The Role and Responsibilities of a Forensic Accountant

The goal in the life of a college student is graduating and getting the dream job in the career field that is chosen. To achieve this goal takes more than just having the knowledge and heart for the career; it also takes technical skills to be able to perform the tasks. The Auditor: An Instructional Novella stretches beyond the standard textbooks to reveal the principles and practices of auditing as they are in the real world. The book consists of a few key aspects such as: targets students’ natural curiosity about the field of accounting, supports traditional teaching tools, shapes the potential challenges that awaits public accountants.

| (TCO A) An AICPA committee in 1986 broke forensic accounting into two broad areas:

Accountants are held to a higher ethical standards and they must performed their duties in compliance with standards or ethical values of honesty, integrity, objectivity, due care, confidentiality, which must be fully committed to. They must put clients or public interest first before their own. They must have and ethical values and maintain those values way beyond what the society or the company’s code of ethic. It is important that accountants’ behavior or ethical values is in conformity with the

According to the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute (ACFEI), the term forensic examiner is broadly applied to scientific and technical professionals who investigate information in order to form an expert opinion. The legal system relies on professional experts during trials to establish the truth regarding crimes. However, most people don’t know that forensic examination isn’t limited to stereotypical crime evidence, such as weapons or personal items. Forensic examiners specialize in a wide array of areas, such as DNA, accounting, ballistics, pathology, fingerprinting, documents and toxicology.

The Model of Trust Enhancement was established to enhance and maintain the public’s trust in the accounting profession. Over the last two decades, the ethics of the accounting profession has been questioned and public trust destabilized, in particular for auditors, due to the Enron debacle. The fact that an auditing firm would assist their clients with publishing an inadequate set of financial statements shows their willingness to violate laws and regulations (Sims & Brinkmann, 2003). According to the textbook, “Because trust is essential, even the appearance of an accountant’s honesty and integrity is important. The auditor, therefore, must not only be trustworthy, but he or she must also appear trustworthy” (Duska, Duska & Ragatz, 2011, p. 116). The majority of statements filed inadequately have a substantial impact on the credibility of the accounting profession as a whole. Sullivan (n.d.10) states that a CPA must possess a high level of trust, by applying professional judgment and enhancing the three trustworthy characteristics (ability, benevolence, and integrity) when resolving accounting ethics dilemmas (slide 3).

Forensic science is defined as the practice of utilizing scientific methodologies to clarify judicial inquiries. The field of forensic science contains a broad range of disciplines and has become a vital aspect of criminal investigations. Some forensic disciplines are laboratory-based; while others are based on an analyst’s interpretation of observable patterns (Kourtsounis, 2009). According to the Innocence project’s website; in greater than fifty percent of wrongful convictions, the use of invalidated or improper forensic techniques played a role in cases; which were later

Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope is an associate professor for the School of Accountancy and MIS at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. In completing her collegiate career, she obtained a bachelor's degree from North Carolina A&T State University in accounting. Further, Dr. Pope received her doctorate's degree in accounting from Virginia Tech. She was employed by KPMG, LLP practicing forensic accounting. Several cases Dr. Pope has worked on included insurance fraud investigations, fraud risk management jobs, and anti-money laundering engagements. In addition, she co-authored a book, The A.B.C.’s of Behavioral Forensics: Using Psychology to Prevent, Detect, and Deter Fraud.

AICPA Code of Professional Conduct principles prevents vises such as fraud that are experienced in accountancy field. Audit is the best measure of the effect of the fraud that are imposed to investors by accountants. The relationship of the investors and account holders are supposed to be affirmed through auditing to ensure accounting principles are upheld(Weirich, Pearson, & Churyk, 2010). Improper loss of the funds through propagation of the accountant officer should be treated as fraud and criminal activity that should lead to prosecution. Therefore, the paper seeks to relate two fraud cases that have been audited and presenting AICPA Code of

The word forensic is defined as relating to the use of science or technology in the investigation and establishment of facts or evidence in a

Imagine trusting your hard-earned money like your retirement savings to a financial adviser or Certified Public Accountants (CPA) only to lose it all in a fraudulent Ponzi scheme. In today’s world of business many organizations, financial planners and accountants are in the news due to the financial ethical breaches that have affected their customers, employees, and the general public. A CPA has to be responsible for their audits and take any punishments as a result of their mistakes, incompetence or illegal actions. CPAs are expected to have integrity in their work,

The auditing firm has been in engagement with the company throughout the period when the fraud was being committed. One of the common and clear indicators of possible fraud was the company’s cash flow statement. The company experienced positive growth in its profits from the year 1996 through to the year 1998. However, a close analysis of the cash flow statement shows that the company had experienced negative figures of cash flow from both operating and investing activities and positive cash flow from financing activities which would not sufficiently offset the negative cash flows from operating and investing. It is therefore evident

Forensic science borrows from a number of sciences which include: physics, Biology and chemistry. It therefore involves examination of a wide spectrum as compared to any other method of investigation. Due to the wide spectrum of investigation and evidence analysis the method offers; it ensures that the results are accurate and can be used in the court of law to make a decision. The method establishes the existence of a crime, the connection between the crimes and the

Forensic accounting is the use of investigative and analytical skills for the purpose of resolving financial issues in a court of law. Forensic accountants need skills in accounting, auditing, finance, quantitative methods, certain areas of laws, research and investigative skills to collect, analyze and

When determining and defending the use of a particular ethical system within the confines of a profession, it is important to evaluate the system in terms of the professional culture as well as the expected professional conduct laid out within the vocation itself. The accounting profession has been evolving for thousands of years. Early accounting records date business transactions back as far as third century B.C. (Schroeder, Clark, & Cathey, 2009). Early record keeping was for internal purposes and as societies and economies expanded, it became important to maintain records for external purposes as well. According to Schroeder, Clark & Cathey (2009), by the ninetheeth centruy, bookkeeing expanded into accounting (p. 3). From this time, it has been the duty of the accountant to serve the public interest and the profession has been culitvated into an organizational culture with professional norms and standards constantly taking shape in an effort to complete an all-inclusive conceptual framework.

witnesses also are included in the case. The primary issue in this case (drawn from actual