• Is It “Creative Accounting” or Fraud?

    Companies engaged in financial statement fraud sometimes use creative phrases to legitimize or cover up what they’re doing. Examples include: Aggressive accounting – We’re following the rules, but pushing the limits to make the financial statements look as good as […]

  • How Credible Are Fraud Tips?

    Companies rely heavily on reports about questionable behavior from employees, customers, vendors, or other outside parties. Tips are the most common way that fraud is detected by companies, so any credible tip should be taken very seriously. How does a […]

  • Internal Records For a Fraud Investigation

    In a corporate fraud investigation, the most abundant source of information about the fraud will likely come from internal records of the company. Remember, of course, that the internal records will be not only be paper records, but will be […]

  • Work Programs in Fraud Investigations

    If you’re familiar with the process of a financial statement audit, you know all about audit work programs. They’re basically the checklists and guides that auditors use to make sure they follow all the required steps for auditing the financial […]

  • Jennifer McKinney Bankruptcy Round 2 and Round 3

    Yesterday my friends over at MckFacts informed me that our pal Jennifer McKinney was recently in bankruptcy court again. Back in 2012, Jennifer and her (soon-to-be ex-) husband Israel McKinney filed bankruptcy and eventually had it denied because of their […]

  • How Do I Calculate Fixed Fees

    How do I come up with a fixed fee for a forensic accounting engagement? I’ve been doing fixed fees for almost 23 years, so I’ve developed a pretty good formula. With a fixed fee, a client is paying for a […]

  • What’s the Big Deal About Financial Statement Fraud

    The manipulation of a company’s financial statements does not occur as often as asset misappropriation schemes like payroll fraud, check kiting, or inventory theft. And the losses from financial statement fraud aren’t readily apparent to most people. When money is […]

  • Companies at Greater Risk of Financial Fraud

    What kinds of companies are more prone to fraud? In my business, we talk a lot about the red flags of fraud. There are two different types of red flags: the kind that suggest that a fraud is currently in […]

  • After the Fraud Investigation

    After an internal fraud is discovered and fully investigated, a company and its employees must move forward. That might seem like a simple thing to do, but it is not always quite that easy. The financial blow of an internal […]

  • Why It Is So Easy to Commit Fraud

    It sometimes seems like it’s easy to commit fraud at work. Why is that so? One of the main reasons is that employers must put trust in their employees and give them access to data and assets. It’s also important […]