Forensic Accounting and Financial Statement Fraud - Red Flags for Analysts

Program Description

New institutional structures have been put in place by lawmakers and the accounting profession to prevent and deal with fraud, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and self-regulating measures adopted by the accounting profession. Through this program you will explore and analyze the various aspects of accounting fraud including fraudulent financial reporting, identifying fraud schemes, methods of concealment, and the techniques in uncovering and preventing fraud through effective internal control systems. The objective of this course is to impart an understanding of forensic accounting with particular emphasis on the methodologies of financial statement fraud.

Who Should Attend

• Financial executives
• Regulators
• Lawmakers

Program Benefits

• Develop an understanding of the techniques used to perpetrate financial statement fraud
• Discuss analytical methods to uncover fraud
• Review government-proposed fraud prevention tools for publicly held companies and the accounting profession

Program Schedule

DAY 1

Session 1
What is Forensic Accounting?

• Fundamental conditions, warning signs and risk factors
• Fraud schemes and earnings management

Session 2
Methods of Concealment

• Withholding evidence, misrepresentations, false documents, collusion, top management overriding internal control systems
• Cases

Session 3
Uncovering Accounting Fraud

• Inquiry, observation and investigation of personal and related party transactions
• Analytics
• Financial statement ratios
• Underlying vs. corroborating evidence

Networking Reception & Practitioner’s Point of View 

DAY 2

Session 4
Identifying Fraud Schemes

• Premature or fictitious revenue recognition
• Overstatement of assets
• Understanding liabilities
• Special Purpose Entities (SPEs)
• Misappropriation of assets

Session 5
Money Laundering

• Techniques
• Bank Secrecy Act
• Current reporting requirements by regulators

Session 6
Corporate Governance and Internal Control

• Internal Control
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act
• What should the financial world know and evaluate

Faculty Bios

Seymour Jones is a Clinical Professor of Accounting at NYU Stern School of Business and also serves as the Associate Director of the Vincent C. Ross Institute of Accounting Research, an independent academic research center focusing on accounting issues. Professor Jones' areas of expertise include audit committees, auditing, entrepreneurship, financial reporting and fraud. Before joining Stern, Professor Jones was a Senior Partner at Coopers & Lybrand and S.D. Leidesdorf & Co. Read his full bio