Forensic Interviews: Plan to Succeed
Charles L. McGimsey, Dan Whelan · Journal of accountancy online/Journal of accountancy · 2015
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Is an interviewing strategy all talk? Not if you want to save time and money while conducting more effective investigations. Imagine someone taking an automobile to a mechanic for a repair. The mechanic asks, What's the problem? The customer replies, I'd rather not say. Just take it apart, and tell me what you find. Sound crazy? Of course it does, but it's not that much different from what happens when forensic accountants always start fraud investigations by digging through the financials. Consider this. What if someone would simply tell the investigator how a fraud was perpetrated--whether the incriminating information was provided by the interviewee intentionally or not? How valuable would that be? How much time would that save compared to a semi-blind search through a company's books? Some people are simply waiting to tell their story. They just need to be asked the right questions at the right time and in the right manner. Interviews can help form the scope of further analysis and identify areas to be investigated more thoroughly. This article looks at an approach to setting up a formal interviewing plan for a forensic engagement. BENEFITS OF CONDUCTING EFFECTIVE INTERVIEWS The main goal of an interviewing strategy is to gather and synthesize enough supporting evidence to provide a sound basis for questioning the suspected fraudster and to elicit an admission of guilt. A strategically planned interview program conducted by a skilled forensic interviewer also can: * Decrease the time involved in determining how to conduct the investigation; * Reduce the breadth of the investigative plan; * Garner valuable information from interviewees, either wittingly or unwittingly; and * Increase the likelihood of overall success in discovering and proving fraud or malfeasance. ELEMENTS OF A FORENSIC INVESTIGATIVE PLAN An investigative plan for a fraud engagement should incorporate both the interview strategy and the related analysis of financial information. Following are three best practices for plan development: * The investigative team should develop and agree upon the plan before the first interview; * The plan must be flexible enough to incorporate continual changes dictated by information unearthed at each stage of the engagement; and * The team should meet regularly during the engagement to consider the possibility of changes in the interview program. In terms of developing the interview strategy, an investigator should include the following: * Whom to interview within the organization, considering both key and non-key personnel; * Whom to interview outside the organization, considering both key and non-key third-party individuals; * Timing of interviews, incorporating time to review documents and other information discussed and analyzed during interviews; and sequencing of interviews. Additionally, as part of the interview strategy, an investigator should consider whether the fraud is either publicly known, or alleged or suspected internally; and also whether the perpetrator(s) is known or has confessed; is only suspected; or is unknown, and there are no suspects. STATE A PURPOSE FOR THE INTERVIEWS While the investigative team members may not want to reveal that they suspect fraud, they need to provide a reason for wanting to talk with potential interviewees. The reason cited should be honest but does not necessarily have to disclose concerns of fraudulent activity. Examples of reasons to undertake these types of interviews include: * This is part of a special-purpose audit; * This is part of a process or accounting system improvement study; * This is connected with an internal control study; * We need to understand further details about a specific financial transaction; or * Certain accounting procedures have generated some concerns. …