Interview With Mindy Mejia, Author of “Strike Me Down” (Giveaway)

Interview With Mindy Mejia, Author of “Strike Me Down” (Giveaway)

In Mindy Mejia’s latest novel, “Strike Me Down,” the main character, Nora Trier, is a forensic accountant who is single-minded in her pursuit of fraudsters. Nora’s story begins when her firm is hired by a popular kickboxing gym to find $20 million of tournament prize money that has gone missing. Nora and her firm are tasked with finding the money before the tournament ends in less than a week.

After you read our interview with Mindy Mejia, make sure you enter the “Strike Me Down” book giveaway.

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5 Resources to Up Your Tech Game in 2020

5 Resources to Up Your Tech Game in 2020

As fraud examiners, we regularly encounter technology in our investigations. For 2020, consider adding more technology knowledge to your toolkit. There are new technologies introduced to the world on a daily basis, so even if you’re already tech savvy, consider other tech skills you could add.

Not as skilled as you want to be? That’s okay! Here are five resources you can use to help immerse yourself in the current issues, especially as they relate to fraud. This list isn’t exhaustive but meant to give you a simple, easy, free way to understand the issues today. 

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Introducing “Fraud: The Game of White-Collar Crime”

Introducing “Fraud: The Game of White-Collar Crime”

Ever wanted to try your hand at running a Ponzi scheme, banking assets in offshore accounts or fleeing the country to escape legal investigations? In Fraud: The Game of White-Collar Crime, players have the unique opportunity to step inside the shoes of corrupt CEOs on a mission to bribe, cheat and defraud opponents as they race to bank $150 million before they collect three indictments.

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Coming Soon: New Report on Measuring In-House Fraud Investigation Teams

FROM THE RESOURCE GUIDE

Andi McNeal, CFE, CPA
ACFE Director of Research

Proving ROI on anti-fraud initiatives can be incredibly difficult. Measuring the amount of fraud that’s been prevented, determining whether investigations are being performed as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, evaluating whether frauds are being detected and responded to quickly and thoroughly enough — we frequently hear our members express how challenging these types of assessments are to perform. And the effort of explaining these issues to management, who is pressing for formal metrics, can make this area even more challenging in many organizations.

But anti-fraud teams need to be held accountable, just like every other team within the organization. One of the best ways for any team to measure and report its effectiveness is to benchmark its structure and performance against industry norms. Organizations often have historical data about their own investigation teams, but lack access to similar data from other organizations that can be used for benchmarking purposes. In 2015, we released our first benchmarking report for fraud investigation teams, and the response was incredibly positive. We knew there was a need for this type of data, but we heard from so many people — both members and non-members, from all over the world, from numerous industries, from all over the organizational chart — that this was the information they had been waiting for. Two years later, we are excited to release our next edition of this members-only resource, which has been expanded from the first to include additional benchmarking angles. 

Some insights from the upcoming In-House Fraud Investigation Teams: 2017 Benchmarking Report include:

If you want to learn more about how other fraud investigation teams are structured and how your investigation team measures up, you can see the full benchmarking report next month on ACFE.com. We hope this report helps support your team’s effectiveness and highlights its success to your organization’s decision-makers. And if there are benchmarking metrics or questions you’d like to see covered in future ACFE benchmarking research, send your ideas to Research@ACFE.com.

Find out more about the ACFE's latest resources, products and events in the most recent Resource Guide.

Cornell University Students Develop a Fraud Deterrence Policy Evaluation Checklist

GUEST BLOGGERS

John E. “Jack” Little, CFE, CPA, and Jenny Mak

Organizations of all sizes should regularly evaluate the systems they have in place to deter fraud, abuse and misconduct. This involves an organized review of current policies, procedures and controls that safeguard and protect an organization’s assets from unnecessary risk.

As part of a project in the spring 2015 Fraud Examination class in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, a checklist was developed to aid in the evaluation of such systems. The class focused on understanding different types of fraud through textbook readings, guest speakers and local fraud cases. We began creating the checklist by reviewing a white paper authored by a group of forensic investigators from KPMG titled Fraud Risk Management, Developing a Strategy for Prevention, Detection and Response. The document provides an overview of the fundamentals involved in deterring the risk of fraud and abuse within organizations. 

Applying key concepts from this resource, the class converted it into a checklist that can be used to gather information, document controls and procedures, and evaluate existing policies. The checklist focuses on three key areas of control: prevention, detection and response. Additionally, it indicates the specific KPMG document page number from which the question was developed for ease of guidance and reference. The checklist works in a way such that opportunities for improvement in the system of internal controls, policies and procedures become apparent when the questions are answered and the comments written up.

Once this checklist was designed, the student group moved to apply it to the systems used by Cornell University. Students first completed the checklist with information that was readily available online. Later, students met with the University Audit Office and Cornell Human Resources, both of whom provided additional information via interviews and discussions. After the meetings, the student circled back around to complete any gaps in the checklist. A copy of the completed checklist can be found here.

At the conclusion of our work, the class came to believe that the systems and controls in place at Cornell University were adequate. However, we had a number of suggestions for improvements to those systems and controls to strengthen the processes. Those recommendations were:

  1. Consider having a more formal fraud risk assessment conducted by independent outside consultants.
  2. Expand its use of data analytics within the internal audit function of the University Audit Office.
  3. To continue improvement in campus-wide training programs for fraud deterrence.
  4. To implement a universal acknowledgment by employees documenting their familiarity with Cornell’s policies and procedures for the deterrence of fraud, abuse and misconduct.

In a closing meeting with University Auditor Glen Mueller and Audit Director Mark Perry, the student group presented the completed checklist and recommendations.  Since the final meeting, the University Audit Office has made a shift towards continuous monitoring through the use of data analytics and is actively working towards implementing the use of ACL software to track fraud. 

It is our hope that by sharing this checklist, there will be a benefit for both practitioners and management of organizations who must consider a review of their systems of fraud deterrence.

John E. “Jack” Little, CFE, CPA, is the senior lecturer of accounting at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a local practitioner. His email address is: jack.little@cornell.edu.

Jenny Mak is senior in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University and will graduate with a Bachelor’s of Science with concentrations in accounting and finance in December.  Upon graduation she will begin her career in the profession and will sit for the CPA Exam. Her email address is: jm783@cornell.edu.