http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/22c47776-9762-11e4-be9d-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3PQLDyFs1
January 16, 2015 1:47 pm
UK pensions reforms open door for scams
Judith Evans
Fraudsters will take advantage of reforms that give people more control over their retirement savings, industry figures and regulators fear. Continue reading
Top Fraud Predictions for 2015: Technology will shape the fight
Posted by LOW Hwan Hong, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Business, Singapore Management University
Excerpt:
Technology will give fraudsters an edge in 2015, but it will also provide new tools for organizations and investigators, according to three experts from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) who were asked for their top fraud predictions for 2015.
The experts (Gerald Zack, Bruce Dorris and Jacob Parks) weighed in on digital currencies, information security and other issues that will help shape the effort to prevent and detect fraud in the new year:
1) Technology will increase the sophistication of fraud schemes. This is an existing trend that will accelerate in 2015, according to ACFE Regent Gerard Zack, CFE, Managing Director – Global Forensics for BDO Consulting. “More and more we are reacting to reports of fraud with ‘how did they do that?’, Zack said. “It’s a reflection of schemes becoming more complex and capitalizing on technology, including some of the new technology deployed by companies in the interest of improving efficiency. While simple fraud still exists, we are seeing a distinct proliferation of more complex fraud schemes.”
2) But technology (like data analytics) will also help catch tomorrow’s frauds. Zack is quick to note that for fraudsters, technology is a double-edged sword, as it is leveraged as well by professionals trying to catch criminals. “There will be more breakthroughs in the use of technology to detect fraud – particularly in the use of visual analytics and also in the use of tools to mine unstructured data. Tools that were thought of as cutting edge just a year or two ago will seem ancient in another year or two”, he stated.
3) Improving information security will be a major priority. More massive data breaches, like the ones that have stricken Home Depot, Target Corp. and other large retailers over the past two years, are likely to occur in 2015, according to ACFE Vice President and Program Director Bruce Dorris, J.D., CFE. “These breaches have exposed widespread vulnerabilities among organizations that store and maintain personal information, putting millions of individuals at risk,” Dorris said. “Considering that storage of data continues to grow at an exponential pace, more trouble lays ahead – and there is an increasing need for information security and protecting against data breaches.
4) There will be a re-emergence of financial statement fraud. While Enron, WorldCom and other major financial statement frauds are starting to fade from the public consciousness, there may be more such accounting fraud on the way, according to Zack. One indication is the effort being made by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to step up enforcement in this area.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-gets-busy-with-accounting-investigations-1421797895
SEC Gets Busy With Accounting Investigations
Number of Cases and Investigations Surges at Agency
One of the biggest sanctions involving a U.S. company was the $20 million paid last year by CVS Caremark to settle allegations of misconduct including improper acquisition-related accounting adjustments that boosted reported earnings in 2009. ASSOCIATED PRESS
JEAN EAGLESHAM And MICHAEL RAPOPORT
Jan. 20, 2015 6:51 p.m. ET
The Securities and Ex
change Commission’s push to step up its policing of accounting fraud has led to a surge of cases and investigations, new agency figures show, as officials again target cooking-the-books offenses that were once a staple of its workload.
The upturn, the SEC’s first year-over-year increase in such enforcement actions since 2007, comes as the agency returns its focus to alleged financial-reporting and disclosure problems that might have gone unpunished as crisis-era misconduct, such as selling of flawed mortgage securities, dominated its attention in recent years.
But the new cases are on a smaller scale and typically involve conduct that is far less egregious than the accounting scandals of the early 2000s, such as the implosion of energy giant Enron Corp.
In addition, the agency’s computerized system for sniffing out accounting fraud has so far proved to be less revolutionary than many expected when it was unveiled in 2012. Continue reading
http://tejas.iimb.ac.in/interviews/11.php
ACCOUNTING FRAUD : THE INDIAN CONTEXT
with R. Narayanaswamy, Professor
The past few years have seen several headline-grabbing incidents of corporate fraud in India. There were the Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh cases, followed by the Unit trust of India case. And now, we have seen the Satyam and World Bank-Wipro cases that have not just tested the Indian business framework, but also sent ripples across the global scene. It is imperative that we take notice of this growing systemic problem and understand its motivations and methods. In this interview with Prof. R. Narayanaswamy, faculty in the Finance and Control area at IIM Bangalore and a veteran in accounting, we take a closer look on the cases at hand, concentrating on accounting fraud in India but examining it from different perspectives. Continue reading
‘India is not unique in having accounting frauds, but the problem is more severe here’
Sarika Malhotra Last Updated: December 10, 2013 | 22:19 IST
Non-executive directors at Indian firms have not proved effective
Reshmi Khurana, MD, Kroll India
Private equity funds have become more vigilant in tracking precisely why some of their portfolio companies are not doing well. At least two cases of alleged fraud by the companies invested in doctoring of books or fudging the minutes of meetings are well known.
In 2011, PE firms Bain Capital and TPG Capital dragged Lilliput Kidswear to court over alleged accounting fraud. This year, private equity firm SAIF Partners alleged that home-grown kids’ wear retailer Catmoss was cooking its books. Continue reading
Dear ACCT004 class,
As shared in class with the Rocky video, I have been touched by an angel (Professor KS Leong) when I was studying in university many years ago; now, I am grateful to be able to share real-world practical insights with you.. hopefully to get you intellectually curious, to reawaken your thirst for learning, and to help you understand accounting fraud in Asia in a framework to spark critical thinking.. “And I will watch you make good in this world.. You will not only know how to fight. You’ll be able to take care of yourself outside the ring too.”
Warm regards,
KB
Mickey: Slip the jab, will ya? Slip the jab! That’s right, that’s it. Hey, I didn’t hear no bell!
Rocky: Okay.
Mickey: All right. That’s right. Slip the jab. That’s it! Mentalize! See that bum in front of you! You see yourself doing right and you do right! That’s pretty. That’s very pretty. Time! Ah, come here Rock. My God, you’re ready, ain’t you? Apollo won’t know what hit him. You’ll roll over him like a bulldozer, an Italian bulldozer. You know, kid, I know how you feel about this fight that’s coming up because I was young once, too. I tell you something. If you weren’t here, gee, I probably wouldn’t be alive today. The fact that you’re doing here and doing as well as you’re doing gives me… What do you call it? A motivization to stay alive? Because I think that people die sometimes when they don’t wanna live no more. And nature’s smarter than people think. Little by little, we lose our friends, we lose everything. We keep losing and losing till we say, “What the hell am I living for? I got no reason to go on.” But with you, kid, boy, I got a reason to go on. And I’m gonna stay alive. And I will watch you make good. And I’ll never leave you until that happens. Because when I leave you, you’ll not only know how to fight. You’ll be able to take care of yourself outside the ring, too, is that okay?
Rocky: It’s okay.
Mickey: Okay. Now I got a little gift for you.
Rocky: Aw Mick..
Mickey: Wait a minute now.
Rocky: I don’t need nothing.
Mickey: Look at this. See that? This here’s the favorite thing that I have on this earth. And Rocky Marciano give me that. You know what it was? His cuff link. And now I’m giving it to you. And it’s gotta be like an angel over your shoulder, see? If you ever get hurt, and you feel that you’re going down, this little angel is gonna whisper in your ears. He’s gonna say, “Get up, you son of a bitch! ‘Cause Mickey loves ya!”
Dear ACCT004 class,
From the YouTube videos of the singers’ performance (English translation of the meaningful lyrics below), we can all feel their Dedication and Attitude towards Singing.. they found their own Voice that touches the heart of the people around them and I hope all of us will too, in our own Way.. As you develop and acquire your own Voice and the Mastery of your skills, I will be anxious, available and cheering for you!
Warm regards,
KB
http://www.fraud-magazine.com/article.aspx?id=415
Posted by Amy CHAN Wen Yi, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University
Takafumi Horie had no use for conventional Japanese business practices. This 30-something, self-proclaimed Web entrepreneur geek donned black T-shirts and jeans while most businessmen still wore the standard-issue gray suits.1 He flaunted the millions he amassed from his Livedoor Co. Ltd., an Internet service provider, and the companies he bought. He drove a Ferrari, lived in one of Tokyo’s flashiest apartment complexes, and bragged about his success on television – a Japanese taboo where modesty is prized. Continue reading
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/15/us-nyag-interview-schneiderman-idUSKBN0KO2JE20150115
Posted by Latha Do NADARAJAN, Year 3 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University
New York’s top law enforcement official said he plans to help bring more fraud cases against the world’s biggest banks for selling shoddy mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 financial crisis. Continue reading
http://www.wsj.com/articles/weavering-hedge-fund-founder-found-guilty-of-fraud-1421697445
Weavering Hedge Fund Founder Found Guilty of Fraud: Jury Finds Swedish Financier Guilty on 8 Counts
LAURENCE FLETCHER
Jan. 19, 2015 2:57 p.m. ET
The conviction of hedge fund manager Magnus Peterson on Monday marks a winning end to a long-running probe by the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office. In the U.K.’s first prominent hedge fund manager conviction since the credit crisis, a jury found the Swedish financier who ran Weavering Macro Fund guilty on eight counts of fraud, forgery, false accounting and fraudulent trading. Continue reading
AsianExtractor: Unearthing Accounting Fraud in Asia 