{"id":37063,"date":"2024-02-21T09:03:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T14:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?p=37063"},"modified":"2024-02-21T09:03:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T14:03:13","slug":"business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Valuation And Fraud Detection Services Provided By Forensic Accountants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By Christine Graf<\/p>\n

Of the approximately 675,000 CPA\u2019s in the United States, less than one percent are certified to practice as forensic accountants. In addition to investigating financial crimes, forensic accountants work with companies to develop internal controls intended to prevent and detect these types of crimes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While many business owners believe that it is the job of internal or external auditors to detect financial crimes, that is not the case. The job of an auditor is to ensure that a company is adhering to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the default accounting standard used by companies based in the United States.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The savings and loan scandal of the 1980s and 1990s was a driving force behind the creation of the field of forensic accounting, but it was Internal Revenue Service CPA Frank Wilson who is considered the father of forensic accounting. In 1930, after reviewing more than two million documents, Wilson found evidence that notorious mobster Al Capone has committed tax fraud. The following year, after being found guilty, Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison.<\/p>\n

During the past decade, the field has evolved, with firms specializing in forensic accounting opening their doors throughout the country. One of these firms, FAZ Forensics, is located at 268 Broadway in Saratoga Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe specialize in forensic accounting and valuation work mostly in a litigation environment,\u201d said partner Stephen Ferraro. \u201cWe\u2019ve all done traditional accounting and tax work, but now we focus 100 percent in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

FAZ Forensics was founded seven years ago after two CPA firms that had merged decided to split.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that happened, our forensic group went independent,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the time, there were six of us who spun off and started FAZ, and we currently have 16 people.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span>According to Ferraro, he and some of his colleagues have been practicing forensic accounting for decades, long before the field even had a name.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of fell into it about 30 years ago. We were doing mostly traditional CPA work, and we got a call from a claims adjustor who was working with a local automobile dealership that had had a fire. He had to help the owners of the company determine what their lost profits might be.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By reviewing the dealership\u2019s financial statements, they were able to come up with an estimated value of what the company\u2019s profits would have been had it not been for the fire.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, we started doing insurance loss accounting, which is a piece of forensic accounting,\u201d said Ferraro. \u201cSo, we were doing forensic accounting before we even knew what forensic accounting was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although most people think of forensic accounting in terms of fraud detection, Ferraro said the field itself is much broader.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are several specialties within forensic accounting that we work on. Investigating fraud and embezzlement is one piece of that. A lot of the work that we do is in litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

FAZ Forensics works with attorneys on a wide variety of cases involving financial disputes. For example, in cases related to matrimonial disputes, they may be asked to look for hidden assets or to value businesses that need to be divided.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe work on any cases where there is any kind of financial dispute at all. When there is any contention over money, we\u2019ll get called in to help settle the issue,\u201d said Ferraro.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Ferraro, there are two components to the firm\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s mostly reactive\u2014reacting to some type of financial concern, but we also have a proactive piece to our business, which is fraud prevention. We make sure that there are internal controls within a business so that fraud is not perpetrated. It\u2019s hard to perpetrate fraud when you have good segregation of duties and other internal controls in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

FAZ Forensics also works on business valuations for non-litigation purposes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe also value businesses for trust and estate gifting purposes as well as exit plans,\u201d he said. \u201cIf someone is looking at the next chapter of their life and they own a privately-held business, that is typically their largest asset. We can come in and help determine what the business is worth and explore options of how best to transition to their next chapter.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Demand for the firm\u2019s services continues to increase, prompting FAZ Forensics to open a small office in Boston.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very specialized niche, and there\u2019s not a lot of competition in our space,\u201d said Ferraro. \u201cWe\u2019ve got some fairly aggressive expansion plans. We want to continue to grow, and we are looking to replicate what we\u2019ve done in Boston and New York City as well as Washington D.C.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information, visit fazforensics.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Christine Graf Of the approximately 675,000 CPA\u2019s in the United States, less than one percent are certified to practice as forensic accountants. In addition to investigating financial crimes, forensic accountants work with companies to develop internal controls intended to prevent and detect these types of crimes.\u00a0 While many business owners believe that it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":37065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nBusiness Valuation And Fraud Detection Services Provided By Forensic Accountants - Glens Falls Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Business Valuation And Fraud Detection Services Provided By Forensic Accountants - Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Christine Graf Of the approximately 675,000 CPA\u2019s in the United States, less than one percent are certified to practice as forensic accountants. In addition to investigating financial crimes, forensic accountants work with companies to develop internal controls intended to prevent and detect these types of crimes.\u00a0 While many business owners believe that it is […]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-21T14:03:13+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2024\/02\/stephen-ferraro-fi.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"547\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/\",\"name\":\"Business Valuation And Fraud Detection Services Provided By Forensic Accountants - Glens Falls Business Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-21T14:03:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-21T14:03:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/a11ec438b5f0e57f1156754ba3931b86\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Business Valuation And Fraud Detection Services Provided By Forensic Accountants\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/\",\"name\":\"Glens Falls Business Journal\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/a11ec438b5f0e57f1156754ba3931b86\",\"name\":\"Jake Van Ness\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8083519989e12032abdd06a668982ef4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8083519989e12032abdd06a668982ef4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jake Van Ness\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/author\/jakev\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Business Valuation And Fraud Detection Services Provided By Forensic Accountants - Glens Falls Business Journal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Business Valuation And Fraud Detection Services Provided By Forensic Accountants - Glens Falls Business Journal","og_description":"By Christine Graf Of the approximately 675,000 CPA\u2019s in the United States, less than one percent are certified to practice as forensic accountants. In addition to investigating financial crimes, forensic accountants work with companies to develop internal controls intended to prevent and detect these types of crimes.\u00a0 While many business owners believe that it is […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/","og_site_name":"Glens Falls Business Journal","article_published_time":"2024-02-21T14:03:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":547,"url":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2024\/02\/stephen-ferraro-fi.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jake Van Ness","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jake Van Ness","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/","url":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/","name":"Business Valuation And Fraud Detection Services Provided By Forensic Accountants - Glens Falls Business Journal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-02-21T14:03:13+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-21T14:03:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/a11ec438b5f0e57f1156754ba3931b86"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2024\/02\/business-valuation-and-fraud-detection-services-provided-by-forensic-accountants\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Business Valuation And Fraud Detection Services Provided By Forensic Accountants"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/","name":"Glens Falls Business Journal","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/a11ec438b5f0e57f1156754ba3931b86","name":"Jake Van Ness","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8083519989e12032abdd06a668982ef4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8083519989e12032abdd06a668982ef4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jake Van Ness"},"url":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/author\/jakev\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37063"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37066,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37063\/revisions\/37066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}