photo by: Nick Krug

KU's School of Business, Capitol Federal Hall, is pictured Tuesday, May 10, 2016.

The woman who uncovered one of the largest incidents of accounting fraud in U.S. history is scheduled to speak next month at the University of Kansas.

Best-selling author and consultant Cynthia Cooper, who led an audit team that discovered more than $3.8 billion in fraudulent accounting at WorldCom, will deliver the KU School of Business Walter S. Sutton Ethics Lecture at 7 p.m. Nov. 10, according to a news release from KU.

The lecture, which will be in the Dicus Family Auditorium, 1111 Capitol Federal Hall, is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Cooper began her career in public accounting, working for Deloitte & Touche and Pricewaterhouse. She served as vice president of internal audit at WorldCom and, in 2002, led the audit that discovered the fraud. She subsequently helped the company, which became MCI, emerge from bankruptcy.

Cooper has been named one of Time magazine’s “Persons of the Year” for her role in uncovering the fraud. She published “Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower” in 2007.

At the lecture, Cooper will share her personal experiences at WorldCom and discuss how organizations can prevent and detect fraud.

The Sutton Ethics Lecture Series is held in memory of Walter Sutton, a 1939 School of Business alumnus. Before his death in 1985, he devoted much of his time to civic organizations. The lecture series highlights the importance of ethics and value systems in business and is presented in partnership with the school’s Center for Business Ethics.