploitation cases, firearms cases and Hobbs Act robberies. Larry is currently an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business, teaching graduate students who are enrolled in the Master’s in Accounting Program. He is an instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, teaching new federal agents the legal aspects of federal law enforcement and he also has worked as an instructor at the National Advocacy Center, training new prosecutors.

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Dr. Michael Crain, CPA, CFA, CFE

Michael Crain is an academic and practitioner. He is co-director of FAU’s Center for Forensic Accounting and has taught at FAU starting in 2008. He earned his doctor of business administration (finance) degree from Manchester Business School in England at the University of Manchester. Mike has practiced for over 35 years mostly in forensic accounting and valuation, still consults with clients, and is a senior advisor with Miami-based Kaufman Rossin CPAs. Mike has been inducted into the AICPA Business Valuation Hall of Fame and is a recipient of AICPA’s Lawler Award presented by Journal of Accountancy for best article of the year and AICPA’s Sustained Contribution Award. Mike is the co-author or contributing author of six texts on business valuation or forensic accounting and has written extensively in practitioner journals such as the Journal of Accountancy.

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Joel Glick, CPA/CFF, CFE

Joel Glick is a director of South Florida-based accounting firm Berkowitz Pollack Brant. He focuses his practice on fraud and forensic investigations, economic damages, litigation support, insolvency matters, and business consulting. He was lead forensic accountant for the investigation of the Scott Rothstein Ponzi scheme on behalf of the court-appointed trustee.

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Chris Hersey, CPE

Chris Hersey is a senior special agent with the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Inspector General. He has been in law enforcement for about 25 years. In 2003, Chris joined the United States Secret Service as a special agent and was assigned to the Miami field office. At USSS, Chris investigated a variety of financial crimes while assigned to the South Florida organized fraud task force. In 2011, Chris was transferred to Washington, DC, and assigned to the Vice Presidential protection division. In 2016, Chris transferred to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC. He is now located in South Florida. At Treasury’s OIG, Chris investigates fraud, waste, and abuse of U.S. Treasury systems and programs.

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Michael Kridel, CPA, CFF, CITP

Michael Kridel is a CPA in South Florida and has practiced in forensic accounting since 1975. He started practicing public accounting in South Florida after graduation from The George Washington University in 1974. He reestablished his solo practice in 1978 and later merged that practice. After serving as a principal and litigation services practice leader of Rehmann Robson, a Top 100 national accounting firm, from 2013 to 2018. Previously, Mr. Kridel was a partner in Daszkal Bolton from 1996 to 2013. Michael has been a frequent speaker for accountants and attorneys on topics such as professional ethics, litigation services, fraud investigation, eDiscovery, investigation techniques, practice management, information technology, and human resources. He has been a lead Florida certified CPA ethics instructor. He is also the longest serving commissioner on the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics.

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Mark Milton, Esq.

Mark earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Accountancy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his law degree from Saint Louis University, with a concentration in criminal litigation skills. Prior to law school, Mark worked at two large public accounting firms in Chicago and St. Louis, where he prepared tax returns for individuals and small businesses. After law school, Mark started his legal as a trial attorney with the Department of Justice Tax Division, in Washington, DC, via the prestigious Attorney General’s Honors Program, where he represented the IRS in various tax preparer fraud and tax shelter promoter cases in federal courts throughout the United States. In 2014, Mark was awarded the DOJ’s Outstanding Trial Attorney Award for his efforts in fighting tax preparer fraud. Prior to founding Milton Law Group, Mark worked at an AmTop100 law firm in St. Louis specializing in tax controversies, white collar criminal defense, health care and securities fraud defense, corporate internal investigations, and business litigation for small businesses and Fortune 500 companies. Mark and his firm currently specialize in civil and criminal tax controversies, including representing taxpayers in examinations and defending tax return preparers accused of wrongdoing, along with providing tax and estate planning to clients.

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Rob Valdez, CPA, CISA, CISM

Rob Valdez is the product owner and director of business intelligence for Novogradac, a national CPA firm. A member of the firm’s corporate innovation team, he oversees decision support applications and architectures and the development of AI applications for the firm. Rob is an advocate for building trust in technology and an adjunct professor with Florida Atlantic University. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, TechRepublic, and the South Florida Business Journal.

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