Objective Experts, Inc.

01/23/2025

An important thing to note is, the Department of Justice only pursues a tiny fraction of the frauds that commonly occur.

Also, often, the local police departments are not well equipped to pursue fraud cases. If you suspect a fraud in your company, you likely need to hire an attorney with fraud investigation experience, and they will hire a forensic accountant, if necessary.

Few frauds are large enough to draw the attention of the government, however every suspected fraud in your business should get your full attention.

Kevin Muhlendorf, Brandon Moss and Corey Hauser of Wiley discuss the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division's Fraud Section annual Year in Review for 2024, which shows increases over 2023's numbers.

01/23/2025

With AI, the typical poorly drafted scam email will be poor no longer. You must raise your employee's awareness, and/or implement fraud detection software, in order to prevent failures at your firm.

Payment protection solution Eftsure says finance teams must incorporate adversarial thinking to pre-empt sophisticated new scams, releases free resource to help them do it.

11/25/2024

One employee can do a lot of harm, when they have too much authority without proper controls.

Macy’s announced Monday that a single employee was responsible for so many accounting irregularities that the company was forced to delay its quarterly earnings report, which the retailer had planned to release Tuesday.

10/25/2022

This image is from the Association of of Certified Fraud Examiners.
Where are the risks in your company? How do you figure out what they are and how to address them?
Do you know?
Does anyone?
You can bet the fraudster will figure it out.
Shouldn't you?

Let us know if you want help with that!
We can also tell you how to fix it!

06/26/2022

By its nature, corrruption is greatest in markets with the most regulated controls.

I have always found it odd, and hypocritical, that under the FCPA (“Foreign Corrupt Practices Act”) it is perfectly acceptable to make payments to a government official, when seeking their approval to do business, so long as it is just a ‘facilitating payment’.

A facilitating payment is one that encourages the official to do their job more quickly, but is not for the purpose of convincing them to act in your favor. Pretty big loophole.

Here, in this story, in the US, a facilitating payment is still a bribe.

Interestingly enough, the government gets a pass on bribery. They can, by self-claimed authority, demand you pay them for permission to do just about anything. They simply call it licensing.

If people were really concerned with corruption, they would reduce the authority government officials have to demand favors and payments from businesses/people. Without the power to take from some and give to others, there would be no need to seek favors and preferential treatment from government.

are better, and more fair, and less corrupt, than .

https://liveboston617.org/2022/06/25/somerville-attorney-arrested-for-bribing-to-expedite-marijuana-dispensary-approval/?fbclid=IwAR1sHWpKZsOlPKcF2sObVp2Z2yIwXWObYayvIT4aSZZ8IAF-Kc2oVttQbzg

On June 24, 2022, the FBI arrested Sean O’Donovan of Somerville MA on account of wire fraud and bribery upon discovery of bribing a local police chief to sweeten the deal of approving a new recreat…

06/07/2022

This is an incredibly common fraud in small businesses, across all types of industries. Often it is a long time, trusted, employee or even family member who takes advantage of the trust others ours in them.

Once discovered it is often realized to have been going on for years, or even decades.

There are simple controls that can be put in place to avoid it. There are simple procedures that can be enacted to detect it, and even discourage it. Yet, most small business owners are not accountants, and don’t have the structure or time to implement protections.

We do. Call us if you commonly have poorly explained variance in your accounts. Some may be stealing from you, right under your nose.

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts woman who pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $800,000 from her employer to buy drugs has been sentenced to three years...

05/17/2022

Fraud is not limited to certain social circles, educational levels, nor wealth brackets. It can happen by anyone, to anyone, and in many different way for many different reasons.

There are steps that can be take to prevent it, in any given set of circumstances. You just need to have help identifying where your risks are and put controls in place to reduce or eliminate them.

https://www.salemnews.com/news/donovan-sentenced-to-prison-in-forgery-scheme/article_878c286a-d536-11ec-9cc0-bf9765c2fb91.html?fbclid=IwAR3tiBFPj5fHedOcRMMrK1Qqw_F_b5cAujY62DIiV2IRJZN2HiAdHPS4CEs

SALEM — He was once an MIT professor, and, his lawyer said, an adviser to presidents.

03/02/2022

Funny! But I also know many good lawyers who are also very sharp on accounting and financial damages.

02/02/2022

"Stimulus spending" creates more money without creating more goods.

This leads more money to chase the same number of goods, which causes their cost to go up.

The closer you are to that new money (for example, you own a bank, a big business, or run a government agency), the more money you get.

The further you are from that new money, the less you got.

But everyone's prices went up the same.

That's why you're poorer even after you got your stimmy checks.

That's why the wealth gap continues to grow.

They're robbing you.

10/28/2021

There is no industry in which fraud does not occur. Always abide by axiom, 'Caveat emptor!'

Although the craze over the social networking game FarmVille is over, that didn’t stop 25-year-old Mehmet Aydin from realizing there was still money to be made on virtual farms. Now, prosecutors are seeking 75,000 years of jail time on charges of establishing and running an illegal organization, f...

10/19/2021

As fraud examiners know, fraud comes in many varieties and touches every type of business. Some fraud stories defy belief due to the audacity of the fraudsters, the context in which they occur, or both. These seasonally appropriate examples of frightening frauds show that fraudsters will consider an

10/11/2021

There is fraud in every industry.

Given the season, be alert.

Wood County Auditor Matthew Oestreich is offering tips to avoid fraud when purchasing firewood this winter season.