Business Fraud: How to Recover Your Money and Prosecute the Fraudster

Joel Susco, CPA

Organizations with fewer than 100 employees are the most common victims of business fraud, with a significant estimated median loss of $147,000 in a 2012 report. One of the primary reasons an organization will hire a forensic accountant or Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) is to uncover details and proof of business fraud, in order to prosecute the fraudster(s) and then recover as much of the missing funds as possible. It is not, however, as simple as discovering […]

Legal and Ethical Considerations When Hiring a Forensic Accountant

Alex Helfand, ENCE, Computer Forensic Specialist

It makes sense that you’d be looking at ethics and the law when looking for a forensic accountant to perform a fraud investigation – as those who perpetrate fraud clearly lack ethics and are breaking the law. But understanding these concepts in depth becomes more difficult, especially in the somewhat nebulous and individual realm of ethics. What about law and ethics are considered as part of the education of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) and […]

Five Ways Forensic Accountants Can Make Workplace Fraud Settlements Easier

Alex Helfand, ENCE, Computer Forensic Specialist

It’s in the local newspapers every week – an employee finally gets caught committing white collar fraud at his or her workplace. Worse yet, the employee is found out years after the fraud began, and typically is a trusted team member with no prior criminal record to give an inkling that this could be possible. Some losses are incalculable, such as trust; others are hard to determine – the perpetrator often has had direct […]

New Trustee’s Guide to Investments: Risk

Larry Beebe, CPA

New trustees for multiemployer benefit plans can be overwhelmed by the investment knowledge that must be quickly acquired to function effectively in their new roles.  This series will provide in-depth information about plan investments to assist new trustees in their fiduciary duty of managing plan assets.

As we explained in a previous post, the trustees, with the assistance of the plan actuary, set an expected rate of return for the plan’s investment portfolio to ensure the plan has […]

Payments Fraud Prevention: Protecting Your Organization from Check and Card Fraud

Linh T. Crider, CPA, CFE, Senior Manager

Are your organization’s payment processing systems vulnerable to fraud?  Recent research shows that check fraud continues to be a persistent problem for companies, and credit card fraud is on the rise.  According to the 2013 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey, 61% of the companies surveyed had experienced some type of payments fraud.  Without the proper controls in place, your business may be at risk to financial losses suffered from these types of […]