In the past few years there have been constant stories in the news of frauds occurring in businesses. I am sure many that come to your mind immediately are Enron, WorldCom, Tom Petters, Denny Hecker and many more. What you often don’t see in the media are the frauds that are occurring in small businesses the United States. These frauds are often not publicized as business owners react immediately and try to avoid any damage to their business name and reputation. There is often a misperception that fraud only affects large companies, but in reality it is occurring in companies of all sizes. In the 2010 survey of its members conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), 31% of all occupational frauds were committed against small businesses and the median loss in those schemes was $155,000. Are you aware that Brunberg Blatt and Company, Inc. provides both proactive and reactive forensic accounting services?
Our expertise lies in preventing and investigating embezzlements and financial statement fraud, evaluating financial statement disclosures in matrimonial and probate concerns, as well as, other types of forensic accounting matters. Our team of experienced professionals assist with our forensic account services that range from preventative to investigative.
Preventative forensic services assist companies and individual organizations in evaluating their accounting records and results, with the goal of identifying any potential programs or issues within the transactions. While not able to provide absolute assurance that no fraud exists, these engagements help companies and individual organizations before a problem materializes by providing an objective outside review by accountants specializing in the field of fraud. The outside review also acts as a deterrent which strengthens the company’s internal controls. Preventative forensic accounting services are broken down into two separate categories (Prevention and Detection & Monitoring), which we will go into additional detail on a future post.
Investigative forensic services deal the with the business reality of fraud that has occurred. Extensive accounting, auditing and investigative skills are used to gather and present the financial evidence needed to resolve or refute a case. These types of engagements, work to control reputation damage, resolve adversarial proceedings, minimize business interruption and limit economic loss to the company.
