Discussions Assignments | Online Homework Help

4 Discussions

two original posts and two comments to someone else posts

3 paragraphs and 3 references per discussion

Discussion #1

Answer this question

What do you see as the potential challenges related to determining losses/damages in a fraud case. As a fraud examiner how would you prevent any bias in determining the amount of damages?   Be sure to support your conclusions with authoritative sources (including peer reviewed articles from the library, Fraud Examiners Manual, etc).

Discussion # 2

Comment this post from CC

This week’s topic for discussion one is interesting as it focuses on possible adverse circumstances that may arise in a loss / damage determination in the case of fraud. According to the book Essentials of Forensic Accounting by Crain M., Hopwood W., Pacini C., and Toung G.(2015), the intervention of an expert to assist in the determination of damages in a case of litigation is of great importance, since the knowledge that this possesses added to the evidence that exists can determine the types of damages or losses that will be stipulated by the court, although the process is not easy and on many occasions even challenging due to the evidentiary standard. (p.421)

Damages can be compensatory and punitive damages, both must be determined by experts based on the evidence presented where it is demonstrated, the damages or losses that an individual or business has had due to the wrongdoing of the defendant (Crain M., Hopwood W., Pacini C., and Toung G.(2015). According to the article “System dynamics modeling in the legal arena: Meeting the challenges of expert witness admissibility” by Stephens, C. A., Graham, A. K., & Lyneis, J. M. (2005), system dynamics is used In the case of a litigation related to the loss or damage that a business in the construction industry where a bad management of the time that affects the budgets and schedules of the project causes losses of profits and extra out of pocket cost. The system has been used past and possible future damages based on the ability to reveal possible connections in the casualty of acts or omission in a dispute between the parties (Stephens, C. A., Graham, A. K., & Lyneis, J. M., 2005)

The article “The federal rules of evidence and daubert: Evaluating real property valuation witnesses”  by Dorchester,John D.,,Jr. (2000), stated “Matters at issue in federal litigation must be approached by expert witnesses in an objective, unbiased fashion, otherwise they may be irrelevant and fail to meet the requirements of FRE Rules 401 and 402…” (para.5). I think that a  fraud examiner who is developing the role of a damage expert related to the determination of possible losses or damages due to the result of a fraud, must always act impartially regardless of whether he is hired by the accusing or accused party; as a professional the objectivity of the code of professional ethics must prevail where in subsection IV it stipulates: “An ACFE Member will comply with the lawful orders of the courts, and will testify to matters truthfully and without bias or prejudice. “(ACFE,2019)

Discussion # 3

Answer this question

Play the video titled Adapting to Emerging Technologies in the Digital Age located on the ACFE website  http://www.acfe.com/vid.aspx?id=4294990864 as a start to your research.  What do you see as some of the challenges with new technologies when it comes to fraud investigation related to misrepresented financial statements?  How do you think these challenges can be overcome?  Be sure to use authoritative sources (including peer reviewed articles from the library, Fraud Examiners Manual, etc) to back up your opinion.

Discussion # 4

Comment this post (LB)

Digital technologies make inroads on inquiries into fraud. Legal and regulatory agencies continue to use various legacy systems to carry out data-intensive evaluations. Analytics use cases tend to be adhoc projects typically carried out by suppliers. A condition that complicates long-term planning and development is still maturing resources (Deloitte 2017). And the importance of this, is narrated by Cynthia Hetherington in his interview when she talks about the problems that an investigator may face for obtaining information in an unethical or illegal way, and one of the scenarios is getting the bank account statements, these have been become a problem, since in most cases the same techniques used by hackers are used to retrieve this information, therefore, there is a very fine line between legal and illegal. Another topic in the video is the use of social media by companies and the necessity of be very careful with the information posted on these sites, a how many entities hire full time employee just to deal with this (ACFE 2015).

On the other hand, fraud in financial statements is one of the most expensive types of fraud and can directly affect businesses and individuals, as well as damage investor confidence in the markets. As most companies are most likely aware, deception in financial statements is one of the most expensive types of fraud and perpetrated using a variety of techniques. An examiner may use a Microsoft Excel (a free tool) to distinguish transactions rounded to the nearest dollar and which transactions occurred on Saturday or Sunday to capture such fraudulent transactions. Identifying and further reviewing repeated transactions can help a company identify possible fraudulent activity and stop it (Ceresney 2013). To deal with this, Microsoft Access has a “Request Wizard” tool that is a very useful function to detect any duplicate transactions. Identifying and further reviewing repeated transactions can help a company identify possible fraudulent activity and stop it. Many computers with Microsoft software can utilize this function free of charge or at a small fee and should certainly be checked in, that is why catch and prevent fraud can be somewhat time-consuming, but, setting up the right system could help prevent it and make it easy to catch (Ceresney 2013).