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November 2009 |  Article

The AICPA asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to exempt CPAs from certain provisions of its Red Flags Rule to prevent identity theft that was scheduled to go into effect Nov. 1, 2009. The Red Flags Rule, which was released Nov. 9, 2007, under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, requires businesses and organizations within its scope to implement a written identity theft prevention program to detect warning signs of identity theft in their daytoday operations.

November 2009 |  Article

The AICPA filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to bar the Federal Trade Commission from applying its socalled Red Flags Rule to CPAs. The Institute says the rule, which is designed to help prevent identity theft, would “impose onerous and unnecessary requirements on AICPA members.” The lawsuit, filed in U.S.

October 2009 |  Article

Suspicious activity reports (SARs) climbed at doubledigit rates in the seven categories relating specifically to fraud in 2008, according to The SAR Activity Review— By the Numbers, Issue 12. The semiannual report by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) includes SAR filings through Dec. 31, 2008. Check fraud (17 yeartoyear increase), mortgage loan fraud (23), consumer loan fraud (34), wire transfer fraud (58), commercial loan fraud (14), credit card fraud (22) and debit card fraud (10.5) all saw substantial increases.

October 2009 |  Article

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s semiannual SAR Activity Review Trends, Tips & Issues says mortgage loan fraud suspicious activity reports (MLF SARs) increased less than 1 for the sixmonth period ended June 30, 2009, compared with the prioryear period. This is a sharp decline in the rate of increase after 33 and 44 increases in 2007 and 2008 (see Filing Trends in Mortgage Loan Fraud, FinCEN, Feb.

September 2009 |  Article

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued guidance to financial institutions intended to clarify the use of an informationsharing tool that resulted from section 314(b) of the USA Patriot Act. That part of the act allows participating financial institutions, upon providing notice to FinCEN, to avail themselves of a statutory safe harbor from civil liability for sharing information with one another to identify and report activities such as mortgage fraud that they suspect may involve possible terrorist activity or money laundering.

September 2009 |  BY ANDI MCNEAL, CPA, CFE |  Article

Placing a sizable amount of trust in staff members is part of the cost of doing business. Trusting workers with access to information, products, vendors and funds is necessary to run an effective and efficient operation. But some employees—when faced with sufficient pressure, a perceived opportunity, and the ability to rationalize a criminal act—will take advantage of that trust and defraud their employers.

September 2009 |  Article

edited by Joseph T. Wells, CPA, CFE John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2009, 424 pp. Writing about accounting—or computers, for that matter—often can seem clinical to the point of disembodiment. The two together could be, well, a bit dry. Joe Wells can be counted on for a good tale or two of people who are coldly calculating in the villainous sense of the term, revealing the alltoohuman motivations of greed and mendacity.

August 2009 |  Article

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) announced on Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with the IRS to conduct a program to detect and deter waste, fraud and abuse in IRS programs and operations. The purpose of the program is to protect against attempts to interfere with or corrupt tax administration and to detect and deter misconduct by IRS employees.

August 2009 |  BY MATTHEW G. LAMOREAUX |  Article

The AICPA on Tuesday asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to exempt CPAs from certain provisions of its Red Flags Rule to prevent identity theft. The current action by the AICPA follows an FTC announcement last week that it would delay enforcement of the rule until Nov. 1.

July 2009 |  Article

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published guidance designed to enable depository institutions to more easily determine and document certain business customers’ eligibility for exemption from currency transaction reporting. The guidance is expected to ease compliance with regulatory requirements and enhance supervisory consistency. It seeks to clarify for depository institutions and examiners the variety of supporting information that is suitable for substantiating that certain business customers that engage in multiple business activities are eligible for exemption from currency transaction reporting.