roles of forensic accountants in preventing and detecting fraud within a business community. The paper highlights the requisites and basic responsibilities of a forensic accountant. The paper also makes references on the special cases where forensic accountants have assisted in fraud detection and prevention. Overview of Forensic Accounting Forensic accounting is the specialty area of accounting used to train an individual to develop the special accounting skills to detect and prevent

Assets in the investment portfolio were overvalued. Financial transactions were structured to report smaller amounts of debt and create the appearance of greater cash flow. Financial results were represented in a false and misleading manner. Forensic accountants also played an important role in the Enron case by doing audits and investigating accounting practices to gather evidence of how the fraud was performed. They played vital roles in the court room

(Ibid.). Major Changes in the Accounting Profession The financial scandals proved to be a turning point in many ways for the accounting profession. The public outcry forced the legislatures to reexamine the regulatory environment for businesses, resulting in the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July, 2002, which is the most significant accounting legislation since 1933. It also forced the accounting professionals and their organizations such as the American Institute of

Collecting Forensic Evidence as a Corporate Controller for Apollo Shoes Procedures for Collecting Forensic Evidence as a Corporate Controller for Apollo Shoes Dealing with fraudulent practices within accounting is a daunting process. Evaluating massive amounts of data over a very short period of time must be done systematically in order to provide irrefutable evidence that either supports or denies allegations of fraud within financial reporting. Thus, it is important to effectively

This role is in response to clients' demands for a single trustworthy individual or firm to meet all of their financial needs. However, accountants are restricted from providing these services to clients whose financial statements they also prepare." (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009) 1. Public Accounting The work entitled: "The Reality of the CPA's Role" states that modern CPAs work "behind the scenes as trusted advisors in

career interest is accounting. Accountancy is the process of evaluating the financial information about business entities to users such as the managers of the shareholders (Elliot, & Elliot, 2004). Accountancy falls into three areas: accounting, bookkeeping, and auditing. I choose accounting since it will give me a solid employment with a lucrative wage and this is what is important to me. I have also learned that it can be fun