Fraud Investigation

Preventing, investigating and measuring business fraud

Davie Kaplan has helped business clients and legal practitioners in a variety of fraud-related cases ranging from general internal control reviews to cases involving hundreds of thousands of dollars of embezzled funds.

When business owners or legal advisers suspect fraud, embezzlement or other criminal activity in a company, we are a resource to investigate the fraud and provide a quick response that will enable you to minimize losses and maximize your opportunities for recovering lost funds. Businesses affected by criminal activity also need to understand how to prevent such crimes from happening again.

Is your company susceptible to fraud?

The areas most commonly susceptible to fraud are noted below:

Accounts Receivable

Employees in the accounts receivable area can commit fraud against the company by diverting customer payments and using a variety of techniques to disguise these actions.

Inventory

Employees may steal inventory or scrap either for personal use or for sale to third parties.

Purchasing

Employees may create fraudulent invoices for tangible or intangible services or products, participate in overbilling schemes, or set up fictitious contractors or suppliers to be paid by the company, with the payments going to the employee or other involved parties.

Payroll and Personal Expenses

Employees can add fictitious employees to the company payroll or inflate payroll payments to other employees with whom they are in collusion.

Cash

Whether in currency , checking or savings accounts, cash can be an easy target for employee fraud. Restricted access and the appropriate disbursement approval and signing policies are critical to reducing exposure in this area.

Management-Level Fraud Schemes

Shareholders and other external stakeholders can also be victims of fraud caused by a company’s management. Financial statements can be presented to report misleading financial information, fixed assets can be valued or classified inaccurately, revenue can be recognized prematurely or improperly, or expenses can be shifted to present misleading financial information.

Whether you have been the victim of a fraud or would like to assure you have the appropriate controls in place to avoid fraud, Davie Kaplan can help you.