Free ACFE CFE-Investigation Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 4

TheCFE Prep – Investigationsstates:

“If a fraud examiner gets a verbal confession from the fraudster, it does not matter whether the fraudster claims his conduct was an accident. The following items of information should be obtained … admission that the accused knew the conduct was wrong, facts known only to the confessor, the accused’s motive, approximate dates, involvement of others, physical evidence, and disposition of illicit income.”

Thus, the examiner doesnotneed a statement about accident.

In admission-seeking interviews, one rationalization technique is todepersonalize the victim(e.g., shifting the perception so the harm was against a company, not individuals). The example in the question—“It isn’t like you took something from a friend or neighbor”—is exactly this technique.

The manual notes:

“Records subpoenaed in a criminal case usually are available only to the government during the investigation, and perhaps thereafter if not disclosed at trial”.

Thus, statement D is false.

The manual defines:

“Open questions are those worded in a way that makes it difficult for the respondent to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ The typical open question calls for a monologue response and can be answered in several different ways.”

Example given: “Please tell me about your job.”

Allison’s question (“Why did you choose to do business with that vendor?”) invites explanation, not a yes/no response — making it anopen question.

The2014 International Fraud Examiners Manualprovides examples of data analysis for accounts payable:

“Examples of data analysis queries that can be performed to help detect fraud through examination of accounts payable include:

• Audit paid invoices for manual comparison with actual invoices.

•Summarise large invoices by amount, vendor, etc.

• Identify debits to expense accounts outside of set default accounts.

• Reconcile cheque registers to disbursements by vendor invoice.”

While other functions apply to payroll or asset management, themost effective function for accounts payablefraud detection is tosummarize large invoices by amount and vendor.

TheFraud Examiners Manualadvises avoiding prematurely alerting perpetrators. Recommended methods include:

“Conducting investigations at times when the suspect is not present (such as nonbusiness hours)”.

This avoids tipping off suspects.

The organizational filings with the government of the jurisdiction in which the company is incorporated

Explanation: Organizational filings (e.g., articles of incorporation) are generally public records and includeownership information, initial shareholders, and the location of the principal office.

Explanation with Extracts= The2014 Fraud Examiners Manualstates:

“The EU Data Protection Directive … regulates the processing, using, and transferring of personal data within the European Union, and it places limits on transmitting personal data to non-EU countries”.

Therefore, a U.S.-based examiner handling HR data of an EU employee must comply with EU GDPR requirements.

“Internal sources will sometimes be the only resource for certain types of documents—such as… employee personnel files—unless the fraud examiner has the subject’s consent or a legal order”.

External searches may reveal addresses, assets, or competitor ownership, butpersonnel files require internal/non-public access.

“Introductory questions should be designed to establish rapport… Interviewers usually establish rapport by spending a few minutes with the respondent in an informal dialogue”.

Jason’s small talk about sports and compliments is clearly rapport building