Top Ten Fraud Prevention Tips for Small Businesses, Tip #6: Know Your Suspects

Mark A. Buckberg, CPA, CFE, CFF

As a small business owner or senior executive, it is your responsibility to promote integrity and ethical values to your employees and implement the proper controls and procedures to prevent fraud.  In this series, we are highlighting ten basic fraud prevention steps you can take to keep your organization safe.

The Typical Fraudster: Exceedingly Ordinary
A report by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) showed that the typical white collar criminal is, well, typical.  He’s […]

The Unknown Treasure Chest for Fraud

Alex Helfand, ENCE, Computer Forensic Specialist

It would be unheard of for a company to take a notebook of customer social security numbers and throw it into a trashcan. Most often, these types of documents are run through a shredder to ensure that they can never be seen again. But how can a hard drive be destroyed? Sometimes deleting files and then wiping the drive is not enough.

A trend in the digital world is solid state drives (SSD) – much […]

Top Ten Fraud Prevention Tips for Small Businesses, Tip #8: Segregation of Duties

Lawrence R. Beebe, CPA

As a small business owner or senior executive, it is your responsibility to promote integrity and ethical values to your employees and implement the proper controls and procedures to prevent fraud.  In this series, we are highlighting ten basic fraud prevention steps you can take to keep your organization safe.

One of the most frequent causes of the misappropriation of assets in any business is the lack of segregation of duties.  No one individual should have custody […]

Dumb Criminals Are No Match for Digital Forensics

Alex Helfand, ENCE, Computer Forensic Specialist

This has been a newsworthy week for computer forensics. Not only are high-profile individuals committing crimes on their computers, but they aren’t exactly being smart about it. Let’s start with the story about Christopher Lee, the New York congressman who decided to participate in some extracurricular activities at work.

Interestingly enough, this story did not involve any law enforcement, but still received huge press coverage . We’ve seen politicians having affairs in the past, but […]

Has the Smoking Gun Gone Paperless? Searching for Evidence in a Digital World

Alex Helfand, ENCE, Computer Forensic Specialist

One of the biggest trends for companies is ‘going green.’ This trend does extend beyond legitimate businesses and is now being used by more and more criminals. It is a nice gesture on their part, especially from a Digital Forensics standpoint.  According to the FBI, crime rates in America have been declining, and are actually lower than before the recession. However, the FBI has seen cases involving removable media double in the last year […]

What a Lawyer Should Look for in a Forensic Accounting Expert Witness (Part 3 of 3)

Natalie Burchfiel, CPA

Part 1 of this article on forensic accounting expert witnesses covered why a legal team would want or need to use an expert witness and Part 2  reviewed the specific focuses a witness may bring to the table, and the differences between testifying and non-testifying experts.  Our series concludes with a look at the many skills and special qualities a forensic accounting expert witness may possess that will aid in reaching a successful outcome to a case.

Traits of […]

What a Lawyer Should Look for in a Forensic Accounting Expert Witness (Part 2 of 3)

Natalelie Burchfi

In the first part of this series, reasons to consider a forensic accounting expert witness and the Federal Rules of Evidence for expert witnesses were reviewed.  An expert witness is a witness who, by virtue of education, training, skill, or experience, is believed to have knowledge in a particular subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient so that others may officially (and legally) rely upon the witness’s specialized (scientific, technical or other) opinion about an evidence or fact issue […]

What a Lawyer Should Look for in a Forensic Accounting Expert Witness (Part 1 of 3)

Natalie Burchfiel

During legal proceedings, there often arise analyses of situations, background, or other detailed information regarding a case that the average person would simply not know much about.  When someone is shot in a suspicious manner and there were no witnesses, a ballistics expert may be called in as an expert witness to rule out some scenarios based on how the bullet entered the body, or help confirm the weapon used by identifying specific bullet size or material it […]

Annual Holiday Fraud Reminder: The 12 Days of Fraudmas

Lawrence R. Beebe, CPA, Principal

Last year, our Forensic Accounting Blog advised our readers about gift card fraud and how to avoid it and we still think it is useful advice.  But there are several areas where individuals, businesses, regulatory agencies and the justice system need assistance in fighting fraud throughout the year, and especially during a holiday season in a slowly recovering economy.  If a Forensic Accountant were to offer some gifts to these various parties, it may resemble […]