Forensic Audit

Forensic Audit should preferably be defined as: "technical methodology that, by combining criminal, accounting, legal, procedural and financial knowledge, is used to counter financial crimes, fraud, corruption and money laundering". It can be also defined as: a technique that aims to participate in the investigation of fraud, committed consciously and voluntarily, by people who are part of the government or companies, including individuals, through the avoidance or evasion of legal regulations.

Experts from SDC CPA, a forensic accounting firm explain that, forensic auditing is carried out as an integral part of an environment made up of a multifaceted range of professionals. These professionals include accountants, lawyers, graphical technicians, computer engineers, cryptographers, expert personnel in investigations of different security forces or organizations. These professionals operate in specialized areas such as legal offices, police, prosecutorial and judicial investigations areas.

They contribute, to the clarification of potential illegal acts or crimes, and must define or select the techniques to be used for the investigation and the creation of the technical-legal reports in which the results will be presented. SDC CPA experts point out that the financial crimes that are investigated include prevarication, concussion, blunder, illicit enrichment, ghosts operations, bribery, fraud, legal breaches, nepotism, money laundering. However SDC CPA experts indicate that the forensic audit currently extends to other areas.

Detective forensic audit

SDC CPA experts claim that the essential purpose of the forensic detective audit is to specify the occurrence of fraud through a technical analysis and in-depth investigations, in order to indicate, among other aspects, the following:

• When the fraud occurred

• How it was executed

• The defrauded amount

• Prequalification of the type of fraud

• What are the direct and collateral damages

• Identification of those who committed the fraud

• Accomplices and concealers.

The audit report

SDC CPA forensic auditors (read the reviews from clients about them), explain that the forensic auditor generally issues an audit report, which is intended to be considered in court. The court will analyze, judge and pass the respective sentence. That is why in the detective forensic audit the type of fraud is indicated, but it is not established as a financial crime. This is because the prosecutors and the courts are competent to definitively classify the fraud as a specific financial crime which is punishable, according to the corresponding laws.

SDC CPA forensic auditors share that the report must contain at least the following:


• Detailed explanation of what happened, specifying violations of internal and government manuals, anti-corruption and anti-fraud regulations, and money laundering prevention systems, pre-qualifying the typologies detected

• The amount contemplated in criminal transactions

• The supporting annexes, which verify the findings and evidence of each operation. SDC CPA forensic auditors point out that at this point, the chain of custody of the evidence must be guaranteed, in order to preserve the legal nature of the evidence.

• The persons related to the fraudulent event, internal, external, direct and indirect.

If you are interested for more details, contact the forensic auditors from SDC CPA, which have decades of experience in forensic accounting.