Investigation

From many, comes one (algorithm)

Recent anticorruption research shows that when companies collaborate to share information about third-party payments and high-risk transactions, they have a 25% greater chance of predicting improper payments than when each company’s model is performed in isolation. A new data-sharing consortium led by a nonprofit at MIT is working to make such collaboration possible.

Lender beware

When inflation skyrockets, central banks increase interest rates to slow spending. Here, the author details why periods of high inflation might lead to high rates of fraud in the lending industry and what lenders can do about it.

Treating fraud in independent pharmacies

Fraud in independent pharmacies has proliferated in recent years, especially during the pandemic. Here we discuss the different types of pharmacy schemes and what to do about them.

Iryna Shkraba, CFE

Iryna Shkraba, CFE, has conducted anti-fraud investigations in almost a dozen European countries. She’s a governance, risk and compliance professional who’s worked for organizations such as EY as well as financial industry companies. And while Shkraba is currently based in Vienna, Austria, she takes every chance she can to visit her family and friends in her hometown of Kyiv, Ukraine.

Two members join ACFE Board of Regents for 2023-2024

CFEs elected two new members to ACFE’s Board of Regents for the 2023-2024 term. The new members, Thomas A. Caulfield, CFE, and Natalie S. Lewis, CFE, replaced outgoing Regents Hannibal “Mike” Ware, CFE, and Alexandra Sagaro, CFE, whose terms ended in 2023. Caulfield and Lewis took their oaths of office during the board’s meeting in February.

Discount fraud

Sales of “gray market” products generally are viewed as legal, but diversion of deeply discounted products from authorized distribution networks is often based upon fraud. Here we examine schemes to illicitly obtain millions of dollars of discounts through this pervasive but relatively unknown type of fraud. And we offer ways to ward off fraudsters’ efforts.

Fraud in reconstruction: What awaits Ukraine?

When countries devastated by war, natural disasters or other calamities must rebuild, valiant efforts to rise from the rubble must be paired with another intangible quality: integrity. But prior experience with hastened economic relief underscores the need to couple that relief with a fortifying effort to deter corruption.

When subjects admit guilt but they’re innocent

Why would someone confess to a crime they didn’t commit? Often an interviewer, trained to be accusatory and aggressive, will pressure subjects to admit guilt. Here’s how fraud examiners — rightfully constrained by higher ethics guardrails — can prevent false confessions that result in wrongful terminations and improper convictions, and ruin innocent subjects’ lives, while leaving the guilty free to commit additional crimes.

Sleuths on the cyber trail

Andy Greenberg, the award-winning WIRED reporter, talks about his latest book on bitcoin tracing and how law enforcement still has the upper hand in its fight against cyberfraudsters and other criminals on the dark web.

Taming fraud in crypto’s Wild West

The meteoric rise and sudden downfall of crypto exchange FTX, and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried, is likely to become an essential case study for fraud examiners seeking to understand the new Wild West of the financial markets. Here we look at what happened and lessons learned from possibly one of the largest U.S. financial frauds.

Preventing fraud through due diligence

Due diligence is a proactive countermeasure against fraud, helping to safeguard the interests of all parties involved in a transaction. Here are some pointers in how to carry out due diligence and prevent fraud in the process.

Build it right, and they will come

When we think of innovation, certain industries spring to mind: electric vehicles, fintech, medtech, space exploration, to name a few. But innovation and change are just as prevalent in the professional services industry, where consultants must stay up to speed to best advise their clients. Learn how professional services firms can stay competitive and relevant through technology innovation.