Our latest insights

With the recent rise in awareness of financial abuse of elderly individuals and the misconduct of executors of deceased estates, it is imperative to validate any suspected wrongdoing in order to pursue legal proceedings.

It is a challenging time for many; from a cost-of-living crisis and global political uncertainty, to lingering stress post pandemic. Coupled with business control weaknesses or vulnerabilities, these pressures can create the perfect storm for financial crime to occur.

Employee fraud can be perpetrated through the misappropriation of assets and/or financial statement misstatement.

Accounts payable and payroll fraud conducted by employees is an issue that can have a negative impact on businesses. Detecting and investigating these types of fraud requires a systematic approach to identify irregularities, gather evidence, and take appropriate action against the perpetrators.

Workplace fraud is a serious and costly issue that can impact organisations across different sectors and regions – and is becoming increasingly relevant as cost-of-living pressures rise.

To minimise the impact of fraud in Australia and globally, we are promoting anti-fraud awareness and education with a series of articles during International Fraud Awareness Week. This article is the first in our series and takes a closer look at the most commonly experienced types of fraud, the warning signs, and fraud detection.

When there is commingling of assets, as often seen in family law or commercial disputes, it can become difficult to identify asset ownership and asset value. In these instances, asset tracing is used to determine the source of the asset and how the asset has been used prior, and in the course of the dispute.

Asset tracing is a process whereby forensic accountants and investigators ‘follow the money’ by locating assets of value to an individual or company that have been misappropriated. Asset tracing is usually undertaken for the purposes of recovery, often as part of formal insolvency processes or in support of ongoing litigation or fraud investigations. It involves a complex analysis to identify assets and the flow of funds, requiring a combined skillset of forensic accounting, investigation and technology. Engaging forensic accountants specialising in asset tracing can make a substantial difference in what misappropriated assets are recovered and exactly how much.