Corporations are often the victims of the most common white-collar crimes that occur in corporate America. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (cfenet.com), “abuse and fraud by employees cost U.S. organizations more than $400 billion annually…[which equals] $9 per employee per day.”These statistics show the corporate need for forensic accountants, there also is an immense demand for these specialized accountants in the private sector. For example a forensic accountant is used to “quantify economic loss” (askhal.com) in personal injury cases. Forensic accounting is “ an accounting analysis that is suitable to the court, which will form the basis for discussion, debate and ultimately dispute resolution.” (forensicaccounting.com) According to Hal Rosenthal, a certified forensic accountant, it is the “use of intelligence gathering techniques, accounting and business skills to develop information and opinions for use by attorneys involved in civil litigation and to give trial testimony if called upon.” (askhal.com) In other words, a forensic accountant checks an organization in case of a dispute, to see if any money discrepancies are present.Forensic accountants can be critical in providing litigation support. Litigation support is the “assistance of an accounting nature in a matter involving existing or pending litigation.” (Philadelphia Business Journal, p.18)This type of support is often determining the amount of monetary damages.Another aspect of forensic accounting is investigative accounting. This is the investigation of criminal matters, securities fraud, and kickbacks. For example, if an a person was laundering money, the forensic accountant would investigate how money was obtained and the process of how it was made into “clean” money.Another key function of forensic accounting is forensic auditing. According to cfenet.com, it is t...
