Tag: Other

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

Jeffrey R. Filliter, Managing Director – Froese Forensic Partners Ltd.

Frauds in general continue to be on the rise at an alarming rate in direct correlation with both the domestic and global downturn in the economy. Those who might otherwise be predisposed to committing crime find themselves reaching states of desperation as a result of their inability to provide, in some cases, even the necessities of life. In addition, organized crime groups capitalize on desperation by preying on those who are most vulnerable financially to join their forces in defrauding the wealthy. The recent “Occupations” that occurred throughout the world’s economic powers were a clear sign of many people’s frustration with the perceived divide between the wealthy and the impoverished. There is evidence to support that organized crime factions infiltrated those groups with a view to heightening the demonstrations and to recruiting potential fraudsters to assist in their attack against “the 1%”, which to many represents the growing wealth gap between America’s wealthy elite compared to the overall citizenry. Continue reading Global Economy and it’s Impact on Current Fraud Trends

Economist Intelligence Unit Survey Results

“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 2011-2012

Originally 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

John McNally

Introduction

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

Howard W. Winkler and Stephen M. Satchel

E-mailers and Bulletin Board users Beware! As everyone and everything moves to the internet so too does the law of defamation.

E-mail and the internet are becoming common methods of communicating both within organizations and to the world at large. While there is very little case law to date on the subject, it is widely agreed that the general law of defamation will apply to e-mail communications and information posted on or transmitted through the internet. Electronic communications are often not confidential and the potential scope of distribution of an imprudent remark or statement could be very wide. This could have the effect of converting what would otherwise be a private, non-actionable communication into something for which damages might have to be paid.

What Is Defamation? 
A defamation is committed when anyone publishes false words to a person or entity’s discredit. Continue reading E-Defamation

Rob Fowlie, CA-IFA, CFI

Employee fraud is “big business” that will cost the U.S. economy approximately US$600 billion in 2002, according to one US Study. Victimized businesses usually suffer significant losses – over half of frauds committed cause losses of at least US$100,000 and nearly one in six result in losses of over US$1 million. Similar data doesn’t exist for Canada, but employee fraud is unlikely to be any less of a threat to Canadian business. Continue reading Insurance – A Critical Defence Against Employee Fraud

Robert Forsyth, CFI, FCGA, MBA, MA & Ralph Palumbo, LL.B.

The ethics of professional advisors have taken on a much higher profile in the wake of auditing scandals (e.g. Enron, Worldcom) in the United States. An issue of particular concern is the apparent conflicts of interest, both for the auditor, and for directors and management. For the Certified Forensic Investigator (CFI), there is often an assumption that their role is carefully enough defined that there can’t be any problems with a ‘conflict of interest’. Unfortunately problems can and do arise. Continue reading Conflict of Interest