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Магистерская программа «Стратегическое управление финансами фирмы»

Forensics

2020/2021
Учебный год
ENG
Обучение ведется на английском языке
5
Кредиты
Кто читает:
Школа финансов
Статус:
Курс по выбору
Когда читается:
1-й курс, 1, 2 модуль

Course Syllabus

Abstract

According to the 2020 Global Economic Crime Survey, 47% of companies experienced a fraud in the past 24 months and on average, companies reportedly experienced 6 incidents in the last 24 months. The most common types of fraud include customer fraud, cybercrime, asset misappropriation, bribery and corruption and financial statements fraud. Forensic services help companies discover illicit acts on time, carry out forensic investigations and mitigate risks. Aim of the course is to familiarize students with the theory and practice behind the forensics expertise. During the course we will discuss regulatory frameworks, approaches to and considerations of investigations of crimes committed, apply effective tools for identifying risks and developing and implementing fraud prevention systems. In addition, students will familiarize themselves with the related forensics matters such as corporate intelligence, forensic technology, dispute and litigation support, financial crime, whistleblowing systems, anti-money laundering, sanction and other compliance matters.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • Knowledge of regulatory environment and anti-corruption and anti-fraud frameworks: Federal laws of Russian Federation 273 and 115, Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (USA), UK Bribery Act (UK) and other AML & Sanctions, Anti-competitive practices.
  • Knowledge of fraud indicators, typical schemes, considerations for financial services and construction industry.
  • Knowledge of procedures of reputation and affiliation due diligence, tools for data analysis and other forensic technology solutions.
  • Understanding of the role of expert witness during disputes.
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • Introduction: Get familiar with phenomenon of fraud, appreciate the extent of fraud in modern economy, get familiar with most frequent types of fraud.
  • Forensic investigations: learn how to identify warnings of fraud and corruption, get familiar with asset misappropriation schemes.
  • Corporate intelligence: Find, analyse and check publicly available information and data from open market sources to assess the potential and risks of business relationships with third parties, such as suppliers and contractors, clients and partners, investment targets and potential employees.
  • Forensic technology solutions: appreciate the role of forensic technology solutions, get familiar with methods and tools used for data analysis and visualization.
  • Disputes and litigation support: distinguish between litigation and arbitration, distinguish between expert witness and witness of fact, get familiar with expert witness roles, responsibility of expert witness to lawyers, client, tribunal, key considerations such as breach date, “as-is” and “but-for” scenarios, techniques for estimating damage.
  • Forensics for financial sector: get familiar with indicators of suspicious transactions, impairment and other risk indicators to identify fraudulent transactions.
  • Construction projects support: apply developed knowledge to forensic services for construction projects. Get familiar with project progress review, review of contractor selection procedures to identify affiliated companies and estimate potential damages, project delay analysis.
  • Compliance: get familiar with regulatory environment and anti-corruption and anti-fraud frameworks.
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Introduction. Introduction to financial forensics
    Definition of fraud. Its indicators. Role of skeptical mindset. Typical fraud schemes. Scale of fraud in modern economy.
  • Forensic investigations
    Identification and investigation of asset misappropriation schemes, conflicts of interest and violations of anti-corruption rules and regulations. Discovery of abusive practices, collection of data and evidence, assessment of damages. Planning and implementation for further steps for claim settlement and reinforcement of controls. Cyber incident response investigations: data leakage, electronic document forgery, deletion of information, unauthorized access as a fraudulent intent or an attempt to cover up traces of fraud. Suspicious transaction detection and analysis: use of business intelligence and visual analysis to gain unique insights and find implicit relationships, correlation and other critical features. Electronic data mining and analysis. Affiliation and integrity due diligence to get a fair picture of business relationships, develop strategies and take decisions.
  • Corporate intelligence
    Corporate intelligence Corporate intelligence as a mean to discover business threats and assist in addressing them. Reputation and affiliation due diligence to get a picture of business relationships, assist in developing strategies and take decisions. Asset tracing in Russia and abroad for financial institutions where a debtor’s property is foreclosed on or recovered through litigation. Employee and candidate background checks as part of recruitment or creating a talent pool for key positions.
  • Forensic technology solutions
    In this digital age, more electronic data is being used each year. Efficient data collection and analysis, as well as the retrieval of information requires equipment, software, experience and knowledge of IT systems. Methods and tools used. Data leakage, electronic document forgery, deletion of information, unauthorized access as a fraudulent intent or an attempt to cover up traces of fraud. Analysis of such incidents for internal corporate investigations or court proceedings. Detection of suspicious transactions in a body of data. Data analysis and visualization to get unique insights and find implicit relationships, correlations and other crucial features in discovering fraud. Procurement function associated with high-risk business processes as one of the most attractive areas for fraud perpetrators. Procurement health check including review of processes with an automated detection of affiliation, identification of unreliable counterparties, data analysis and visualization.
  • Disputes and litigation support
    Arbitration and litigation: analysis of various types of incurred damages, estimation of their potential value, preparation of expert reports and expert testimony. Leading dispute settlement institutions. Transaction disputes: financial implications of violations related to transactions including non-compliance with the terms of agreements. Disputes related to capital construction projects: analysis of critical factors causing project implementation delays, affect project management or underlie similar disputes. Amendment of contractual terms, review, clarification on changes of planned project terms and assessment of their impact on the project’s financial results. Collecting data on disputing parties: integrity and affiliation due diligence, search for assets in the jurisdictions of the parties involved. Electronic data mining and analysis to obtain evidence in litigation.
  • Forensics for financial sector
    Forensics for financial sector Identification of premediated bankruptcy: analysis of borrower documentation to identify suspicious transactions, impairment and other risk indicators. Assessment of reliability of information provided by the borrower including data on pledged assets, and identify changes in the quality of these assets. Review of actual purpose of loans and investigation of schemes to withdraw cash from the company. Monitoring suspicious transactions: use of automated systems to perform analytics and identify fraudulent transactions, using algorithms and visualization methods. Procurement health checks, quantitative data analysis and comprehensive assessment of quality indicators. Regulatory compliance: independent assessment of risks related to potential non-compliance with anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws and sanctions regimes. Corporate policies and procedures, comprehensive legal compliance programmes.
  • Construction projects support
    Forensic investigations: engaging contractors and subcontractors, agents, establishing contractual arrangements and obtaining approvals from government authorities can be associated with a high level of construction fraud risk. Project progress review: project implementation analysis, review of actual delivery against the scope and cost of work to identify any differences with incurred expenses. Review of contractor selection procedures to identify affiliated companies and estimate potential damages. Project delay analysis: identification of causes of delays, assessment of their impact on project implementation costs to establish an approach for preventing delays in the future. Disputes related to capital construction projects: identification of critical factors causing project implementation delays, affect project management or underlie similar disputes. Amendment of contractual terms, review, clarification on changes of planned project terms and assessment of their impact on the project’s financial results.
  • Compliance
    Compliance as an integral part of the business environment aimed and improving a company’s investment attractiveness, protecting against potential reputational damage and regulatory sanctions. Regulatory risks associated with non-compliance with anti-corruption, anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) laws, as well as violations with sanctions regimes. Anti-corruptions, AML/CFT laws of Russian Federation, US, UK. Compliance with sanctions regimes.
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Group work in class (1 module)
  • non-blocking Homework (1 module)
  • non-blocking Homework (2 module)
  • non-blocking Test 1
  • non-blocking Test 2 (exam) (distantly)
  • non-blocking Group work in class (2 module)
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (2 module)
    0.15 * Group work in class (1 module) + 0.15 * Group work in class (2 module) + 0.15 * Homework (1 module) + 0.15 * Homework (2 module) + 0.2 * Test 1 + 0.2 * Test 2 (exam) (distantly)
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Thomas W. Golden, Steven L. Skalak, Mona M. Clayton, & Jessica S. Pill. (2006). A Guide to Forensic Accounting Investigation. Wiley.

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Bhandari, S. (2016). Does Pyrrho signal the rise of the robolawyer? Lawyer, 30(16), 16.
  • ENISA ─ European Union Agency for Network and Information Security, & Philip Anderson. (2014). Electronic evidence, a basic guide for first responders : Good practice material for CERT first responders. https://doi.org/10.2824/068545