Forensic and economic examination of fraud in finance and credit

Abstract

The paper is focused on the problem of detecting crimes committed in the financial sphere. It is a multifaceted study including analysis of global economic crime, statistical laws 
 of crime development, as well as the international experience of identifying them. The crimes committed in the credit and financial sphere are of particular interest in the structure of economic crime, since they cause tremendous damage to the state, undermining the foundations of the country's national economic security. The economic crimes account for about 40% of the total amount of material damage inflicted. Among the most common types of crime in the financial sector is fraud. This category of crime has become widespread not only in Russia but also abroad. There has been given a conditional classification of fraud: fraud with credit and debit bank cards; intracorporate fraud of employees of a credit institution; fraud on the Internet and social networks; bank credit and loan fraud; other types of fraudulent activities with bank assets. Investigation of the criminal fraudulent acts in many ways cannot be carried out without using the special knowledge, methods and techniques of a forensic accountant. The right choice of the qualified experts with the necessary level of knowledge, professional skills and experience in the finance and credit by participants in legal proceedings is the basis for an objective, comprehensive and complete study, and the conclusion prepared by a competent expert is one of the evidence in a criminal case. The highly qualified accountant is primarily focused on collecting the documentary evidence of the illegal acts and establishing the exact amount of material damage from fraud. In international practice, there are used the specific methods of gathering evidence, application of which in Russian expert activities would allow revealing the facts of fraud more effectively. There has been stated the important and invaluable role of special accounting knowledge in conducting forensic and economic examination in the investigation of fraud in the finance and credit.