Cases of financial fraud often focus on the core issue of where the money went. Successfully carrying out a fraud scheme involves not only taking the money, but covering up the fraud and hiding the money trail. But skilled financial investigators know there is always a trail, and while the …
When the IRS believes a taxpayer has unreported income, they will use alternative methods to attempt to determine the true income. One of those methods is the Expenditures Method. Tracy Coenen explains the basic methodology in this video. Note that this method of calculating income can be used in a …
Complex financial investigations involve large sets of data, numerous accounts, multiple players, and lightning fast movements of money. Being able to accurately document these movements of money is the key to the financial portion of a case, whether it involves embezzlement, bribery, misconduct in office, money laundering, or divorce. Forensic …
When investigating fraud, I often find it useful to perform analytical review on the financial statements of a company. Even when management is certain that they know where the fraud occurred within the accounting system, analytical review can help identify unsual things about the numbers that may warrant further investigation. …
It’s not unusual to want to confirm the income of a business in litigation. Whether it’s a divorce, a business breakup, a wage claim, or other matter that involves accurately reporting business income, it may be necessary to attempt to verify that income. I frequently work with clients who claim …
This video is a little longer than usual. Tracy Coenen talks about the reasons why traditional financial statement audits don’t find fraud. It is very rare for fraud to be uncovered during the year-end audit, but stakeholders often rely on audits to do just that. Tracy walks through these 9 …
Reporting the findings of a fraud investigation will require varying levels of detail and precision, depending on the specifics of the engagement. Yet it is fairly easy to develop a standard reporting process that can be followed by staff. One option in some cases is providing an oral report to …
When a company is struggling, it is tempting to manipulate the financial statements to make things look better. Even when things are going well, management may want or need the company to look even better than it already does. Banks, investors, and other interested parties are looking at the financial …
If you’re new to the world of fraud investigations, the concept of the fraud triangle will be important for you to learn. In this video, Tracy explains the fraud triangle and its importance in fraud prevention and detection.
If you were searching for financial statement fraud, what would you look for? Tracy talks about some of the basic/common signs you might see if Tracy Coenen teaches about some basic signs of financial statement fraud.
