Professors Tom Blomberg, Kristy Holtfreter, and Michael Reisig shared the stage with former U.S Attorney General John Ashcroft when they presented at the Economic Crime in the 21st Century Conference in Miami March 18. Their presentation, Consumer Fraud Victimization: An Empirical Study, was presented as one of the keynote conference addresses and their paper on the subject will be published in the May 2006 issue of the St. Thomas Law Review.

Hosted by the Center for the Study of Economic Crime, the conference brought together a cross-section of government, law enforcement, and corporate leaders to discuss key issues in economic crime including disaster-related white-collar crime, healthcare fraud, and Internet crime, as well as the latest strategies for detection, enforcement, and prevention.

The Center for the Study of Economic Crime is a collaborative project of the FSU College of Criminology and Criminal Justice and St. Thomas University School of Law. The Center was created in 2004, with the support of Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, to assist policymakers, enforcers, and the general public in defining and preventing fraudulent and other activities that victimize consumers, businesses, and government agencies. The Center’s main tasks are hosting and developing FraudUpdate.com, a national clearinghouse for information on fraud-related topics, and producing scholarly reports on trends, cross-jurisdictional comparisons, and victim and offender characteristics.