Give Me The Bad News First – 26 April 2013

There are daily accounts in the news of people who have been found guilty of embezzlement, fiddling their tax, hiding assets in divorce cases or perpetrating fraud on a grand scale, but little or nothing is heard about those who are accused of such crimes but then found not guilty because they employed a good firm of forensic accountants.

Forensic or investigative accountants do just what the name suggests – they investigate the facts, not the hearsay or the circumstantial evidence and so can generally easily prove whether accusations are founded or not.  For example, the taxman, who has greater powers even than the police, might come knocking and accuse an individual of hiding assets or not declaring everything they have earned.

This might be because of a tip off from a disgruntled colleague or former partner or for a variety of other reasons, but HMRC is duty-bound to investigate, as their job is to get back as much into the Exchequer as possible and the allegation might be true.  Using information provided, the forensic accountant will piece together a money trail and will find any anomalies or anything that looks suspicious and will dig deeper until the true picture appears.

Author: Roger Isaacs, 26 April 2013

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