Audit

Record relief money and the fight against fraud

In some of the first COVID-19 articles Fraud Magazine published nearly a year ago, we warned how the pandemic was creating the perfect storm for fraudulent activity to thrive. Sadly, those predictions have proven true as record amounts of COVID-relief money flood the economy.

Reimagining audit quality using Wirecard and PCAOB examples

The Wirecard case and recent PCAOB inspection reports on the top six audit firms highlight continued issues with audit quality and the independent auditor’s responsibility in uncovering material misstatements due to fraud. They also emphasize the need for the auditing profession to hasten improvements.

Taking down a crooked film producer

Fraud Magazine recently spoke with three veteran CFEs about how they break open and dissect investment scams and claw back stolen capital. Though these practitioners weren’t involved in this ongoing Hollywood case, they’ve reviewed the public records. And they’re deeply experienced in the case’s functional components: financial investigation, digital forensics, and asset tracing and recovery. As these experts reveal, their tools and techniques also are potent weapons against other kinds of schemes.

Time to shake things up

“Ikigai,” the Japanese notion of being truly fulfilled and how a person’s work relates to their purpose, spurred former paralegal Tracy Swaim to seek more. Conversations with a fraud investigator excited her about entering the field. She earned her CFE and now works in a job that checks all the boxes for her: mission, passion, vocation and profession.

Open public entities’ ledgers for transparency

Imagine if citizens, journalists, oversight agencies, and internal and external auditors were able to view all transactions of taxpayer and donors’ money online. The fraud prevention and deterrence possibilities are endless.

Keys to the kingdom: Oilfield fraud

Jerry thought he had it made in the shade. As he began his company maintaining oil rigs and equipment, he'd found ways – the keys to the kingdom – to fraudulently bill his former employer as a contractor. He knew how to thoroughly exploit the system he'd helped devise. Learn lessons from this fictionalized version of an actual $2 million fraud case.

5 most scandalous frauds of 2020

We were all glad to discard our 2020 calendars. Fraudsters took advantage of COVID-19 conditions, but not all of them needed an pandemic to pull off some big frauds. We've distilled a long list of cases to give you a few shockers.

Dusting your data for fraud's fingerprints: Six number patterns that fraudsters use

Fraudsters tend to steal in similar ways. Here are six number patterns you can search for and possibly find hidden fraud. Learn from the acclaimed authority on Benford’s Law on how numbers can become your best friends.

Prevent procurement ‘leakages’ and save precious working capital

Given the current economic climate and regulatory expectations, monitoring procurement spending for fraud, waste and abuse (aka “leakage”) is even more important. We can proactively monitor procurement data via big data analytics, which will reveal transactions that are fraudulent or diminish working capital.

Analyzing Wirecard case via temptation, opportunity, entitlement and boldness