Forensic Accounting
Investigating fraud and supporting disputes, following one invented Hartford distributor through a shell-vendor billing scheme and a year-end revenue scheme: the forensic accountant's role under the AICPA Statement on Standards for Forensic Services No. 1, conflicts and privilege, fraud theory and the cost of fraud, cash, billing, payroll, expense, inventory and payment redirection schemes, corruption and the FCPA after its 2025 enforcement changes, financial statement fraud and the Beneish M-score, money laundering, FinCEN and the Bank Secrecy Act, beneficial ownership after the 2026 Corporate Transparency Act rule, predication and investigation planning, evidence, interviews and the net worth and bank deposits methods, investigative analytics and link analysis, expert evidence under Rule 702 and Daubert, lost profits and economic loss, the investigation report, fraud risk management and whistleblower programs.
ACCT-460 Year 4 3 credits 12 lessons · 5 h 25 min
Offered by HSM University · Accounting
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Distinguish forensic engagements from audits, apply the AICPA Statement on Standards for Forensic Services No. 1, and assess independence and conflicts before accepting an engagement.
- Use the fraud triangle, fraud diamond and related models to analyze why fraud occurs, classify schemes with the fraud tree, and interpret survey data on the cost of fraud with its limitations.
- Explain how cash, billing, payroll, expense, inventory and payment redirection schemes work at a conceptual level, identify their red flags, and recommend preventive and detective controls.
- Recognize conflicts of interest, bribery, kickbacks and bid rigging, and explain the anti-corruption and competition laws that apply in Canada, the United States and other jurisdictions.
- Identify the methods and analytical signals of financial statement fraud, including revenue timing schemes and the Beneish M-score, and evaluate their accounting effect.
- Describe the stages and typologies of money laundering, the reporting and beneficial ownership regimes in each country, and tests that screen for structuring.
- Plan an investigation from predication and triage through scope, legal constraints, evidence preservation and the sequencing of work.
- Gather and document evidence lawfully, conduct information-gathering and admission-seeking interviews, and trace funds with direct and indirect methods.
- Apply investigative data analytics, including full-population tests, duplicate detection, fuzzy matching and link analysis, and present the results as verifiable evidence.
- Explain the duties and admissibility of expert evidence under Rule 702 and Daubert, and quantify lost profits and economic losses with appropriate assumptions and discounting.
- Write an investigation report that states scope, sources, approach and findings objectively, leaving conclusions on intent to the trier of fact.
- Design fraud risk management and whistleblowing programs using the COSO and ACFE Fraud Risk Management Guide and the whistleblower protections in each country.
Course content
12 lessons · 5 h 25 min total · final exam
- 1 The forensic accountant and professional standards 29 min · quiz
- 2 Fraud theory and the cost of fraud 28 min · quiz
- 3 Asset misappropriation I: cash, billing and payroll schemes 28 min · quiz
- 4 Asset misappropriation II: expenses, inventory and cyber-enabled fraud 25 min · quiz
- 5 Corruption and bribery 26 min · quiz
- 6 Financial statement fraud 26 min · quiz
- 7 Money laundering and beneficial ownership 25 min · quiz
- 8 Planning and conducting an investigation 27 min · quiz
- 9 Evidence, interviews and tracing funds 27 min · quiz
- 10 Data analytics for investigations 27 min · quiz
- 11 Litigation support, damages and expert witness work 28 min · quiz
- 12 Capstone: fraud risk management, whistleblowing and the investigation report 29 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
Investigating fraud and supporting disputes, following one invented Hartford distributor through a shell-vendor billing scheme and a year-end revenue scheme: the forensic accountant's role under the AICPA Statement on Standards for Forensic Services No. 1, conflicts and privilege, fraud theory and the cost of fraud, cash, billing, payroll, expense, inventory and payment redirection schemes, corruption and the FCPA after its 2025 enforcement changes, financial statement fraud and the Beneish M-score, money laundering, FinCEN and the Bank Secrecy Act, beneficial ownership after the 2026 Corporate Transparency Act rule, predication and investigation planning, evidence, interviews and the net worth and bank deposits methods, investigative analytics and link analysis, expert evidence under Rule 702 and Daubert, lost profits and economic loss, the investigation report, fraud risk management and whistleblower programs.
Part of the Business stream, typically taken in year 4.