Tips For Cooperating With An Internal Fraud Investigation

Getting involved in an internal fraud investigation is never fun for your company. However, it is sometimes necessary if doubts about the finances of the company have been brought up, and shareholders are getting worried. It also allows you to find anyone that is being dishonest with the company's money. As a result, it is in your best interest to make sure that the internal fraud investigation process is over as quickly and efficiently as possible, which means that you are going to need to cooperate. Here are some tips for doing so.

1. Collect Everything

Talk to the digital forensics investigator and see what they are going to need. They are likely going to require bank statements, client information, and which employees talked to the clients and had access to email servers and other documents. You need to make sure that they have all of the information that they need to access these files as well. Make a list of all of the files and servers that are password protected and give them to the digital forensics investigator. Create a list of all of the documents that he or she has asked for and all of the documents that you have provided, as well as how quickly the investigator received them, in order to display evidence that you are cooperating fully.

2. Set Up an Employee Tip Line

Next, be sure that you set up an employee tip line to help narrow down who is involved in the fraud. Encourage your employees to tell the investigator about any bankruptcy or financial issues that their coworkers might have, or any signs that their coworkers have recently come into money, such as a new car or a new house. All of this will allow the investigator to get a handle on people who are more likely to have committed the fraud. In order to encourage employees to use the tip line, offer rewards if the information that is provided leads to the apprehension of the person committing fraud.

3. Track Down Checks

Once you have a suspect or two, help the digital forensics investigator start tracking down any checks that those suspects may have written. Talk to the bank that the employees were dealing with and ask to see the account numbers that the various checks were deposited into. One of the easiest ways of finding proof of fraud or the location of the diverted money is to find checks that do not match who they were supposed to be written to.

For more information, talk to a company like Epps Forensic Consulting PLLC that specializes in digital forensics.

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