Leigh Beijer*, CA | CFE | CAMS – MNP Investigative and Forensic Services
Earlier this month, privately owned Griffiths Energy pled guilty to bribery charges and offered to pay a substantial fine. On Friday, January 25, 2013 Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Scott Booker agreed with the terms of the charges and penalty. Continue reading Corruption Amnesty – Risks to Companies
Welcome to the sixth annual edition of Kroll’s Global Fraud Report, prepared in collaboration with the Economist Intelligence Unit.
More than 800 senior executives were polled worldwide, from a broad range of industries. The results highlight a changing fraud environment, and provide both heartening and sobering news for businesses around the world.
Continue reading Kroll Global Fraud Report 2012-2013Kevin Lo – Froese Forensic Partners Ltd
Analysis of email communications and Internet (browsing) history plays a dominant part in many forensic investigations involving digital evidence. However, there is also a trend where less evidence could be located from these traditional sources (i.e. email or internet activities). There is no indication that people are committing fewer crimes or wrong-doing on computers – so what could be the explanation of the declining volume of evidence from these traditional sources? Continue reading Digital Evidence – Diminishing or Shifting?
Jim Patterson and Denise Bambrough – Borden Ladner Gervais LLP – Fraud Law Group
A rogue convinces a couple to invest their entire retirement savings with him in an offshore investment scheme which promises an excellent return. The investors subsequently learn that the scheme is fraudulent and that the rogue has no intention of returning their money to them, let alone delivering any profit thereon. The investors learn that the money has been sent by the rogue to accounts in his name which are held at various financial institutions located outside of Canada. Is there anything that the investors can do to prevent the further transfer of their money by the rogue? The investors will be happy to know that yes, there is. Canadian lawyers have been successful in obtaining Court Orders granting relief to victims of fraud in scenarios such as this one. Continue reading The Long Arm of the Law: International Fraud and Worldwide Mareva Injunctions
“The Annual Global Fraud Survey, commissioned by Kroll and carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit, polled 1,265 senior executives worldwide from a broad range of industries and functions in June and July 2011. Where Economist Intelligence Unit analysis has been quoted in this report, it has been headlined as such. Kroll also undertook its own analysis of the results. As in previous years, these represented a wide range of industries, including notable participation from Financial Services and Professional Services; as well as Retail and Wholesale; Technology, Media, and Telecommunications; Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals; Travel, Leisure, and Transportation; Consumer Goods; Construction, Engineering, and Infrastructure; Natural Resources and Manufacturing. Respondents were senior, with 47% at C-suite level. One-half of participants represent companies with annual revenues of over $500m. Respondents this year included 23% from North America, 24% from Europe, 28% from the Asia-Pacific region, 15% from the Middle East/Africa and 11% from Latin America.
Continue reading Kroll Global Fraud Report 2011-2012Originally printed in the Internal Auditor Magazine
PAUL PIGEON WAS A MANAGER of training who had been with Canadian-based Example Corp. for more than 12 years. His primary duty was to identify the training requirements of the company and then, when needs dictated, arrange for outside consultants to aid in course development and implementation.
The Example Corp. had approximately 3,000 employees who reported through more than 45 different departments to five division heads. Each year, Pigeon would sit down with various managers throughout the organization and assess their training needs for the coming year. After reviewing the available company resources, Pigeon would determine the aggregate cost for all divisions of the company and develop, or update, one-, three-, and five-year plans for each area that were then approved by his supervisor, the director of human resources. Pigeon’s bottom line would be consolidated into the human resources budget and then folded into the company’s overall financial plan. Continue reading One of the many lessons learned
David Ray – Grant Thornton, LLP
Betty and Jim were a husband and wife who ran a small retail business. Last year they began receiving requests from Visa and MasterCard for backup information on credit card payments that had been transacted at their business. The first few were requests were smaller amounts of $50 to $100 but over the next several days and weeks the requests for information were more sizeable and grew to $500 amounts and then to $1000. One of the most distressing things about the requests was that, each time they went to their records to pull the back up documentation, it was missing. The matter suddenly came to a head when the father of one of their young employees called to tell them that he had discovered that his son had been using his credit card without his authorization. When Betty and Jim looked closer at the demands from the credit card companies they realized that all of the transactions had taken place when the son was on shift. They confronted him and he refused to respond to their questions and quit on the spot. They were eventually held responsible for over $60,000 in charges against several credit cards and the loss resulted in their decision to close the business because all of their annual profits had been lost. Continue reading Leading the Charge Against Credit Card Crime
David Ray – Grant Thornton, LLP
The employee of a Calgary oilfield service company wanted to spend the day with friends so he called in sick. During the course of the day photos were taken of their “excursion” and posted on Facebook. A co-worker, who had to pick up the extra work because his colleague was off sick, saw the photos on Facebook and reported it to the boss. The “sick” employee was disciplined and had to make up for his day off. Continue reading Changing Technology: Monitoring Employee Computer Usage
John McNally
As a student in the business program at Vancouver Island University (VIU), I had the opportunity this spring to combine a course in accounting fraud, which I had just taken, with the ‘Many Faces of Fraud’ conference in Toronto in May. I took advantage of this opportunity because I wanted to explore working in this field and I thought the conference would help me make this decision. Continue reading Fraud Investigation: Perspectives on Interviewing
Denis Desnoyers
Movie and rock stars have a new word to describe affluence, success, sex appeal and being part of the in crowd. It is called “bling bling”. The media and social disjointedness culminate to create a malaise of self centeredness which steers people into a confusing environment. Everyone, it seems, wants their share of bling bling. For the over whelming majority of us, reality involves working hard and domestic responsibilities, neither of which afford us the opportunity to strut our way around town. Unfortunately, there is an increasingly large group of individuals whose questionable morals and strong desire to live the dream life allows them to justify actions which the rest of us would deem as embezzlement. Continue reading Embezzling Your Way to Riches
