Anti-fraud services
Failure to effectively manage fraud risk has consequences beyond the value of any assets misappropriated.
Stakeholders expect effective controls against fraud — and more fraud tends to occur during difficult economic times.
According to Ernst & Young’s most recent Global Fraud Survey, one in four respondents said their company had experienced an incident of bribery and corruption in the past two years and more than a third felt that corrupt business practices were getting worse.
Regulations such as the US Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the SEC’s guidance on internal control over financial reporting and anticorruption legislation require companies to be much more vigilant in their efforts to prevent and detect fraud. Management, board members, independent auditors and other stakeholders are asking pointed questions about how their company is responding to fraud risk and complying with these and other regulations.
Benefits of a robust anti-fraud program. An anti-fraud program can help you structure your fraud risk management by assessing each element of your anti-fraud model, identifying opportunities for improvement, providing a process for implementing the improvements and helping your company understand how to monitor the effectiveness of the program going forward. An anti-fraud program can also educate employees on fraud and identify the fraud risks that are most prevalent in your industry.
Ernst & Young can help you establish a robust anti-fraud program that:
Provides tangible evidence of a culture of integrity
Helps prevent fraud and facilitate early detection
Improves monitoring and training
Limits unpleasant surprises that affect reputation, confidence, credibility and stock price
A practical approach. Our scaleable anti-fraud program focuses on three main areas: setting the proper tone, proactive and reactive measures. Key elements include:
Setting the expected standard
Communicating and training on expectations
Priority fraud risks
Effective control monitoring
Appropriate responses
Case studies
We have relevant experience and practical insights into fraud risks, from identification to internal controls and investigation.
Fraud risk assessment. We were retained by a financial services company to review their anti-fraud program and conduct a fraud risk assessment to address the company’s concerns about misappropriation of asset schemes. In addition, we provided the company with thought leadership around leading practices in data analytics, business process and controls and other key business areas.
Training. We were retained to train the internal audit team on fraud prevention and detection. Modules were delivered to the audit teams on areas including schemes and scenarios, case study investigations, interview role plays and red flag identification.
Program review. Our professionals were retained by a media and entertainment company to conduct a fraud risk assessment and a review of its communication and fraud training program. As a result of our assessment, the company engaged us to help co-develop fraud awareness training for its employees to educate them on what fraud is, how it impacts the company, what fraud risks are relevant to their industry and what to look for.
Gap analysis. We helped a financial services company conduct a fraud risk assessment. We then performed a “gap analysis” to summarize the controls identified in the workshop session and provided recommendations for areas of improvement to existing controls or to create new controls.
Fraud risk assessment. We were retained by a government locality to conduct a fraud risk assessment over the treasury function as a result of multi-million dollar fraud schemes that occurred within the government locality. We conducted a series of workshop sessions to identify fraud schemes relevant to the government locality and prioritize those fraud schemes from a likelihood of occurrence and the impact standpoint. We identified controls in place to mitigate the fraud risks.
Remediation. We were retained to advise management on the design and implementation of remediated controls to prevent recurrence of identified material fraud.
Anti-fraud program review. We were retained by a defense contractor to review the elements of their anti-fraud program. We were asked to recommend areas for improvement to make the company’s overall anti-fraud program more robust and effective in addressing fraud and the effects of fraud. We conducted a fraud risk assessment, raised awareness about fraud, educated the business units that participated about fraud, enhanced the internal auditors’ knowledge of specific fraud risks relevant to the business units and collaborated with the business units to identify the impact and likelihood of fraudulent scenarios.
/$FILE/14H01165_RF_209x113.jpg)