#forensic friday

Image Source: Rama. Trepanated skull of a woman-P4140363-black. Wikimedia Commons.

Trepanation is one of the oldest surgical procedures with archaeological evidence.

Many prehistoric, and premodern patients had signs of bone healing, this means that many of these patients survived the surgery. Most of the crania with trepanation belong to adult males, but women and children also had the procedure done. In the New World, trepanation is commonly found among the Andean civilizations, and also in Mesoamerica.

Forensic Friday: The Sherlock Holmes Factor #forensics #forensicfriday #sherlockholmes #holmes #conandoyle #accounting

Anyone who knows me will know that I am an avid reader of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s series of Sherlock Holmes novels.  I read them, conservatively, three or four times a year from cover to cover.

I have had cause to read the complete collection of Holmes novels again over the last couple of weeks and was struck by how some of the underlying tenets of Holmes’ approach to investigating apply to…

Forensic Friday: The Warning Signs of Employee Misfeasance #forensics #forensicaccounting #riskmanagement

One of the most common areas in which forensic accountants are engaged by their corporate clients is to investigate misfeasance by one of the corporations employees.  Such misfeasance can be deceptively simple and can also be ridiculously complicated. Not all cases of employee fraud end up on the pages of the newspapers (like the recent O’Carrigan case in Queensland for example) but all present…

Forensic Friday: The Art of Questioning #forensicfriday

One of the keys to my job and, indeed to most aspects of life, is asking questions.  People ask questions every day, indeed, probably, every hour of their life.  Some people are good at asking questions of others whilst others are resoundingly poor at it.  Obviously, question asking is a key part of the tool kit of anyone working in forensic accounting and, it would be fair to say, that sometimes…

Forensic Friday: What is Forensic Accounting? #forensics #forensicfriday

The most regularly asked question that has been posed to me since I moved into forensic accounting, from those who are not in professional services is, simply, what is forensic accounting?

There are a plethora of definitions but I think this quote (from David Malamed, a forensic accountant from Canada) is a great summary:

“While Forensic Accountants (“FAs”) usually do not provide opinions, the…

As some of you will be aware, from my twitter feed (@shumpty77) I have recently transitioned into a new role working in forensic accounting.  Having previously trained as a lawyer and specialised in litigation as well as risk management and insolvency this move presents a natural fit for my long experience in professional services.

One thing that has struck me since I have been “in the chair” is…