Manual on Forensic Accounting
FORENSIC ACCOUNTING
Introduction
Necessity is the mother of all inventions. Yes, it is the growing arena of business and surging number of white-collar crimes that have paved the way for the development of Forensic Accounting.
According to AICPA, “Forensic Accounting is the application of accounting principles, theories and discipline to facts or hypothesis at issues in a legal dispute and encompasses every branch of accounting knowledge.”
According to The Accountant’s Handbook on Fraud and Commercial Crime, Forensic Accounting is the application of financial skills and an investigative mentality to unresolved issues, conducted within the context of the rules of evidence.
Forensic Accounting borrows knowledge from Accounting, Finance, Law, Computerisation, Ethics, Criminology, etc. Investigation plays a pivotal role in Forensic Accounting. It is the flavour of investigation that demarcates it from the conventional accounting practices. In wide sense, it can be identified as integrity of accounting, auditing and investigative skills to secure a particular result.
Forensic accounting in Indian context
Maurice E. Peloubet coined the term Forensic Accounting in 1940. In India Forensic Accounting is still in nascent stage and it becomes very difficult to find and retain the forensic accounting resources in India.
Worldwide we consider Sherlock Holmes to be the first Forensic Accountant; however the contribution of some of the historic characters in India cannot be ignored.
In India, Kautilya was the first person to mention the famous forty ways of embezzlement in his famous Kautilya Arthashastra during the ancient Mauryan Times. If we use his theories even today we can find that almost all the major failures in the corporate world of USA are the extended versions of what Kautilya had stated a few thousand years ago.
Birbal a Scholar in the time of King Akbar used various tricks to investigate various crimes. The third scholar was Tenaliram who
Introduction
Necessity is the mother of all inventions. Yes, it is the growing arena of business and surging number of white-collar crimes that have paved the way for the development of Forensic Accounting.
According to AICPA, “Forensic Accounting is the application of accounting principles, theories and discipline to facts or hypothesis at issues in a legal dispute and encompasses every branch of accounting knowledge.”
According to The Accountant’s Handbook on Fraud and Commercial Crime, Forensic Accounting is the application of financial skills and an investigative mentality to unresolved issues, conducted within the context of the rules of evidence.
Forensic Accounting borrows knowledge from Accounting, Finance, Law, Computerisation, Ethics, Criminology, etc. Investigation plays a pivotal role in Forensic Accounting. It is the flavour of investigation that demarcates it from the conventional accounting practices. In wide sense, it can be identified as integrity of accounting, auditing and investigative skills to secure a particular result.
Forensic accounting in Indian context
Maurice E. Peloubet coined the term Forensic Accounting in 1940. In India Forensic Accounting is still in nascent stage and it becomes very difficult to find and retain the forensic accounting resources in India.
Worldwide we consider Sherlock Holmes to be the first Forensic Accountant; however the contribution of some of the historic characters in India cannot be ignored.
In India, Kautilya was the first person to mention the famous forty ways of embezzlement in his famous Kautilya Arthashastra during the ancient Mauryan Times. If we use his theories even today we can find that almost all the major failures in the corporate world of USA are the extended versions of what Kautilya had stated a few thousand years ago.
Birbal a Scholar in the time of King Akbar used various tricks to investigate various crimes. The third scholar was Tenaliram who