Paul Rodrigues, our Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), recently participated in a roundtable on fraud facilitated by The Business Journal of Milwaukee, where two other industry experts, Todd Adler of Associated Bank and Paul Stewart of ACG joined him.

Topics discussed included:  

• What is fraud and how big of a problem is it?
• What types of fraud are prevalent?
• How do economic conditions impact the frequency of fraud?
• What is the impact of technology on fraud?
• How can a company reduce its expose to fraud?

For a complete synopsis, see the Industry Summit: Fraud Prevention 

Are you a victim of fraud? If so we can help.

Fraud is a huge problem today.  It is estimated that U.S. organizations will lose almost a TRILLON dollars in 2008.  To put this in perspective, the U.S. gross domestic product is about $14 trillion. This equates to be approximately 7% of annual revenues. Studies further indicate that most of the occupational fraud schemes involve either the accounting department or upper management.

Fraud occurs both in large and small companies. Small businesses suffer disproportionately higher fraud losses. The median loss suffered by companies with fewer than 100 employees is almost $200,000 per scheme which is higher than the median loss in even the largest organizations. If you break this down further, more than a quarter of the fraud schemes have losses that exceed $1million. The most common occupational frauds in small businesses involve employees fraudulently writing company checks, skimming revenues, and processing fraudulent invoices.

One reason small businesses suffer such high fraud losses, is that they generally do a poor job of proactively detecting fraud and this is where we can help you.

                           Take our ACFE Fraud Prevention CHECK UP

        
Paul Rodrigues, CPA, MST, CFE, CFF

Mr. Rodrigues, a principal of the firm, is a certified pulic accountant, with a master's degree in taxation.  He is a certified fraud examiner and certified in financial forensics.  Mr. Rodrigues has twenty years of experience in various forensic, fraud, and litigation engagements ranging from $500,000 to $85 million.  He has dealt with minority shareholder issues, the hiding of assets, business valuations, conflicts of interest, financial statement fraud, shareholder and employee fraud, exaggerated expenses, and over/under sales, etc. 

Whether you have a need for an internal review or determine whether outside vendors are complying with contract terms our team can assist you with the following services:

• Forensic Investigation
• Data Mining and Recovery
• Detect Fraud
• Document Management
• Establish Cause
• Locate Documentary Evidence
• Trace Funds
• Financial Analysis & Review
• Damage Calculations
• Claim Preparation
• Report Preparation
• Deposition Assistance 
• Serving as Consultant and /or Expert Witness
• Trial Support