Fraud Edge

How will higher-ed programs benefit pros in an evolving specialization?

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Written by: Victor Shaffer
Date: March 1, 2014
read time: 7 mins

Fraud examination and forensic accounting programs, a relatively new trend in higher education, transcend traditional accounting courses and prepare students with novel and specialized fraud examination skills. As reported in the September/October 2011 Fraud EDge column, colleges and universities offer more than 50 multi-course programs in the U.S., up from only a handful in 2003.

Anti-fraud courses train students to think critically, while often providing hands-on experiences with seasoned specialists who make a living catching fraudsters. Experiential training and skill acquisition are vital for professionals who want to make a living preventing, deterring and apprehending fraudsters. This column explores the value anti-fraud graduates can bring to business environments and how anti-fraud education can benefit students.

EMPLOYERS' PERSPECTIVES 

Over time, criminals become more creative and challenge auditors' abilities to detect well-concealed fraudulent activities. A professional who lacks anti-fraud training may approve a company's yearly ledgers without looking below the surface. However, a trained fraud examiner can uncover a pattern of illegitimate transactions and a related cover-up. Anti-fraud practitioners take professional skepticism to new levels. Anti-fraud programs develop critical thinking, investigative tenacity and the necessary communication skills to explain complex fraud schemes in simple language to law enforcement, prosecutors, attorneys and jurors.

Nevertheless, many of the more than 60,000 Fraud Magazine readers might ask: "If I hire an entry-level person (albeit trained in anti-fraud methods), instead of an experienced professional, what's the value to my organization?" Let's hear from some of the employers who make these decisions.

Franco Frande is chief of financial investigations for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and an executive-in-residence professor at West Virginia University. Some of the benefits he has experienced with new hires who have quality anti-fraud training include:  
  • Shorter on-the-job learning curves. 
  • Increased confidence on investigative assignments. 
  • Accelerated exposure to more advanced fraud schemes. 
  • Expert testimony skills. 
  • Advanced audit abilities. 
  • More complete data analysis skills. 
  • Networks of other professionals in specialized fields. 
  • Experience in working with professionals from non-accounting fields. 
 
Darryl Neier is a graduate of Utica College's Master of Science Program in economic crime management and a partner in charge at Sobel & Company's Forensic Accounting/Litigation Services Group.

"Our new hires from fraud examination and forensic accounting programs have an idea of our role in investigative engagements and better understand the end game," he says. "Our work could end up in court, so every detail matters; every rock must be turned over and examined.

"While our young people are more likely to start with relatively narrow tasks, such as spreadsheet analysis rather than dealing with clients, the graduates of specialized anti-fraud programs better appreciate our role. We cannot afford to be wrong; the detail must be there," he says.

According to Neier, graduates of anti-fraud programs possess sensitivity for legal issues, rights of individuals and the details of completing a thorough investigation. The knowledge and the experience gained in their programs help them to be more motive, more quickly.

Hands-on experiences, such as mock trials and crime scene raids (crime scene investigation — financial or CSI-F), are common among the country's top anti-fraud educational programs. This gives future professionals a chance to "be" anti-fraud professionals, even if only in simulated settings. That experience makes all the difference when graduates embark on investigative trails for their employers.

Neier expects his new hires from specialized programs, especially those with little on-the-job experiences, to spend at least a few weeks on traditional audit and tax engagements.

"Those few weeks in audit and tax complement the anti-fraud skills and really help round out our new hires," Neier says.

STUDENTS' PERSPECTIVES

Patricia Aramayo, Florida Atlantic University
Aramayo, a graduate of Florida Atlantic University's executive Master of Accounting program with a concentration in forensic accounting, says the Florida Atlantic program gave her a competitive edge in the search for her dream job in forensic accounting. 

"I have always had a passion for investigation, and being able to turn it into my profession is one of my most significant milestones," Aramayo says.

After she graduated from the master's program, Ernst & Young hired her to be part of its 1,000-employee fraud investigation and dispute services practice in Miami, Fla. During one of her recent work assignments, she reviewed thousands of documents to identify prima facie evidence of fraudulent activities that counsel could use in prosecuting several individuals allegedly committing improprieties at their organization.

As a a student, Aramayo valued the flexibility of the Florida Atlantic online program, which allowed her to work full time while earning her degree and to work and study with people from all over the world and from different professions.

"Working together is critical to solving problems," she says. "This is true in the real world, as well as in a class setting. Each person brings their own strengths to group projects and it's up to the group to utilize each member. This experience in an anti-fraud setting is unique to these programs."

She also earned additional accounting credits at Flordia Atlantic that allowed her to sit for the CPA exam.

Darryl Neier, Utica College
Neier applied to Utica's Master of Science in economic crime management program as a nontraditional student. He had spent the first 20 years of his career with the Morris County New Jersey Prosecutor's Office at which he managed the white-collar crime, political corruption and computer fraud squads. He left Morris County to help mold Sobel & Company's Forensic Accounting/Litigation Services Group. One year later, he applied to Utica's program — one of the first such programs in the nation.

Neier says he believes that the program gave him a solid foundation. He had already known the investigative side of fraud and forensic accountancy. However, according to Neier, he wanted "to validate what he had been doing in the field," and he wanted "more of a theoretical background to supplement my practical experience." He completed a research project and wrote a thesis as part of the master's program.

"By moving away from my law enforcement role and more into an academic setting, I was better able to understand what's important to a greater constituency," he says. "Through the lens of the program, I am able to look beyond today and try to predict what is coming down the pipeline, so I can advise clients, attorneys, and others in non-law enforcement settings on compliance and other issues."

Like Aramayo, Neier found great value in interacting with his cohort-based classmates and networking with graduates of Utica's program.

Stephanie Wall and Bruce Lovett, West Virginia University
About a year after Wall graduated from West Virginia University's forensic accounting and fraud investigation program, ATF offered her a position. She has led financial investigations and will be testifying in criminal proceedings as a financial expert.  

"The accelerated exposure to various schemes and techniques [during the West Virginia program] allowed me to hit the ground running," she says.

Experienced anti-fraud professionals took time from their work commitments to give classroom lectures on their past experiences, tools and techniques, she says. The comprehensive, hands-on case studies helped teach fraud examination tools and techniques, created real-world models of the professional lives of forensic auditors and reaffirmed Wall's decision to pursue a career as a financial investigator, she says.

Lovett, another recent graduate from West Virginia's program, says he learned to consider the environment in which financial data is pulled. For example, during a simulated class exercise, he was investigating a laundromat that was, ironically, suspected of laundering money. He noticed that the business had spent millions in consulting expenses. Lovett and his team members, who had received instruction in recognizing patterns via computer software analysis, discovered that the business probably had hidden its laundering fraud in the consulting expenses.

"Recognizing transactions that occurred in specific intervals and were similar in nature and scope was the key to unraveling our money laundering case," Lovett says.

He and his class team members delivered their findings to Internal Revenue Service criminal investigation agents.

Lovett, a staff auditor at Ernst & Young, also learned in his college classes to prepare and present complex information to audiences that might not be financially sophisticated. His new ability to create graphical representations of linkages, transactions flows and timelines, "condensing material into an easily understandable format, as well as creating visual representations of financial information, has proven invaluable in my work efforts."

TAKE THE CHALLENGE

The learning experiences of anti-fraud programs can open doors to exciting careers. Employers reap the results of exceptional preparation of these budding professionals as they emerge from specialized programs all over the world.

Victor Shaffer is enrolled in the Master of Professional Accountancy program at West Virginia University. He earned a graduate certificate in forensic accounting and fraud investigation at West Virginia University in July 2011. 

 
 
Richard "Dick" A. Riley Jr., Ph.D., CFE, CPA, is a Louis F. Tanner Distinguished Professor of Public Accounting in the College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University in Morgantown. He is chair of the ACFE Higher Education Advisory Committee and the vice president of operations and research for the Institute for Fraud Prevention.
 
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners assumes sole copyright of any article published on www.Fraud-Magazine.com or ACFE.com. Permission of the publisher is required before an article can be copied or reproduced.  
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