Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Forensic economics'

Inom Polisen finns ett behov av att renodla verksamheten, då de med åren fått ökade administrativa kostnader. Ett projekt startades inom Polisen och Statens kriminaltekniska laboratorium, där all ekonomi- och personaladministration ute på myndigheterna samlades på ett och samma ställe i ett servicecenter förlagt till Linköping. Syftet med studien är att utvärdera hur måluppfyllelsen för de mål som sattes upp för projektet upplevs. Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär, med en fallstudieliknande ansats, där 18 intervjuer genomfördes med de anställda på servicecentret, samt flertalet ur projektets styrgrupp.

Resultatet av studien är att organisationen har kommit långt med måluppfyllelsen, men att man inte har nått riktigt ända fram då studien visar att åtta av elva mål är helt uppfyllda i nuläget. Tre mål är alltså ännu inte helt uppfyllda, vilket kan bero på att många av målen är otydliga, kan tolkas olika och inte är så väl förankrade hos de anställda. Att utgå från några kriterier för hur mål bör formuleras tros förbättra måluppfyllelsen, men då organisationen ändå har lyckats uppfylla målen relativt väl är det ingen förutsättning för att lyckas. Då centret ännu inte är helt färdigt, utan på några års sikt skall utökas till att omfatta alla polismyndigheter i landet, tros många mål leva kvar och en bättre måluppfyllelse uppnås allt eftersom fler myndigheter ansluter sig till centret.

The Swedish Police has increased its administrative costs during the years making the ordinary police work suffer. A project started within The Swedish Police and The Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science. The project aimed to establish a shared service center for personnel and business administration. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether the goals of the project have been reached or not. The study has a qualitative approach and is mainly based on 18 interviews with the employees at the shared service center and the directors of the four authorities. The result of the study is that the organization has come a long way in reaching the goals, and has today reached 8 out of the 11 goals for the project. The reasons for there being 3 goals left to reach may be that the goals are unclear and not so well anchored among the employees. Using criterias in formulating goals is thought to make it easier to fulfil the goals. Since the organization has fulfilled the goals quite well even though it has not followed all of the criterias, there is no guarantee for success to follow the criterias in formulating goals. Since the shared service center is not yet complete, but should in a few years include all police authorities in the country. Some goals should still be used and the goals will probably reach better goal performance as more authorities are added to the shared service center.

Current hard drive technology shows a widening gap between the ability to store vast amounts of data and the ability to process. To overcome the problems of this secular trend, we explore the use of available distributed RAM resources to effectively replace a mechanical hard drive. The essential approach is a distributed Linux block device that spreads its blocks throughout spare RAM on a cluster and transfers blocks using network capacity. The presented solution is LAN-scalable, easy to deploy, and faster than a commodity hard drive. The specific driving problem is I/O intensive applications, particularly digital forensics. The prototype implementation is a Linux 2.4 kernel module, and connects to Unix based clients. It features an adaptive prefetching scheme that seizes future data blocks for each read request. We present experimental results based on generic benchmarks as well as digital forensic applications that demonstrate significant performance gains over commodity hard drives.

Розвиток ринкової економіки в Україні збільшив попит на гроші, що призвело до стрімкого зростання економічної злочинності. Один із спектрів регулятивних інструментів для розв’язування судових спорів, що виникають між господарюючими суб’єктами, є проведення судово-економічної експертизи.

Topic of this master thesis is forensic investigation and forms of economic crime which can be detected during the investigation. First chapter focuses on forensic investigation and its comparison with statutory audit. In the second chapter is performed analysis of forms of economic crime in the Czech Republic, Southern and Eastern Europe and globally. Knowledge from the previous chapters is applied to the real forensic investigation performed in the Czech Republic, forensic investigation of project OpenCard.

Since software and hardware is well available for automated text analysis and since a large data that describes real projects submitted to grant program is opened up, there is a possibility to follow phenomena of behavioral economics and psycholinguistics which evidence particularities in textual descriptions may be statistically associated with a reader's behavior or with a reader's decision-taking, which, in this case, involves an influence on final allocation of grant funds. The thesis uses forenamed areas as a starting-point and also employs quantitative indicators from the field of forensic linguistics in order to perform a computer-aided quantitative text analysis. The main goal is to evaluate from correlation perspective, if there in real operational programmes were present any associable relationships between the quantitative features of a proposed project's textual description and the amount of grant allocated to a project. The thesis is divided into four chapters, where it introduces basis, describes analyzed data and used methods, comments on made analyses and found relations, and all the performed research is summarized and evaluated in the last chapter.

Рассматриваются основные особенности и алгоритмы методики для проведения судебной экспертизы убытков, причиненных государству сбросами загрязняющих веществ с возвратной водой. Приводятся структура и примеры практического использования методики.
Basic aspects of the methodology and main algorithms for forensic examination of economic losses caused for state from excessive discharges of pollutants in sewage waters are considered. The structure of the methodology and some practical examples of usage the techniques are given.

Economic crime is always actual theme, even more when economy finds itself in crisis. It is a well-known fact, that in such times fraud risk increases even inside organizations. This thesis is dealing with economic crime from the perspective of auditor and fraud examiner and likewise in the terms of Czech criminal law. Fraud, as both professions call economic criminality, implies higher costs for organizations, that's why both private and government sector organizations strives to fight it. Statutory audit is being perceived as one of the means to detect fraud. But statutory audit often fails to satisfy these expectations, for it's objective is only in auditor's opinion to express, that financial statement doesn't contain material misstatement. Detecting fraud is a responsibility of the entity. As a result of discrepancies in concept of this responsibility between public and auditors arises expectation gap, which is one of the problems distinctly revealed in the beginning of the financial crisis, when big companies, whose financial statements were verified by auditor's unqualified opinion, found themselves in trouble. In this context the thesis specifies auditor's responsibility in the wording of International Standards on Auditing and Czech law. As more efficient anti-fraud means the forensic audit is being used, the thesis compares it with statutory audit especially in terms of detecting fraud.

In recent years, more and more fraud cases have been detected in large companies, which undermined the confidence of the markets. However, although this is a reality, the study of the subject in Europe continues to be quite scarce. Therefore, despite an increase in regulatory capacity, a greater focus on the subject in recent years and a growing awareness of the effects of this type of action, there are still few effective prevention tools at the community level. In addition, there are few guiding traits for agents with a central role not in their identification but prevention, the financial auditors. The purpose of this dissertation is to fill this gap in the research on fraud in Europe. Through the study of cases of accounting fraud duly identified by the various European agencies for having incurred in misleading accounting, the indicators that best explain the fraud event in Europe were identified, reaching a total explained variance of 90.5%. In sum, the identified indicators are financial ratios such as the proportion of firm liabilities to total assets, a measure of the days that the entity needs to meet its debts with third parties, a measure of changes in net income, and the size of the auditor firm. Thus, the most significant variables that explain the phenomenon of Financial Statement Fraud in Europe are measures of financial leverage, performance, and financial risk
Nos últimos anos são cada vez mais os casos de fraude detetados em grandes empresas o que tem vindo a abalar a confiança dos mercados. No entanto, apesar de esta ser uma realidade, o estudo da temática na europa continua a ser bastante escasso. Assim sendo, apesar de um aumento na capacidade de regulação, do maior enfoque na temática nos últimos anos e de haver uma crescente consciencialização para os efeitos que advêm deste tipo de atos, são ainda poucas as ferramentas efetivas de prevenção a nível comunitário. Além disso, são poucos os traços diretores para os agentes com um papel fulcral não na sua identificação mas prevenção, os auditores financeiros. O objetivo da presente dissertação é de preencher esta lacuna existente na investigação sobre fraude na europa. Através do estudo de casos de fraude contabilística devidamente identificados pelas diversas agências europeias por terem incorrido em ilegalidades a nível de contabilidade enganosa, foram identificados os indicadores que melhor explicam o evento de fraude na europa, atingindo um total de variância explicada de 90,5%. Em suma, os indicadores identificados são rácios financeiros como a proporção dos passivos da empresa relativamente aos ativos da mesma, uma medida dos dias que a entidade necessita para fazer face às suas dividas a terceiros, uma medida de mudanças no rendimento liquido e, ainda, o tamanho da empresa auditora da respetiva entidade. Assim sendo, as variáveis mais significativas que explicam o fenómeno de Fraude Contabilística na Europa são medidas de alavancagem financeira, desempenho, e risco financeiro.

A par do extraordinário desenvolvimento económico proporcionado pela evolução das Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação, potenciado, nos anos mais recentes, com o desenvolvimento da internet, consolida-se uma dimensão anárquica e obscura que, a coberto do anonimato e tirando partido da mesma tecnologia, veicula uma miríade de comportamentos de natureza criminosa, que tendem a subverter os princípios básicos da vivência em sociedade, alguns dos quais, contribuíram em larga medida para a dimensão da presente crise económica. Grande parte das dificuldades que a generalidade dos sistemas de justiça enfrentam, para dominar este novo tipo de criminalidade, radicam no Gap Tecnológico que se verifica nas tecnologias de que dispõe, face aos meios utilizados pelo crime organizado. Tomando como referencial o fenómeno do crime económico, o presente trabalho apresenta a Informática Forense como ferramenta incontornável para combater aquele flagelo. Ao longo da revisão da literatura, evidenciam-se cenários concretos e recorrentes na investigação da criminalidade económica, no sentido de concretizar em fase posterior, o respectivo tratamento com recurso a ferramentas Open Source, confrontando os resultados obtidos com os resultantes de idêntico tratamento efectuado com base numa ferramenta comercial de referência. Procura-se assim demonstrar que estão disponíveis ferramentas que possibilitam um salto qualitativo nos processos de investigação, sem por em causa o equilíbrio orçamental que a actual situação económica exige.
In addition to the extraordinary economic development provided by the evolution of Information and Communication Technologies, boosted in recent years, with the development of internet, will be consolidating an anarchic and obscure dimension that, under cover of anonymity and exploiting the same technology, conveys a myriad of behaviors of a criminal nature, which tend to undermine the basic principles of living in society, some of which have contributed greatly to the dimensions of this economic crisis. Many of the difficulties that the generality of the justice systems faced to master this new type of crime, rooted in the Technological Gap between the means used by organized crime and those that have the justice system. Taking as reference the phenomenon of economic crime, this dissertation presents the Forensic Computing as a tool essential to combat that scourge. Through the literature review, I will seek to show, specific scenarios, but recurrent in the investigation of economic crime, in order to realize at a later stage, their treatment with the use of Open Source tools, comparing the results obtained with the same treatment carried out based on a commercial reference tool. Thus I will show that tools are available that enable a qualitative jump in research processes, without jeopardizing the budget balance of the justice departments, as the current economic situation requires.

碩士
國立中央大學
法律與政府研究所
107
Alongside with the development of modern science and technology, the scale of the economy has expanded correspondingly, and the investors affected by major financial frauds have been extremely harmful to the capital market, such as in the early days, Enron, WorldCom, and Xerox of the United States, and Boda, Taikai of Taiwan, etc.; to the recent XPEC, Farglory, Mega Bank and other cases. Every piece of malpractice has undermined the mechanism of fair operation of the market and has also devastated the people's trust in the judicial system. Therefore, how to investigate and prevent major economic crimes has become the primary issue of judicial personnel in various countries. 　　The perpetrators of economic crimes usually have certain professional knowledge and experience, so their occult and imperceptibility are higher than the general crimes. In the investigation of economic crimes, it often involves professional knowledge such as accounting, economy and finance. However, common law professions do not have such specific knowledge. Therefore, in the relevant investigations, the assistance of relevant professionals is needed, and "Forensic accounting" has gradually received attention in both academic and practical fields. However, in the majority of financial statement frauds and market manipulation cases, the courts did not select personnel with relevent knowledge to serve as expert witnesses to assist in solving disputes. Whether the legal person has sufficient practical experience and be competent to interpret a large number of documents, analyzing the hidden mystery, achieving the purpose of discovering the truth. The issue is worthy of discussion. In this paper, we will discuss the challenges faced by forensic accountants as supporting economic crime in respect of formal and substantive aspect. At the formal aspect, the problems encountered by the forensic accountants when applying to the current criminal procedure law are in discussion, and I will analyze the latest draft amendments of the criminal procedure law published in 2019 to identify future developments and suggestions; at the substantive level, the article pays attention to the financial statement frauds and market manipulation cases, and then to observe what are the advantages of forensic accounting compared to the current method. Last but not least, we hope to enhance the attention of judicial workers to forensic accounting through the essays in this article, and to provide the direction for future legislators to practice the law.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia Informática apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
A Bitcoin é uma criptomoeda descentralizada, que permite efetuar pagamentos online, diretamente de uma parte para outra, sem passar por uma instituição financeira. É construída com base na blockchain, uma aplicação que recorre a mecanismos criptográficos para implementar livros-razão ou livros de registo de forma distribuída e segura.O principal objetivo deste estágio consistiu no desenvolvimento ou adaptação de um software open-source, que possibilitasse estudar as transações registadas na blockchain da Bitcoin, de forma a permitir análises económicas.A partir do aprofundamento de temas, como a análise forense realizada na rede Bitcoin e dos softwares de análise já existentes, definimos o processo e reunimos a documentação para o desenvolvimento do BitAudit, que incluiu a análise e validação de requisitos, definição da arquitetura do software, implementação e realização de testes. Foi utilizado o BlockSci, um software open-source para análise de blockchain, como base da nossa ferramenta.Por fim, com a ferramenta desenvolvida, foram realizadas análises à rede Bitcoin, de modo a demonstrar parte do que poderia ser feito, por investigadores e autoridades.O BitAudit contém diversas funcionalidades que possibilitam análises, como estudar um evento específico no tempo, a atividade de um endereço, transações e endereços associados, bem como a procura e obtenção de dados sobre endereços com características específicas. Com o crescente interesse na Bitcoin e, consequente aumento da atividade na sua rede, tanto em termos legais como ilegais, torna-se fundamental aperfeiçoar esta ferramenta, munindo-a de mais funcionalidades que permitam estudar todo o tipo de situações.
Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency that allows online payments, directly from one party to another, without going through a financial institution. It is based on the blockchain, an application that uses cryptographic mechanisms to implement ledgers or logbooks in a distributed and secure way.The main objective of this internship was to develop or adapt an open-source software, which would make it possible to study the transactions registered in the Bitcoin blockchain, to allow economic analysis.Themes such as forensic analysis performed on the Bitcoin network and the existing blockchain analysis tools were studied so we could define the process and gather the documentation for the development of BitAudit, which included the analysis and validation of requirements, definition of the software architecture, implementation, and testing. BlockSci, an open source blockchain analysis software, was used as the basis of our tool.Finally, with the developed tool, analyzes were carried out on the Bitcoin network, to demonstrate part of what could be done, by Investigators and Authorities.BitAudit contains several functionalities that enable analysis, such as studying a certain specific event in time, the activity of an address, transactions, and associated addresses, searching and obtaining data about addresses with specific characteristics. With the growing interest in Bitcoin and, consequently, with the increase in activity on its network, both in legal and illegal terms, it is essential to improve this tool, providing it with more features that allow the study of all types of situations.

Dissertação de mestrado em Contabilidade
Nesta dissertação, defendemos a criação de uma formação avançada em auditoria forense no ensino superior português, com vista à posterior certificação profissional individual do auditor forense, no sentido do reconhecimento e regulamentação da profissão em Portugal. Assim, os principais objetivos deste trabalho são: 1) averiguar a pertinência da criação de uma formação avançada em auditoria forense, no ensino superior em Portugal; 2) analisar e definir o perfil do auditor forense, tendo em conta as competências-base e características relevantes; 3) explorar e definir as áreas de conhecimento essenciais para a formação do auditor forense. De modo a responder aos objetivos de investigação, construiu-se um modelo teórico com base nos estudos de Davis et al. (2009) e Digabriele (2008), e que contempla as core skills para a prática da auditoria forense, as enhanced skills necessárias para a deteção de fraude económico-financeira, as principais características que o auditor forense deve possuir, e as áreas de conhecimento essenciais para a formação do auditor forense, que foi validado através da análise das perceções de uma amostra de indivíduos composta por professores do ensino superior em Portugal das áreas da contabilidade e auditoria e do representante do organismo máximo de supervisão da auditoria em Portugal. A maioria dos respondentes não é apologista da criação de uma certificação individual, mas sim do exercício da auditoria forense por meio de equipa multidisciplinar. Quanto à pertinência da criação de uma formação avançada em auditoria forense no ensino superior em Portugal, os professores, concordam com a criação dessa formação no ensino superior, enquanto o representante do organismo de supervisão da auditoria em Portugal, defende a criação de uma formação avançada ministrada pela OROC em colaboração com o IPAI. De forma global, observase a validação, por parte da maioria dos respondentes, do modelo teórico usado nesta dissertação e das suas componentes (as core skills para a prática da auditoria forense, as enhanced skills necessárias para a deteção de fraude económico-financeira, as principais características que o auditor forense deve possuir, e as áreas de conhecimento essenciais para a formação do auditor forense). Assim, este modelo poderá servir como base para o desenho de uma formação avançada em auditoria forense, bem como para iniciar o caminho no sentido da criação de uma certificação profissional para o auditor forense, e da regulamentação e do reconhecimento oficial da profissão em Portugal.
In this master dissertation we advocate the creation of an advanced forensic auditing (forensic accounting) degree (bachelor, master or a graduate certificate program) in the national in higher education system, in order to the subsequent individual professional certification, and the formal recognition and regulation of the profession in Portugal.1 The main objectives are: 1) to explore the pertinence of the creation of an advanced degree in forensic auditing, in higher education in Portugal; 2) analyze and define the forensic auditor profile, by considering its basic skills and relevant characteristics; 3) explore and define the relevant knowledge areas for the advanced forensic auditing degree. To answer the research objectives, we built a theoretical model based on the Davis et al. (2009) and Digabriele (2008) studies, that includes the core skills for the practice of forensic auditing, the enhanced skills for economic and financial fraud detection, the main characteristics that the forensic auditor must possess, and the essential areas of knowledge for forensic auditor education and training. This model was then validated through the perceptions of a sample of Portuguese teachers of higher education in accounting and auditing areas and the representative of the Portuguese Auditing Oversight Board. The majority of respondents are not in favor of creating an individual certification, but, rather, in favor of the exercise of forensic auditing through a multidisciplinary team. Regarding the creation of an advanced forensic auditing degree (or a graduate certificate program) in higher education system in Portugal, the majority of teachers agree with that, while the representative of the Portuguese Auditing Oversight Board, contends the creation of an advanced training program taught by OROC in collaboration with IPAI. Overall, most of the respondents validate the theoretical model used in this study and its components (the core skills for the practice of forensic auditing, the enhanced skills to detect economic and financial fraud, the relevant characteristics of a forensic auditor, and the essential areas of knowledge for the forensic auditor education and training). Thus, we argue that this theoretical model can be used as a basis for designing an advanced forensic auditing degree (or graduate certificate program), as well as to walk the path towards the creation of a professional certification for the forensic auditor, and the regulation and official recognition of the profession in Portugal.

Construction companies, in particular, abuse the objectives of BEE in order to secure multimillion-rand contracts. Misrepresentations, specifically to the Department of Public Works, are made in various forms and stages during the submission of tender documentation by contractors. The status of BEE company owners is abused in order to secure contracts. Apartheid in South Africa prevented black citizens from entering the corporate world and thereby attaining a quality education. The South African government has, since 1994, adopted the BEE policy in order to redress racial and economic imbalances of the past. Fronting (which is regarded as fraud) is detrimental to the objectives of BEE, which are governed by legislation. Fronting further negatively affects the transformation of the South African economy which could be globally competitive. Fraud detection and its investigation are two concepts which are closely linked to each other and are vitally important to any fraud investi-gator.
Police Practice
M. Tech. (Forensic Investigation)

Orientação: Jorge Manuel Moura Loureiro de Miranda
Os direitos das crianças e jovens têm vindo a constituir um relevante foco de atenção por parte de profissionais e académicos na área, muito particularmente a partir de 1959, data em que é promulgada a Declaração dos Direitos das Crianças. Com a evolução dos tempos, assistimos a uma mudança de mentalidades, com significativa influência nas alterações legislativas internacionais, com maior enfoque na Europa, e que nos permitem afirmar hoje, que as crianças e os jovens estão mais protegidos, deixando de ser consideradas seres “menores”, independentemente de terem ou não atingido a maioridade civil. Não obstante a mudança de mentalidades a que nos referimos, nos nossos dias são ainda proferidas decisões judiciais de retirada das crianças e jovens aos pais, quando o único problema destes é a insuficiência económica.
The rights of children have been a relevant focus of attention by professionals and scholars in the area, particularly since 1959, when the Declaration of the Rights of Children is enacted. With evolution, we are witnessing a change of mentality, with significant influence on international legislative changes, with more focus in Europe, and which allow us to affirm today that children and young people are more protected, no longer being considered as "minor" beings, regardless of whether or not they have reached civilian majority. Notwithstanding the change of mentalities to which we refer, there are still judicial decisions on the withdrawal of children from their parents when their only problem is economic insufficiency.

This study was conducted as a result of the various media reports, various law enforcement investigation reports, Public Service Commission, reports of the Auditor General South Africa and the Public Protector South Africa on corruption and the various forms in which corruption manifests itself in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and the effectiveness of the various law enforcement agencies and the government in tackling the scourge of corruption in public and private institutions. While South Africa has various anti-corruption strategies, they all seem to be ineffective and have thus far not achieved their desired results. A qualitative research approach was used to investigate this problem. A thorough literature study and documentary analysis was used to gather all the relevant data related to this topic. It has been found that the most common manifestations of corruption that take place in the South African public service are fraud, bribery, extortion, nepotism, conflict of interest, cronyism, favouritism, theft, graft, embezzlement and abuse of power. Other forms of corruption that raise concern are, for example, influence-peddling, insider trading/abuse of privileged information, bid-rigging and kickbacks. South Africa has, on the other hand, seven anti-corruption institutions and seventeen pieces of legislation which are intended to combat corruption in the public and private sector. These pieces of legislation give South African law enforcement and investigators in the public and private sectors a clear mandate with a view to investigating the high levels of corruption. It is the submission of the Public Service Commission (2011:vi) that corruption has become a global concern that seriously hampers development in any country and diverts its resources from where they are needed the most. The most unfortunate truth and reality about corruption is that the poor suffer the most.
Criminology and Security Science
M. Tech. (Forensic Investigation)

This study sought to examine the significance of modus operandi information in the investigation of copper theft. Data was collected by means of a literature study and individual semi-structured interviews conducted with detectives at the SAPS Philippi East, in the Nyanga policing cluster, in the Western Cape, to promote knowledge and understanding of the significance of modus operandi information in copper theft investigations. A comprehensive literature study, concerning the dynamics of modus operandi information in forensic investigation and copper theft in South Africa, was conducted. From the results of this research, it appears that participants do realize the significance of modus operandi information in the investigation of copper theft. It is, however, evident that they do not optimally utilize modus operandi information regarding copper thieves as a result of limited experience, case docket overload, and the inaccessibility of available data – all of which inhibit the establishment of modus operandi information pertaining to copper thieves. Role-players in the copper theft investigation sphere isolate themselves from each other and do not share the available modus operandi information amongst each other; these results in a non-systematic integrated approach to copper theft investigation. The study identifies the challenges and shortcomings, experienced by detectives at SAPS Philippi East, which inhibit the optimal utilization of modus operandi information in the investigation of copper theft. The study then puts forward a set of recommendations that could assist the SAPS, the relevant parastatals and other role-players in enhancing the utilization of such information.
Criminology and Security Science
M. Tech. (Forensic Investigation)