Working with companies who have been victims of fraud on a regular basis, the report provided by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners for 2014, hits the nail on the head. Here is a summary of their findings: Typical organization loses 5% of revenue each year to fraud. Median loss in their study was $145K. [...]
Mediation is one of the best ways to handle family law disputes. Rather than getting involved in a never-ending court battle, you can save time, money and help preserve family relationships. Forensic accountants can be a crucial part of this process as finances are often one of the most disputed areas in family law matters. [...]
For those of you who may have missed the article I wrote "Proving Hidden Income", I thought it would be beneficial to post a link to it once again as I have had several family law attorneys ask me about this in the past few weeks. If you still have questions, or would like to [...]
Former Detroit Mayor Back in the News In June of 2011 I wrote about former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who has been back in the news, for a conviction on a plethora of charges, including racketeering, fraud, and extortion. He was found guilty of 24 of the 30 charges brought against him. Kilpatrick was joined [...]
Debt Collection, or Lack Thereof As reported recently by The Long Beach Post, according to an audit of the City's Business Relation Bureau that spanned two years, $2.4 to $2.6 million in outstanding business license accounts have not been collected by the City of Long Beach. http://www.lbpost.com/business/2000001889-city-auditor-2-4-to-2-6m-in-delinquent-business-license-accounts-uncollected#.UTTbYldZ_Q8 Residents are fuming at the lack of tenacity [...]
What does bankruptcy approval for the City of Stockton mean for other California cities? Perhaps it paves the way for other California cities (such as the City of San Bernardino who filed for bankruptcy protection in August) to do the same. According to Cal Watchdog, Your Eyes on California Government, the City of Stockton owes [...]
Municipal Fraud Prevention Part 3 of 3 - Have checks and balances, and routinely ask yourself if loopholes exist - Cheap comes out expensive, hire external auditors, forensic accountants, and certified fraud examiners - Turnover in your finance department isn’t always a bad thing- in some cases, an extensive level of familiarity breeds corruption - [...]
Municipal Fraud- West Linn Part 1 of 3 Municipal fraud is all around us explains Richard Seals CFE, CPA, CMA in his recent article: From First to Worst in Fraud-Magazine. http://www.fraud-magazine.com/article.aspx?id=4294977156 West Linn, Oregon’s former city finance director, Elma Magkamit, was a compulsive gambler. She also lied about being both a college graduate and a [...]
As moneys become tight and budgets continue to be squeezed, financial vigilance must be increased. Anti-fraud controls must be developed. Systems must continue to be reviewed and analyzed to reduce the chance of fraud. This problem at the Santa Clara Unified School District may have been averted with proper internal oversight. The link will also [...]
This time is was $900k being separated from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. What's killing me it that it was the CFO. Another clue, from the article "...she liked to play the slots at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City...". Over a 6 year period of time this money diss appeared. Would had been discovered if [...]
