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On Tuesday, March 28, The University of Tampa will welcome Weston Smith, fraud prevention and ethics advocate at ChalkLine Solutions Inc., as part of the Sykes College of Business Ethical Leadership Speaker Series. The presentation, titled “The HealthSouth Story: A Case of Malpractice and the Importance of Ethical Leadership,” begins at 4:30 p.m. in the Trustees Board Room on the ninth floor of the Vaughn Center and is free and open to the public.

Smith began his career as a CPA with Ernst & Young, specializing in audit and health care consulting. He was hired by HealthSouth during its infancy, and ultimately became chief financial officer of the company with more than 2,000 locations in all 50 states and five countries.

Underneath the persona of success, however, Smith was a participant in a financial statement fraud that ran for more than 15 years, with an earnings overstatement of more than $3 billion. Weston eventually voluntarily exposed the fraud and accepted the consequences of his former actions.

Today, in addition to working as an accountant for small businesses, Smith is a guest lecturer with an emphasis on fraud prevention and ethical conduct. He has been published in Issues in Accounting Education, and has spoken at universities, corporations and professional groups across the country and internationally. He has also appeared on CNBC, Fox Business Network and other media outlets.

The event is sponsored by UT’s TECO Energy Center for Leadership and Center for Ethics.

The University is located at 401 W. Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa. RSVP by Monday, March 27, at www.ut.edu/cfl/speakerseries. For more information, contact Whitney Vance, coordinator of College of Business operations, at wvance@ut.edu or (813) 257-3782.