Fraud: Focus on Fraudulent Disbursements

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) has introduced the concept of a fraud tree.  The tree delineates three major categories of fraud as:

• Corruption
• Asset Misappropriation
• Financial Statement Fraud

This course will evaluate the concepts that fall within asset misappropriation and are directly related to the fraudulent disbursements component of the fraud tree.  We will examine the various components of corruption and solutions that can be used to mitigate corruption impacts.

Fraudulent disbursements are the most common form of asset misappropriation. They occur when an employee uses his position of employment to cause a payment for some inappropriate purpose. The fraud tree breaks fraudulent disbursements into the following categories:

• Billing
• Payroll
• Expense reimbursement
• Check tampering
• Register reimbursements

Each scheme has its unique characteristics depending on the industry the fraudulent act is perpetrated in. This session will delve further into each of these methods and provide possible solutions to mitigate frauds of this type.

Note: Information within this course comes from readily available public domain documents and is utilized by the trainer as a supplement for relaying the course content.