Fraud Investigation

Fraud investigation, whether based upon a suspicion or the discovery of a theft, can be an emotional roller coaster for those involved.

Forensic Accountants are trained to deal with the emotional turmoil that surrounds these issues, while carrying out the job of identification, quantification and tracing.

No matter what anybody says, when a fraud is discovered within an organisation the general shock and disbelief can compromise the most seasoned employer. That is why a trained professional is required from the start.

WHO SHOULD NOT DO THIS WORK

This is not a job for the auditors. Their role is compliance review. They are not trained to detect fraud and the audit opinion they give specifically excludes the issue of the audit being undertaken to detect fraud.

 Our team includes Forensic Accountants, Fraud Examiners, licensed Private Investigators and Security Guards (the latter being essential when addressing issues of covert electronic surveillance).

MANAGING THE RISK

Fraud investigation; its prevention (risk minimisation) and detection are responsibilities of management. There are many tools that can be employed to minimise fraud.

Good internal controls are a start, followed by physical controls and  overt/covert observation. Each level of prevention has a cost but even when they are all added together and assuming that the same level of costs were incurred on an annual basis (which would be unlikely) they will be significantly less than the cost of an actual fraud.

Our experience in fraud investigation is based upon years undertaking this work in the field; professional training in New Zealand, Australia and the United States and, a continual in-house training, research and investigation program designed to pit our skills against the greed and hypocrisy of fraudsters.

Probably the best advice we can give in this area is that every organisation should assume that fraud is happening around them and that sooner or later it will happen to them. Be prepared for that eventually; act now to put prevention and detection processes in place to reduce the risk and minimise your loss.