Working with Data Analytics to Track Tax Evasion

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Working with Data Analytics to Track Tax Evasion

Tax fraud is a problem that affects every country around the world. As the Panama Papers and subsequent Paradise Papers exposed, many individuals and organizations use anonymous shell companies and intermediaries to move money to jurisdictions with favorable tax laws. Some of this is done legally, and considered tax avoidance, but tax evasion is done illegally, making it fraud. In his session at the 2018 ACFE Fraud Conference Middle East, Varun Mehta, CFE, discussed some of the challenges of tracking down tax fraud and how data analytics can be an invaluable tool in that fight.

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Investigating Common Fraud Schemes in the Middle East

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Investigating Common Fraud Schemes in the Middle East

In 2016, The Huffington Post and its Australian partner, Fairfax Media — led by reporters Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie — published the results of a months-long investigation of Unaoil, a firm that helped big multinational corporations win government contracts in areas of the world where corruption is common. The investigation spanned two continents and revealed that billions of dollars of government contracts were awarded as the direct result of bribes paid on behalf of firms including Rolls-Royce, Halliburton, Samsung and more.

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The Growing Threat of Business Email Compromise

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The Growing Threat of Business Email Compromise

“In the good old days when I started my career, my life was much easier,” said Issam Zaghloul, CISSP, CISA, CGEIT, Head of Information Security at Majid Al Futtaim Holding. He has been working in the cybersecurity field in one way or another for the last 16 years. The work was easier, he explained, because there wasn’t as much data to track, and it was all stored in centralized locations. In other words, things were simpler and much more straightforward.

Today, however, we eat data for breakfast, according to Zaghloul, and our systems of tracking, moving and storing data have become infinitely more complex.

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How to Execute and Measure Your Fraud Hotline

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How to Execute and Measure Your Fraud Hotline

If you have a fraud hotline at your organization, who is your targeted user? A low-level employee who notices something wrong happening above them? A manager who reads emails about plans of possible collusion? An executive who oversees the bidding process? The answer is everyone, according to Waheed Alkahtani, CFE, CEPP-1, Sr. Auditor at Saudi Aramco.

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Executive Director of Europol, Investigative Journalist and a Convicted Fraudster to Speak in Las Vegas

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Executive Director of Europol, Investigative Journalist and a Convicted Fraudster to Speak in Las Vegas

Rob Wainwright, Executive Director of Europol, will join Clare Rewcastle Brown, the investigative journalist who exposed 1MDB, convicted fraudster* Ryan Homa and others as speakers at the 29th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference in Las Vegas June 17-22.

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Certified Fraud Examiners Receive High Praise at 2017 LEGA Summit

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Certified Fraud Examiners Receive High Praise at 2017 LEGA Summit

On Jan. 19, 2017, The Western Union Company (Western Union) agreed to forfeit $586 million and admitted to criminal violations including willfully failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and aiding and abetting wire fraud. A U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars being sent to China in structured transactions designed to avoid the reporting requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act, and much of the money was sent to China by illegal immigrants to pay their human smugglers.

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