Ethics and compliance will be two of the hot topics at a conference featuring the former chief financial officer of Enron — the poster child for corporate accounting fraud — as a guest speaker.

Andrew Fastow served a six-year prison sentence for his part in the fraud at Enron, which collapsed in 2001.

Gordon Wetherell, the former Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands, will also speak at the Financial Crime & Compliance seminar, presented by yCompliance, at the Fairmont Southampton next month.

A statement from yCompliance today said Mr Fastow would make observations about how the ambiguity and complexity of laws and regulations breeds opportunity for problematic decisions and will discuss what questions corporate directors, management, attorneys, and accountants should ask in order to ensure that their companies not only follow the rules, but uphold the principles behind them.

“If you ask any business executive what is it that keeps them up at night, rest assured compliance and risk management will be one of the key topics,” Tina Laws, president of the event’s sponsors, the Association of Bermuda Compliance Officers, said.

“So how do businesses guard against the perils of non-compliance and out of control risk? Ensuring that their compliance and risk professionals are adequately trained and skilled for the job is essential. Adding more and more controls, policies, procedures, systems, and more staff cannot substitute for staff that are highly trained and behave ethically.

She added that the event would bring “an appropriate mix of technical topics, ethics, as well as real based scenarios”.

The theme for the 2014 seminar is “Who can you trust?”

The yCompliance statement added: “Given Bermuda’s current political climate and Government’s continued battle to combat financial crime, this seminar is one of the key initiatives to position Bermuda at the forefront of action against bribery & corruption and other financial crimes.”

Other confirmed speakers for the October 9 event include: Brian Quirk, director, Preti Flaherty; Tina Laws, managing director, Compliance Matters Bermuda Ltd; Buddy Doyle, founding principal and managing director, Oyster Consulting LLC; Brian Stoeckert, principal, FC Strategy Group; Martha Harris Myron, president of PondStraddler Life Consultancy and a columnist for The Royal Gazette; Chris Brown, head of compliance, HSBC Bank Bermuda Ltd; Niall Farrell, deputy director, run-off and monitoring, Bermuda Monetary Authority; and Mathew Clingerman, managing director, KRyS Global, Bermuda.

The seminar programme, as well as the full profiles of the speakers and panellists, can be retrieved at www.ycseminars.com. Tickets are priced at $395 and group rates are available. More details about the seminar can be found at www.ycseminars.com or by e-mailing info@ycompliance.com.