Former FBI agent Eileen Rice will be the program speaker at the first Rotary Club of Edina meeting of the New Year on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. Rice, now an investigator with WayPoint Inc., will speak about "Causes of Wrongful Convictions," and her work with the Innocence Project. She sits on the board of directors of the Innocence Project of Minnesota, a non-profit organization which seeks to free the wrongfully convicted.
 
New member Kim Stoner will be officially inducted into the club at the meeting.
 
There is no Rotary Club of Edina meeting Dec. 29 due to the New Year's holiday.
 
Eileen Rice has 27 years of investigative experience—24 as a special agent with the FBI and three years with WayPoint Inc. Her experience included work on complex financial investigations, court receiverships and asset identification and recovery, most notably on the Thomas J. Petters criminal case. Today, she is a fraud investigator with WayPoint and is on the board of the Innocence Project of Minnesota.
 
Rice worked as a Special Agent with the FBI in the Los Angeles and Minneapolis offices. Eileen’s federal law enforcement experience includes work with the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and other law enforcement agencies on major white‐collar investigations. Eileen participated in planning and performing complex financial investigations, and has extensive experience in asset forfeiture, court receiverships and asset identification and recovery. During her federal law enforcement career Rice investigated hundreds of allegations of criminal fraud involving bank fraud, bank failures, public corruption, investment fraud, mortgage fraud and securities fraud. She assisted in obtaining criminal convictions against individuals, including the some of the larger Ponzi scheme cases in the region, including U.S. vs. Thomas J. Petters, et. al.; U.S. vs. Trevor Cook; and U.S. vs. Jason Bo‐Alan Beckman, et. al. Rice's work on the Petters case led to her being awarded as a co‐recipient of both the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award and the Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.
 
Rice has a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA )from Pepperdine University. She is also a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).
 
WayPoint is a Minneapolis-based professional service firm specializing in tax litigation support, corporate risk mitigation and investigations, due diligence, litigation support, financial investigations and forensic accounting for business. Companies partner with us for complex internal corporate investigations, civil and criminal litigation, and regulatory matters. Our team combines the talents of seasoned corporate, legal, and federal law enforcement personnel who provide our clients with the expertise to handle the most complex issues.
 
The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck at Cardozo School of Law, exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
 
The Rotary Club of Edina meets at 12:15 p.m. most Thursdays at the Edina Country Club. All are welcome. Cost for lunch and the program is $20 for adults and $12 for children. Payment can be made at the door with cash, check or credit card (there is a fee for each lunch paid by credit card).