Chapter 8
INVESTIGATING CONCEALMENT
Discussion Questions
1. Concealment is generally accomplished by manipulating documentary evidence, such as purchase invoices, sales invoices, credit memos, deposit slips, checks, receiving reports, bills of lading, leases, titles, sales receipts, money orders, cashier’s checks, or insurance policies.
2. Primary aspects of documentary evidence include:
• Chain of custody of documents
• Marking of evidence
• Organization of documentary evidence
• Coordination of evidence
• Rules concerning original versus copies of documents
3. From the time documentary evidence is received, its chain of custody must be maintained in order for it to be accepted by the courts. Contesting attorneys will make every attempt to introduce the possibility that the document has been altered or tampered with.
4. Programs to help coordinate evidence include CaseMap, CaseCentral, Zantaz, RingTail, and DatiCon. Programs that help in link analysis include the Analyst’s Notebook from i2, Inc. and Xanalys Link Analysis.
5. Documents contain extremely valuable information for conducting fraud investigations. When faced with a choice between an eyewitness and a good document as evidence, most fraud experts would choose the document. Unlike witnesses, documents do not forget, they cannot be cross-examined or confused by attorneys, they cannot commit perjury, and they never tell inconsistent stories.
6. Documentary evidence such as the manipulation of purchase invoices, sales invoices, credit memos, deposit slips, checks, receiving reports, bills of lading, leases, titles, sales receipts, money orders, cashier’s checks, or insurance policies provides extremely valuable information when conducting an investigation. It is important to obtain such information because perpetrators, when faced with such information, are much more likely to give a confession. Furthermore, documentary evidence is usually a vital link in proving guilt when a confession is not obtained.
7. Documents contain extremely valuable information for conducting fraud examinations. Documents are some of the best sources of evidence in court, and they provide solid evidence in a case.
8. Discovery (statistical) sampling allows a fraud examiner to generalize and make inferences from the sample to the population. Many fraud cases involve large databases, and when several examiners are involved in the sampling, the chance for human error increases. However, with computers and technology, examiners can quantify both risk and samples with little or no human error.
9. The three most common ways that investigators can obtain hard-to-get documentary evidence are subpoena, search warrant, and voluntary consent.
