Read the GA Society of CPA’s Forensic and Valuation Services Section May 2010 Niche News.

During April, IAG members Laurie Dyke and Michele Bruce teamed with Jim Hart of The Lightfoot Group to help Southern Polytechnical State University (SPSU) students prepare for a mock fraud trial. SPSU Professor Bill Beecken reports:
“[On April 28th, 2010], three volunteers from the Pickens County legal community (Attorneys John Capo and Scott Poole and Magistrate Judge [...]

One of the most challenging aspects of being a financial expert witness is presentation of complex analysis to an audience unfamiliar with the subject matter and prone to distraction, such as judges and juries.  Almost nothing puts a trier of fact to sleep faster than a bunch of numbers. Numbers are more effective than most [...]

Whether you are a loan officer considering a new business loan, an owner of a business reviewing reports from management, an investor considering an investment in what appears to be a lucrative proposition, or a franchisor monitoring a franchisee, you need to know the warning signs of falsified financial statements. The Journal of Accountancy recently published [...]

One category of check fraud is check washing. It accounts for over $815,000,000 in losses per year. The practice began in the 1980’s and police and federal agents report in over 90% of the cases, the perpetrators were methamphetamine addicts or “speed heads”. In the worst instances, they have established networks or crime rings to conduct their operations.
The [...]

We’ve worked on many fraud investigations over the years, from very small companies to large, publicly held companies.  Each situation is unique, of course, and different factors contribute to fraud in individual situations.  One of the common factors that has been present in every situation in which we have been involved is that the company had a [...]

IAG was engaged to investigate a theft loss claim for an insurance company. When reviewing the evidence, the insurance adjuster asked in confusion, “Why are they only depositing money twice a month?” Very simple. It takes time to accumulate enough checks in Peter’s safe to pay for Paul’s cash.
One December, the manager of one of the retail [...]

Elected officials’ offices in County governments are commonly referred to as “small offices.” These offices include those of the Tax Commissioner, Sheriff, Superior Clerk of Court, Magistrate Court, Probate Court, Juvenile Court, etc. Small offices are the gateway for the majority of cash flowing into a county. Therefore, they are inherently high-risk. Unfortunately, they often [...]

What’s your Fraud IQ? Take our short, fun fraud terminology quiz.

What you don’t know about employee theft and fraud can hurt you. Small businesses (those with 100 employees or less) have the highest percentage of incidences of fraud and the highest average loss. To help small business owners understand how fraud schemes occur and how to prevent them, we will publish a series of case studies related [...]