Fraud’s Finer Points: Accounts Receivable Fraud, Part Five: Other Accounting Manipulations


An interview with Marta Andreasen, suspended chief accounting officer of the European Commission - Telling the Truth & Living in Limbo
Marta Andreasen, the European Commission’s chief accounting officer, awaits her professional fate after declaring the EC’s budget was “mas-sively open to fraud” and endures suspension because of her honesty.

Back to School: Anti-fraud training for audit committees
SOX and other regulatory standards are forcing audit committees to learn how to prevent fraud. Here's what they need to learn and how you can help them learn it so they will escape litigation, and most importantly, tackle fraud.

Beating fraud through internal auditing: A fraud primer for the new internal auditor
When new internal auditors are assigned the task of looking for fraud, many find themselves without the necessary skills to do a proper examination. In this session, you'll get an overview of what the new internal auditor needs to know about fraud in his or her first fraud assignments.

Breaking Tradition in the Auditing Profession
Established auditing approaches cannot adequately detect financial statement fraud. The ACFE proposes a Model Organizational Fraud Deterrence Program as an alternate, more effective strategy for both auditors and investors.

Earnings Management Revisited: Further Suggestions in the Wake of Corporate Meltdowns
Here we provide an update on earnings management, including the implications of the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and offer suggestions for improving performance reporting in all countries.

Fighting fraud in Canada: An interview with Irwin Cotler, minister of justice and attorney general of Canada
Irwin Cotler, minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, has a passion for protecting the rights of others - including those citizens hurt by corporate fraud and securities violations.

Financial fraud red flags: Searching for the funnel clouds
Fraud examiners, when looking backwards to the early stages of an investigation, report common patterns. Like tornado watches, these signals don't indicate the funnel clouds were sighted but that they might develop because of optimal conditions.

U.S. Federal Regulations - Former SEC Chief Accountant: Systemic Problems Need Fixing
Lynn Turner says there’s still arrogance in the public business world, more should be spent on enforcement, and higher education accounting should be taught in a “framework of making ethical decisions."

Protecting the public interest: Fraud in the government: Stealing from the court, a case study
The analysis of any employee embezzlement fraud case study begins with the basics – the who, what, when, where, and how.

From The PRESIDENT
Sentinels should be highly valued and respected but they’re often branded as disgruntled employees by managers eager to discredit their allegations. Marta Andreasen, a sentinel at the European Commission, has paid a high price for reporting weak or missing internal controls.

Protecting the public interest: Fraud in government. Grant/Contract fraud in the public sector
Not all fraud involves the theft of assets, but rather some involve the misuse of assets. Every year, Federal, State and Local Governments award thousands of dollars in grant/contracts to vendors. However, the grant money is not always prudently managed. This session focuses on the ways and manner in which government grants are misapplied or misused, oftentimes to the benefit of the program administrator.

Preventing and detecting financial statement fraud: Identifying fraudulent financial transactions
One of the most difficult tasks that an auditor has is to identify fraudulent transactions. In this session you'll not only learn what the schemes are, but develop a framework for detecting fraud. Of particular emphasis is a type of financial statement fraud that is not often discussed - inadequate disclosures. You'll get tips for finding the frauds but also how to prevent the fraud.

Internal Auditing: What internal auditors need to know about fraud
As internal auditors continue to play a significant role in fraud, they find themselves not always prepared to take on this sometimes complicated task. In this session, you'll learn what the relevant issues are, casework and new tools in forensic accounting that internal auditors will need to address fraud.

Money Laundering: Ring Around the White Collar
In money laundering the fraudster disguises the existence, nature, source, ownership, location and disposition of property derived from criminal activity.

New Approaches for Fraud Deterrence
This article should provoke thought and debate among CPAs on how we might consider different approaches in the way audits are conducted in order to give the public what it really wants: business enterprises with integrity.

Protecting the Public Interests: Mismanagement of Government Grant and Contract Funds
Fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement of government contract and contract funds will never be eliminated. But frequent, modest proactive audits and reviews that focus on fraud indicators will help identify and prevent misuse before the funds are expended.

Beating fraud through internal auditing: Red flags and sources of information for internal audit
Studies show that most fraud against businesses originates from within. In this presentation, you'll learn some of the red flags that may indicate potential financial and ethical problems within an organization and sources of information that the internal auditor can use to proactively detect these vulnerabilities.

Sarbanes-Oxley Implementation: Giving SOX and Fraud Examiners Genuine Clout
Douglas R. Carmichael, Ph.D., CFE, CPA, chief auditor of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, has the tough task of guiding the standards-setting procedures of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act while balancing the interests of diverse groups.

SAS 99: Another Implement for the Fraud Examiner’s Toolbox
SAS 99 not only requires auditors to be reasonably sure that financial statements are free of material misstatements, whether caused by error or fraud, but it gives them focused and clarified guidance on meeting their responsibilities to uncover fraud.

So That’s Why It’s Called a PYRAMID SCHEME
Fraud comes in many shapes and sizes—and it’s growing faster than ever.

Starting out: Students: This Column is for You!


Truth, Transparency, and Accountability with no Political Agenda
An interview with U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker, head of the General Accounting Office

Developing your fraud examination skills: Using Microsoft Excel and Access to detect fraud
There are many software applications that are available for you to detect fraud. Unfortunately, some of these programs are outside of many fraud examiners' budgets. However, most fraud examiners have Microsoft's Excel and Access right on their desktop, not realizing the potential as a powerful anti-fraud tool. Learn, first hand, some of the practical fraud-busting reports that you can generate using these products.

The Whole, Not the Parts
Outcome-oriented fraud auditing - looking at a situation as a whole rather than its individual parts - will help you think like a fraudster and find deeply embedded crimes.

Why Employees Commit Fraud
It is important for CPAs to understand what motivates people to commit fraud so they can better assess risk and assist employers or clients in implementing appropriate preventive and detective measures.

Preventing and detecting financial statement fraud: Worldcom bankruptcy: A fraud examiner's perspective
The WorldCom scandal has taught the financial world many things. It's also a classic study of what not to do in the corporate world when it comes to financial records and how to avoid disaster. In this session you'll learn about WorldCom's bankruptcy and how fraud fits in the picture. It wasn't pretty, but there are many lessons that can be learned to help prevent this from happening again.

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