Accounting Students Earn College Credit and a Conviction

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Jeff Kubiszyn
ACFE Chapter Development Manager

I often preach that involvement in your local ACFE Chapter is more than just attending meetings and seminars. It is about giving something back to the profession and the community. Some ACFE Chapter members work with charities to raise food or money for the disadvantaged. Others speak to civic groups about the dangers of fraud and how to effectively protect assets and investments. And some go even further by working hand-in-hand with law enforcement to help make fraud a less-lucrative business in their communities.

Last year, the Spokane Chapter of Washington leadership asked its members to participate in a program full of potential, if not a little ambitious. Dubbed the Justice for Fraud Victims Project, their task was to work with graduate students from Gonzaga University, investigators and prosecutors to review and submit cases the Assistant U.S. Attorney’s Office did not have the manpower to investigate. Chapter members helped the students test theories and prepare reports on their findings. They spent time with the students reviewing books and records, and ultimately, proving a white collar crime to a jury.

Last month, the accounting students of Gonzaga University celebrated their first victory: the program’s first conviction. After months of combing through statements and bills, the students found that the treasurer of a local Knights of Columbus Chapter was writing checks to himself. Thanks to the members of the Justice for Fraud Victims Project, the people who may not have otherwise had any prospect of recovering ill-gotten gains received justice.

Lenore Romney, CPA, CFE, CVA, and Spokane Chapter member was the CFE mentor working with students on the convicted case. “Working all semester with my student team was personally rewarding regardless of the case outcome,” Romney said. “My team of students was incredibly bright and diligent, and really took ownership in our investigation – they were like sponges soaking up the practical knowledge I was trying to share with them in only one semester’s time together. I was proud of my team’s effort the day they gave their final class presentation, the day I submitted our report to law enforcement, and especially the day I was notified that charges were filed! Obtaining a guilty plea and restitution within a year of submitting our case was the icing on the cake!”

It’s a rewarding experience when you see the positive outcome of a local project, and one of the reasons Chapter involvement is a tremendous benefit to ACFE membership.

Are you involved in your local ACFE Chapter? What are some of the ways you give back to your community?

Auditor Earns CFE Credential While Stationed in Baghdad

MEMBER PROFILE

Scott A. Cohen, CFE, CIA, CISA
Director of Internal Audit
NATO Airlift Management Agency
 
In 2004, Scott Cohen, CFE, CIA, CISA, Director of Internal Audit for NATO Airlift Management Agency, was three years away from retiring from the U.S. Navy when a friend suggested he begin to think about his post-retirement career. Like many professionals making a career transition, Cohen ruminated over his experience, his credentials and, more importantly, what it was going to take to for him to enter the job market as a competitive candidate. It didn't take him long to discover that ACFE resources and the CFE credential were the vital tools he needed to make a smooth transition. "It's a case of not really knowing what you're missing until you learn about it and then wondering how you ever did your job effectively without it," Cohen said.

What made you decide to become a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE)?
I was having lunch with an IRS agent in Saddam Hussein''s former palace in Baghdad. The idea of being an accountant in law enforcement was intriguing. He explained that part of his job was to seize records and computers, and sometimes, people were not willing to part with them. I asked how I could get involved doing that sort of work, only to learn that at the age of 40, I was too old to apply for a federal law enforcement position. But he said that I could be trained as a forensic accountant or fraud investigator, and I would be the person to whom he would turn over the records for analysis.

I looked into several options and decided that while no one qualification would provide all the training I would need, the CFE credential would provide a solid basis for any further study. The approach is interdisciplinary, drawing on ideas from criminal justice and the law, sociology, accounting and economics. Fraud issues are never one dimensional, and understanding the fundamentals in different disciplines is important to understanding how a problem occurred or can occur and what can be done to detect or prevent fraud.

How did you prepare for the CFE Exam? Where were you in your career when you studied and passed the Exam?
I attended the ACFE Fraud Conference and sat through several lectures, not really knowing from the outset what being a CFE meant. Although I am sure that I missed a lot of details, I was excited by what I saw.

I ordered the CFE Exam Prep Course offered by the ACFE. It took about two and a half months to feel that I was ready to take the exam. At the time, I was stationed in Baghdad as the Chief of Logistics for the NATO Training Mission – Iraq. The program allowed me to study when I was able and I used the Fraud Examiners Manual as a reference when I needed something explained in more depth.

When I was ready to take the exam, I planned to take each part on successive Saturdays. While this seemed a bit drawn out, I figured this would give me the best chance at success. And it was a strategy recommended in the lecture at the ACFE Fraud Conference. I did the first part and felt good about how I'd done. Then the bombing started and mortars were falling close enough to the headquarters that it was not safe to go anywhere. So I did the second part. And the bombs were still falling. Before long, I'd completed all parts.

Read the full profile here.

Where were you in your career when you took the CFE Exam?

The Difference Between Computer Forensics and eDiscovery

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Phillip Rodokanakis, CFE, EnCE, ACE, DFCP
U.S. Data Forensics, LLC
Herndon, Va.

In my previous posts, “Computer Forensics: Following the Digital Bread Crumbs” and “eDiscovery: Digital Data Gives Birth to New Industry”, I covered computer/digital forensics and the emergence of eDiscovery as distinct and separate professions dealing with the handling of digital evidence. Although both these disciplines deal with digital data, there is some confusion as to how they differ. Digital forensics encompasses the entire universe of data stored on a hard disk drive (HDD), whereas eDiscovery usually only focuses on a smaller grouping of data stored on the drive.

Computer users are familiar with the meaning of used and free space on a HDD. In Microsoft Windows, a drive’s properties are depicted on a pie chart that shows the total disk storage capacity, as well as the used and free space. (See figure.)

In technical lingo, the free space is referred to as “unallocated clusters” while the used space is referred to as “allocated clusters.” In computer file systems, a cluster or allocation unit is the unit of disk space allotted for files and directories.

A simple way to understand the difference between eDiscovery and computer forensics is to think of the HDD allocation model. EDiscovery focuses on data stored in allocated clusters, while computer forensics deals with both allocated and unallocated clusters (i.e., the entire physical drive).

EDiscovery filters out program, temporary and system files, and processes only active user accessible files. This usually involves Microsoft or other Office Suite files (e.g., documents, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, PDFs, etc.) and emails. These types of files are then processed in an eDiscovery engine, where they are indexed and catalogued, and then usually loaded into a Litigation Support Platform (software designed to aid law firms in the process of document reviews in litigations; for more information see the American Bar Association website).

On the other hand, computer forensics investigates everything, including deleted files or remnants from former files that have been partially overwritten. A forensic examiner must pay particular attention to certain operating system and log files, temporary files and the file remnants found in unallocated clusters.

For example, data remnants (file artifacts) from web-surfing sessions, including accessing webmail accounts (e.g., Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) and chats, are usually found in temporary Internet files or unallocated clusters. Certain system files log information pertaining to external devices, accessed files, executable software, deleted files, etc.

Certified Fraud Examiners readily recognize the critical value of digital evidence in a fraud examination. They also need to fully understand the differences in eDiscovery and digital forensics in order to be able to seek appropriate technical advice and consulting services.