Following the money - Forensic accounting explained
Introduction
“ [customers lost] more than 12.5 billion dollars to fraud in 2024, which represents a 25 % increase over the prior year.” This eye-opening statistic, single handedly reveals the reason for the emergence in the field of forensic accounting in order to combat financial crimes. It also addresses the rising frequency of occupational fraud (fraud committed by an organization's employees), unethical and dishonest practices, which can all be mitigated in terms of likelihood. Forensic accounting is a beneficial tool helping to combat financial crimes, corruption and frauds through the various forensic auditing techniques. Additionally, it's important to mention that the evidence collected by forensic accountants, are often used by prosecutors in legal proceedings to punish all types of fraud. In this article, I will go over what forensic accounting is, why it is crucial in times of fraudulent activities are more frequent, and the techniques used by forensic accountants in order to solve financial crimes/misconduct.