I was approached by a prospective client a few years ago requiring forensic accounting services in connection with his divorce. The prospective client made it clear to me what his ultimate objective was. He told me, “I want you to review documents I’m going to show you and conclude with me that my wife stole …
In my former life – that is, before I became an accountant – as a police patrolman and detective on the Tucson, Arizona Police Department, I had the opportunity to testify on several criminal-type cases. Back in those days I would get pretty nervous before each of my court appearances. The mere pressure of waiting …
A report from the CDC/NCHS (*), National Vital Statistics System (See Table 1) has disclosed some interesting facts about population, marriages and divorces covering our 50 states and the District of Columbia. Marriage and Divorce The national average of divorce to marriages per 1,000 total population is 45.6% (**). When it comes to divorce, Arizona …
The recent revelation regarding aggressive sales practices at Wells Fargo shocked the financial community and highlights some of the unintended consequences of employee incentive programs. Employers normally have the best of intentions when they roll out an incentive program. The desired result is a win-win situation in which revenues increase and employees are rewarded for …
In marital dissolutions it is not unusual for the court or one of the parties to ask that an analysis of the income of the opposing party be analyzed by a forensic accountant. The findings will be helpful to the court in setting spousal maintenance and/or child support payments. In order to do their analysis, …
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently polled student debt holders who had not defaulted on their loans. The majority of them graduated from a four-year public or private college. Below is a summary of some of the more interesting findings of the study. 43% of those polled had between $10,000 and $40,000 in student …
Every two years the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners issues its bi-annual study known as the Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse. The study looks into the costs, schemes, perpetrators and victims of occupational fraud. According to the study, occupational fraud is “the use of one’s occupation for personal enrichment through the …
Divorce can be a very emotional event, which is further complicated by the effort to equitably divide the marital assets. The parties often disagree about the value of specific assets; which assets are sole and separate property; and on occasion, may accuse one another of fraud. One particular item that is often in dispute is …
Over the years I have been asked to be an expert regarding many marital dissolution cases. Most of my cases deal with valuing business interests held by the divorcing parties and income determination in connection with spousal maintenance and child support issues. Many of my cases have gone amicably between the divorcing parties. Some were …