Internal Fraud Investigation at Lakes Inc Assignment

Internal Fraud Investigation at Lakes Inc - Assignment ExampleNext were co-conspirators then the main suspect. Professionalism was maintained as was respect for the suspects rights. All interviews and legal proceeding were recorded. A confession was obtained from the key suspect after a leniency deal with the co-conspirator. The investigation recommended an away of court settlement. Introduction Internal fraud is increasingly becoming a major concern for organizations all with staff abusing their inclines, making false claims or outrightly obtaining company assets by unauthorized means. While staff should be the graduation exercise line of defense against fraud attacks, some staff members take advantage of this and become the fraudsters. The UK lead-in anti-fraud agency, CIFAS reported a 70 percent increase in indispensable fraud by employees in the half year of 2009 (Jones, 2011). The rise in staff fraud necessitates investigations in the most professional and utile manner t o ancestor out the offenders, recover stolen property and mitigate such future occurrences. This paper leave behind give a narrative of Lake Inc. case where the Associate purchasing director was reported to be abusing his position to obtain goods fraudulently. The essay will report on how the investigation was done, the findings and conclusions made. On receiving the tip, the Lakes Inc. management contacted the writer to wash up to the bottom of the issue by conducting a thorough and professional investigation. The basic steps for investigating internal fraud were conducted to solve the case. The fact that the investigations started almost two months after the staff tip-off could potentially collapse jeopardized the case. This is because frauds should be reported, verified and investigated as soon as possible. This way tracking consequence is faster and the evidence is still fresh. Sufficient grounds to believe fraud had taken place were established by myself in the lead getti ng on with the investigation. I used interviewing, document scrutiny and making personal observations to get to the root of the case, and secured control and ownership of the relevant purchase and payment documents. This was essential in ensuring they are not tampered with and that they could be availed and used as evidence. The documents helped form the basis for conducting the investigation at Lakes Inc. I reviewed the obvious information first that false invoices had been used to obtain refunds by the purchases department amounting to $ 8 795.60, before getting into the details. Getting exposit information involved interviewing neutral third companionship witnesses to the case after scrutinizing the invoicing documents and authenticating them. The neutral third party witnesses interviewed were dispatch and collection personnel, the stores and inventory clerks, and the IT support department (Coenen, 2009). These were interviewed to verify no computer servers were bought as utte r in the invoice and claim documents were actually delivered, entered into the inventory records, and/ or installed. The interview took place on the sixth August. From here, witnesses who could corroborate the evidence adduced so far were interviewed on the same day (Coenen, 2009). An evaluation of the requisition arrangement for new equipment or office equipment was done to establish the procedures and who were involved in the process.