In Fraud Examiners in White-Collar Crime Investigations, Petter Gottschalk examines and evaluates the investigative processes used to combat white-collar crime. He also presents a general theory regarding the economic, organizational, and behavioral dimensions of its perpetrators.Pool Your Resources for a Successful InvestigationGottschalk emphasiz

This book reviews a range of reports written by fraud examiners after completing internal investigations. These reports are normally kept secret and are the property of client organizations, which do not wish to disclose potential wrongdoing that can harm the reputation of the businesses. Fraud Examinations in White-Collar Crime Investigations was able to retrieve several recent reports, including foreign aid kickbacks, Russian favors to the Biathlon president, and Leon Black’s deals with Jeffrey Epstein. While not claiming that the obtained reports are representative for the outcome of the private investigation industry, the reports do provide insights into the variety of issues that fraud examiners address in their internal investigations and the quality of their work. This book identifies convenience themes and assesses investigation maturity across the reports analyzed. It considers the motives of and opportunities for white-collar criminals, as well as their willingness to engage in unlawful activity, and assesses to what extent fraud examiners are either efficient or deficient in their work. A compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, law, and politics, and all those interested in fraud examinations in relation to white-collar crime.

This book applies a structural model of convenience theory to suspected crime and a maturity model to investigation reports. Evidence of white-collar convenience themes in each case study is derived from internal investigation reports by fraud examiners. The study of white-collar offenders has received increased attention in recent years. This book contributes to our understanding of financial crime by privileged individuals in professional settings by identifying convenience themes for offenders. Based on the theory of convenience, the work presents a number of case studies to identify convenience in financial motive, organizational opportunity, and willingness for deviant behavior. Case studies presented are from Austria, Asia, Congo, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. The book will be of interest to researchers and academics in Law, Criminology, Business, and Sociology. It will also provide a valuable resource for fraud examiners, defense attorneys, police investigators, and prosecutors.

This book examines internal fraud investigations in public and private organizations. It provides a theoretical framework of white-collar crime and convenience theory, to examine a number of case studies, including some cases brought to light by the Panama Papers. Investigating white-collar crime is distinguished from other types of crime by: concealment of the crime rather than the criminal, victims who may be unaware of the crime and not directly visible to the criminal, and the resources available to suspects. It requires a unique strategy and a unique set of tools. This work provides insight into a number of internal investigation reports that are normally not publicly available. It will be of interest to researchers in criminology and criminal justice, particularly with an interest in white collar crime and corruption, as well as related fields such as business, management, economics, and public administration.

By examining white-collar crime scandals using the theory of convenience, Petter Gottschalk offers ways to improve the detection of crime signals and investigative skills in fraud examinations, as well as improve change management measures.

This book introduces 'convenience' as the key concept to explain financial crime by white-collar criminals. Based on a number of fraud examination- reports from the United States and Norway, the book documents empirical evidence of convenience among white-collar criminals. It advances our understanding of white-collar crime by drawing attention to private investigation reports by fraud examiners and financial crime specialists, who are in the growing business of fraud investigations. Reports of investigations have never before been researched in terms of white-collar criminals nor crime convenience. Reports of investigations by auditing and law firms represent a valuable empirical basis – in addition to court documents and other sources of information about financial crime. A methodical and well-researched study, this book will be of particular interest to scholars of criminological theory and law – in addition to ethics courses in business schools.

This book discusses privatization of law enforcement in relation to suspected corporate crime and recommends guidelines for successful fraud examinations. There is a growing business for global auditing and local law firms to conduct internal investigations at client organizations when there is suspicion of white-collar misconduct and crime. This book reflects on the work by these private fraud examiners in terms of an evaluation of their investigation reports. The book brings an original theoretical and methodological approach to investigations of white-collar crime. It develops the theory of convenience as an explanation for motive, opportunity, and willingness to commit and conceal white-collar crime. This theory is then related to the case studies. Structured in such a way as to allow the reader to use the text as a nonsequential reference source or guide to a set of connected issues, the book illustrates the practice of privatization by cases and presents guidelines for successful fraud examination. As an investigation can lead to conviction and incarceration, this privatization of crime investigation feeds into the larger issue of privatization of policing. The work will be a valuable resource for students, academics, and practitioners working in the areas of Criminal Justice, Corporate Law, and Business.

This textbook provides an overview of the major types of fraud and corrupt activities found in private and public agencies, as well as the various methods used to prevent fraud and corruption. It explores where opportunities for fraud exist, the personal characteristics of those who engage in fraud, as well as their prevention and control. This work covers fraud in the financial sector, insurance, health care, and police organizations, as well as cybercrime. It covers the relationship between fraud, corruption, and terrorism; criminal networks; and major types of personal scams (like identity theft and phishing). Finally, it covers the prevention and control of fraud, through corporate whistle blowing, investigative reporting, forensic accounting, and educating the public. This work will be of interest to graduate-level students (as well as upper-level undergraduates) in Criminology & Criminal Justice, particularly with a focus on white collar and corporate crime, as well as related fields like business and management.

Private internal investigations by fraud examiners is a growing business for professional services firms. This book presents evaluations of a number of investigation reports in the United States and Norway. The book discusses self-regulation and regulatory policy. Convenience theory is introduced as an integrated explanation of white-collar crime.

Investigation reports are written by fraud examiners after completion of internal reviews in client organizations when there was suspicion of financial wrongdoing. Fraud examiners are expected to answer questions regarding what happened, when it happened, how it happened, and why. This book presents a number of case studies of investigation reports by fraud examiners, offering a framework for studying the report as well as insights into convenience of fraud. The case studies, including KPMG and PwC, focus on two important subjects. First, convenience themes are identified for each case. Themes derive from the theory of convenience, where fraud is a result of financial motives, organizational opportunities, and personal willingness for deviant behaviors. Second, review maturity is identified for each case. Review maturity derives from a stages-of-growth model, where the investigation is assigned a level of maturity based on explicit criteria. The book provides useful insights towards approaching fraud examinations to enable better understanding of the rational explanations for corporate fraud. The book is framed from the perspective of private policing, which contextualizes how investigation reports are examined. This book is a valuable resource for scholars and upper-level students researching and studying auditing and investigation work in the corporate and public sectors. Business and management as well as criminal justice scholars and students will learn from the case studies how to frame a white-collar crime incident by application of convenience theory and how to evaluate a completed internal investigation by fraud examiners.