Investigator Casts Focus on Insolvency Cases

MEMBER PROFILE

Bettina Kuntz, CFE
Grant Thorton UK LLC

Bettina Kuntz, CFE, is an executive in the fraud insolvency division at Grant Thornton UK LLP. Since joining the ACFE in 2009, she has built her network of fraud experts and sought out training on the latest types of fraud schemes. Kuntz said this has helped her keep up-to-date with the fraud investigation community worldwide and anticipate new types of fraud encountered by clients.

What does your job involve on a daily basis? 

I work for the team at Grant Thornton UK LLP that specializes in forensic work, asset tracing and recovery. My work involves managing forensic investigation and contentious insolvency cases using the powers granted under the Insolvency Act 1986.

What types of cases do you investigate? 

My portfolio of cases includes a range of high profile instructions with a cross border aspect. These include, for example, the liquidation of Madoff Securities International Limited, bankruptcies, proceeds of crime cases and court appointed receiverships involving assets tracing assignments in France, Luxembourg, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Morocco, BVI and the USA. Most recently, I have assisted with the court appointed receivership of Boris Berezovsky.

When did you decide to pursue the CFE credential?

It was recommended to me by a colleague. She suggested I undertake the training as a way to gain technical skills and validate my experience in the field of fraud investigation. She described it to me as a ground breaking qualification with a growing network of members worldwide. Grant Thornton is very supportive of individual initiative for staff development, so I ordered the CFE Exam Prep Course and was the first employee to complete my CFE exams.

What do you do when you’re not at work? 

I split my time between hot yoga, golf, Mandarin Chinese lessons and completing a master in law in dispute resolution. I also visit my hometown of Strasbourg in Alsace, on a regular basis.

Read more profiles of ACFE members in the Career Center on ACFE.com.

Robocop – Not Just an ‘80s Movie Icon

GUEST BLOGGER

Jeremy Clopton, CFE, CPA, ACDA
Senior Managing Consultant, Forensics and Valuation Services, BKD, LLP

Yet another 1980s movie icon is making a comeback. However, this is not your typical remake. Robocop is back, and geekier than ever. You read that correctly, Robocop has gone geek. In a recent Fortune article, the SEC’s new accounting quality model, Robocop, takes center stage. The SEC is going to begin using data mining procedures to identify companies with accounting records deserving a closer look. As a data mining professional, I found a few things in this article surprising, noticed some items not discussed and saw positive news for companies that may encounter Robocop in the coming years.

First, I don’t find the fact the SEC will be using data mining surprising. In fact, this is something I expected. What is surprising is the list of atypical parties encouraged to use data mining now that the SEC has unveiled its model. These include:

• Employees questioning their employer’s behavior are encouraged to use data mining to see if they are “on the right track.” 
• Investors looking to analyze the financials of potential investments and make decisions that are more informed. 
• Companies wanting to analyze the financials of the vendors and customers with which they do business. 

Next, here are a couple of useful items to supplement this article. First, internal audit departments of organizations should also be users of data mining. The principles discussed in this article can help internal audit departments take a proactive approach to fraud detection and increase their effectiveness. If they are not already using data mining, the SEC’s use is a good reason to begin. Also, there is data analysis software available that does not require programming language or experience. Many organizations may already use these tools within their governance, risk and compliance program, possibly within the internal audit department.

Finally, there is good news for companies subject to Robocop’s review. Data mining is not a new concept; it has been around for quite a while. Fraud investigators have been developing data mining procedures for years and regularly implement these procedures within investigations. As a result, there are many resources available to companies looking to incorporate data mining into their testing and ease the learning curve. These resources can help companies implement their own data mining procedures and take a proactive approach to detecting potential issues in their financials.

If you have not been reading about Robocop and the new accounting quality model, I would encourage you to do so. The Fortune article is a great place to start, with many other articles out there to provide other insights.

Data Visualization – More Than Pretty Pictures

GUEST BLOGGER

Jeremy Clopton, CFE, CPA, ACDA
Managing Consultant, Forensics and Valuation Services, BKD, LLP

With “big data” comes the desire to see and better understand it. As investigators, that is one of our main objectives. While infographics and data posters are designed as art, there are other uses of data visualization as well. We need to understand the data in our cases so we can use it to detect fraud. I can think of many instances in my career where data visualization helped me, a colleague or a court better understand the data in an investigation.

Thinking back over my career, one case that demonstrates this concept stands out. While investigating a potential conflict of interest, we looked for vendors located near an employee's residence. Naturally, we decided the best approach would be to plot all of the vendor and employee addresses on a map. What we saw was quite interesting. None of the vendors were located near the employee on which we were focused. There was, however, another employee with a vendor very near. The employee and vendor were located more than 50 miles from the company address and the vendor was a casino. A new investigation quickly followed. Data visualization helped identify this previously unknown relationship and uncover a multi-year fraud scheme.  

While this is only one example of using data visualization to detect fraud, there are many other applications of the same concept. Simple distribution charts showing checks issued by day of week or time of day identify checks issued outside of normal business hours. Trend analyses of vendor payments indicate unusual patterns of activity, such as kickbacks. Network maps show relationships between various parties (remember the pictures on a bulletin board connected by yarn in the cop shows?). The use of data visualization in investigations is limited only by available data and your imagination.

Speaking of imagination, I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). As such, imaginative is not the first word many use to describe me. People generally shy away from describing accountants as creative. That simply means I tend to look at what others are doing in the world of data visualization to find new ideas. And I would encourage you to do the same. Read reports, especially the exhibits. Check out websites about data visualization (I like flowingdata.com). By exploring what others are doing you will be better equipped to incorporate data visualization into your next investigation. Who knows, maybe the visualization used to break open your next big case will also end up as a work of art in your office.

Find more insight from Jeremy at BKDForensics.com.