Investigating Fraud

Delivering bad news is difficult.  Effective and professional response to fraud is a skillset that must be practiced and developed by auditors and investigators before a serious case emerges.  Many investigators have learned this the hard way, after mishandling a case and causing more expense from counter-litigation than the loss from the fraud.  Organizations have suffered unnecessary reputation damage from disastrous cover-ups, failed to identify all perpetrators, or retained known perpetrators and subjected themselves to even further losses.

Who should attend:  Auditors & Investigators.  This workshop guides auditors and investigators through proper investigation techniques and elegant solutions for locating and presenting evidence.  We will address the key aspects of interviewing strategy & execution, how to structure questions, and how to read verbal & physical behavior.  Attendees find, by applying the principles taught in this course, not only do they learn to professionally respond to fraud, but also they find increased confidence in their verbal and written communications, both inside and outside their organization.

Please scroll down to view the course outline, or click here to download the pdf outline.


Course Objectives

Upon completion of this workshop, you will understand how to:

Plan and execute an effective investigation;

Set an achievable goal and design a strategy for the investigation;

Establish an environment in the organization for consistently successful investigations;

Avoid pitfalls that lead to mishandling cases;

Conduct interviews of subjects and read their behaviors;

Obtain and document an admission of wrongdoing;

Apply the principles of thinking & design to create an effective report for presentation to management and the audit committee;

Combat attitudes that discourage professionals from performing effective investigations;

Prove suspected wrongdoing;

Recover losses;

Deal effectively with law enforcement, bonding companies, management.

 

16 CPE

Field of Study: Accounting, Auditing

Course Level: Intermediate

Group-live

No prerequisites or advanced preparation required


Course Outline

Preparing to Investigate Fraud

Important steps to take before launching an investigation;

Establishing the foundation of a successful investigation;

Assignment of investigative responsibilities;

How fraud should be addressed in policies. 

 

Conducting the Investigation

Fraud investigation checklist;

Maintaining the attitude of a professional investigator;

Securing the evidence;

Setting the investigation objectives;

Developing the scenario;

Understanding common symptoms of fraud to determine the full extent of the problem.

 

Interviewing Subjects

Planning and preparing for effective interviews;

Handling interviewee objections and maintaining emotional control;

Why people will admit to wrongdoing and how to handle an admission;

What to expect as the interview progresses;

Reading verbal and non-verbal behaviors;

Documenting responses for evidence.

 

Presenting Evidence

Rules of effective evidence presentation;

Presentation pitfalls that can derail the case;

Communicating difficult issues and handling conflict.

 

Learning from the Case

Educating management and learning from failures;

Communicating incidents throughout the organization;

Gaining organizational wisdom to prevent future occurrences of the same fraud.