Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Angela Mennit, Forensic Accountant for the FBI
This Thursday professional meeting was awesome! We learned about Forensic Accounting from
Angela S. Mennitt, a FBI agent from Minnesota. She graduated in Economics and through her career
choices got into the accounting field and auditing. She is now part of the Utah branch of the FBI, and
she gave us some insights on what the FBI accountants do.
As an FBI agent, accountants are mostly involved in “White Collar” crime, which entails fraud,
deceit, manipulation, etc. Sometimes they get called in to the spy side of the agency, to fight against
corrupt corporations or mob organizations with money laundering operations. With most cases it is the
job of the forensic accountants to follow the money and prove the purpose of intent.
She described the different crimes that she has seen and dealt with. One group of crimes is
called Affinity Fraud, a case of fraud where the victims have some sort of commonality between them
and the perpetrator. The perpetrator uses this connection to get victims to buy into the scam. An
example of this is Bernie Madoff, whose victims were mostly Jewish. A case that she had data on was
one that involved the “Tiger Woods of foreign exchange” right here in Utah valley. The perpetrator got
his family and neighbors to let him invest money for them in foreign exchanges. It is no crime to lose
money or gain money in exchanges, the crime was when he lied to his relatives about the gains he was
receiving to get more money to cover the losses on old investments.
Another class of cases we looked at was health care fraud. Health care fraud costs the
government around 80 billion dollars a year! She talked about how this will not be fixed in the current
Medicaid system that we have because the FBI is always chasing the money. We need preventative
actions to solve the problem. The FBI is able to recover about 200 million each year, there is a big
difference; the other money just disappears.
The reason that it is such a problem in the United States is that there is such a low barrier of
entry into starting a medical equipment store. After one is set up, the owners go out to doctors and
perspective patients to get more orders for their goods. Then the bill gets put in the taxpayers lap when
the Medicaid program pays for the equipment. Angela showed us a case from Florida that involved a
family that set up three different supply stores. She showed us data on how the money of the
businesses was distributed. There were costs for purchasing the equipment, other business costs, and
then cash disbursements to the family and conspiring marketing company, which was also owned by the
family. It seemed blatantly obvious that these stores were a scam even though in criminal accounting
you have to be conservative with what is labeled other business expense. Most of the time these kinds
of frauds are pointed out to the FBI by other supply stores in the area, patient recruiting, and
advertisements that offer medical equipment for free.
Angela really enjoys her work. It can be tedious at times; scanning information into a computer,
cleaning data, and going through bank statements, but being an agent can take you exotic places. She
has been all over the world with her work. She has gone to Istanbul, to Beijing, and many other places
in Europe, and South America.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Interviewing Tips
This last Wednesday, our BAP advisor, Professor Budd, took time out of her busy schedule to give us tips on how to get accounting internships and jobs. While at PWC, she was one of their HR directors, and she showed us some of the things that she looked for while looking at resumes and interviewing.
The theme of the meeting was that we need to market ourselves well. We need to have something to say about ourselves articulate it well, and say it a lot. We need to think very critically about what makes us different from the rest of our colleagues at other Universities. We looked at Resumes, Pre-Interview Socials, and Interviewing, and focused on what we can do to become better in each of these areas.
Resumes. When you write a resume you need to be specific. It helps if you are able to tailor your resume to each company that you send it to. By getting to know the company beforehand, you will be better able to emphasize points in your life that shows you have got what the company is looking for. The danger with this is if you put in the company name on the resume you will need to make sure you have made all of the needed changes before sending the resume to a different company.
It is really important to answer the question: What were the results of my actions? The results of what you have done in previous experiences will show the firm you are applying for what you could possibly do for them. Make your result answers obviously transferable to the new job. Also never create a false story to wow them and always have someone proofread your resume.
Pre-Interview Socials. During pre-interview events we will give the best impression if we smile, give firm handshakes, and make eye contact with the people that we are talking to. It is not professional to chew gum, so use mints or tic tacs instead. What to wear will usually be disclosed in the invitation or confirmation, but if you are not sure always dress up. Remember to have appropriate discussions because you are still being evaluated, this event is not a party or useful for dates. Jeff recommended that if we cannot picture our significant other being able to carry on a conversation on their own, we should think hard about if they would be beneficial to bring to these events.
Food is not the main point of these events. Professor Budd told us that BYU has a reputation for only coming for the food. This should not be the case, and she would be very happy to see that stereotype disappear. This advice really helped me at the last pre-interview social I went to. I was able to keep in mind that there are more important things then food or fun, and felt like I made a good impression.
Interviewing. For the interview, the same pre-interview rules apply no gum, firm handshake, etc. Body language is very important in an interview. Remember to sit up straight and try not to show the bottom of your shoe. After everything is over remember, remember to write a thank you note and send it to your interviewer. No thank you letter is unacceptable. It would also be wise to almost never ask about salary or other compensation questions.
For summer leadership programs remember that it is like a two day interview. Remember to participate and be excited about the activities that you are doing. Show your best self. Some quality skills that PWC used to watch for were: Initiative, Leadership, Teaming Ability, Written/ Oral Communications, Flexibility, Technical Ability, Analytical /Problem Solving Skills, and Fit.
We have been well prepared here at BYU perform well at any internship and summer leadership program. It is up to us to show others that we will participate and contribute to their business.
Monday, March 4, 2013
David Larson, Duff and Phelps
On Thursday we got to look into the world of fair value. David Larson, a fair value expert from Duff and Phelps came and showed us how complicated and exciting the world of fair value can be. The reason that there is such a big push to value more line items at fair value is because fair market value gives a better “apples to apples” comparison between different companies.
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The World of fair market value exists because of two sections in the ASC, numbers 946 and 820 which state “An investment company shall measure its investments in debt and equity securities subsequently at ‘fair value’” and “Fair value is the price that would be received TO SELL an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date” respectively. These two sections allow us to use fair market value for investments and came about because fair market value was and is an important topic
To find fair market value, accounting and financial staff go through a complex process that starts out with looking at your ebitda from the last twelve months. They then make any needed adjustments for the future quarter with information that they have about the coming months. After a series of comparisons with other companies and taking into account multiple factors, they reach a number that they deem fair market value.
David gave us many real world situations to show us that it is difficult to come up with a fair market value. He wanted to show us that to be good at valuation it would take some additional studying, but that it is also a rewarding career path. He stated, “The best part of our profession is the challenge; that is why we are respected. It is a complicated field that is exciting, requires a lot of judgment and is a great career.
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