Detective audit

[Группа К]

Dear Colleagues!

In the scientific and practical journal “Accounting. Analysis. Audit ”No. 3/2017 (founder of FSBEI“ Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation ”) an article by detective A.E. Krioni "External control of small businesses by detective methods."

The article describes the author’s methods of external control used in the implementation of private investigations. Based on his own observations and experience, the author, in particular, emphasizes that “the auditor’s conclusions do not always meet the expectations of all, without exception, representatives of the executive body of the company where the audit was supposed to be carried out. For example, the personal interest of the customer may prompt an independent auditor to draw up a knowingly false audit report. Therefore It is quite reasonable that persons interested in truly independent verification of the financial and economic activities of an economic entity are looking for additional methods and control methods, for example, they turn to a detective for help.

Link to announcement Link is not valid - deleted

Sincerely, A Kryoni

 

[Андрей Захаров]

Alexander) it is desirable to publish also the article itself (text) .... Let not in the journal version ...

 

[Группа К]

Alexander) it is desirable to publish also the article itself (text) .... Let not in the journal version ...

sent by email

 

[Группа К]

Friends,

There are requests to send the article in PM. Fortunately, its original appeared in the Russian electronic library in the public domain, so I publish the download link in .pdf format

https://elibrary.ru/download/elibrary_2 ... 563485.pdf

Now everyone can freely download and read the article at any time.

Regards,
Alexander

 

[Группа К]

Elastic / Inelastic Investigations

One of the most popular types of private investigations is people search. He gained his popularity relatively recently due to the widespread development of telecommunication services, using which a private detective had the opportunity to find the address of a person without leaving his office. These are the so-called “desk investigations”.

The essence of this new approach in private investigations, if we describe it in short words, is that it has been considered for many years (and this is a completely fair proposition) that investigators always meet with them when conducting a survey and searching for witnesses. And also with the fact that our imaginary conclusions about the personality of an object, obtained, for example, in a telephone conversation are tied to a person so firmly that the input ( online ) and factual information ( offline ) are completely identical and difficult to distinguish.

About 30 years ago, no one could even have imagined that there are alternative methods of private investigation that traditionally claim the exact opposite: although the facts and evidence are firmly connected with the object of investigation, but to see what actually surrounds the object under investigation, and understand how this object leads and feels himself, the detective absolutely does not need to personally meet with him.

At first, these methods of seeking evidence were used by individuals, usually at the planning stage, but then the detectives learned in this way to go through the entire cycle of a private investigation to its final, final stage.

It turned out that these seemingly unprofessional and significantly less qualified methods of collecting information turned out to be many times more effective and less costly than the traditional approach adopted in forensics.

This can be seen in simple examples, if we look at how investigations were conducted in the old days, we will see that in most cases, for a simple interview, a personal meeting of the witness and the interrogated was assumed.

My favorite example is interviewing a witness who lives in an apartment in the city of N-ska - you need to interview him in such a way that he says his full name, occupation, etc. and the names of all the residents living with him in the same apartment. The solution is that, according to the investigator of the 90s, the detective must come to the city of N-sk, ring the doorbell, introduce himself and invite the tenants of the apartment to voluntarily tell him everything he will ask them about. In our situation, it turns out that the solution to the problem of "apartment bypass" is possible without leaving the place. And how much the detective skillfully simulates the desired environment for the subscriber over the phone (now I will explain how to do it), to a large extent depends on how quickly and successfully he will solve the task.

At the same time, many interesting details are revealed that show what a cunning combination a witness falls into by the will of a detective. We can introduce ourselves by phone as a pizzeria employee and ask for clarification of the “order” - when people often order food at home, it works. You can call from the "clinic", as receptionists often do, ringing patients who have made an appointment with the doctor, and this also works. You can try to introduce yourself as an employee of the city telephone center, and ask a couple of questions about the quality of the provided telephone services, offer to help solve communication problems (and they always exist), that is, we kind of expressed sympathy, this also helps and obliges us to meet a little . Thus, it is precisely a certain increase in the detective’s offline capabilities and methods of collecting information.

It turns out that you and I, on the basis of this simple task of “apartment bypass”, see that the detective’s ability to form a model of perception of the surrounding reality by the witness turns out to be extremely important in order to talk about expanding the scope of traditional investigation methods.

What is the difficulty of the “desk investigation” method? For example, in the fact that from the point of view of former operatives, who in their overwhelming majority make up the backbone of the modern detective community, the information obtained in this way will not be qualitative. That is, roughly speaking, the principle of admissibility will not apply to evidence. In this regard, it turns out that this method is not just ineffective, but - it is very important - it cannot be the basis for the final conclusions of the investigation, because the detective was not present personally during the interview. It turns out a clash of two methods, even two types of investigation: state investigation, in its usual sense, and the second private, which is not constrained by the procedures and rules of the state.

Imagine that a detective and a former operative play the game “King of the Hill of Evidence of Admissibility”. Both of them try to climb to its top, and the “Tsar” impedes their attempts to do so. When we are trying to get information from private detectives during the investigation, we try to get around this "mountain" and dig tunnels and make additional mounds along which we then climb up and crash down. This is how we go beyond the “procedural” framework. It is clear that the “King of the Hill”, if he allows a detective who has taken no news from where, he risks losing his strong status, therefore he constantly “punishes” the detective. Gos. a detective, on the contrary, he acts within the framework of regulations, rules and procedures, that is, he rises strictly along the allotted stairs. And the king, while remaining strong, rewards precisely the state, and not the private investigator.

Thus, the following situation is obtained. On the one hand, investigations should be conducted “in the field”. On the other hand, information that can be obtained without leaving the office is collected, although beautifully, quickly and economically, but beyond the procedural framework and thus cannot be put in the evidence basket.

We also tried to compare the differences between detectives who use the traditional (field) and cabinet methods of investigation during investigations.

It turned out that the differences are already noticeable at the planning stage. One kind of strategy we called inelastic - this is when the detective thinks through thoroughly future events, that is, he calculates all the options in advance, on the eve. And there is a second planning strategy, it’s called elastic - as it continues as the investigation progresses. In this case, the detective will have to take risks, but at the same time he will be in constant motion and in search of new interesting combinations.

We compared successful and unsuccessful detectives in terms of these two types of private investigation planning. The conclusion seemed interesting to us.

Those who solve problems only in offline mode, that is, it works not elastic , they easily took up the investigation, very carefully and for a long time spent planning it. However, the pause between the planning stage and the practical course of the investigation was so large that on the part of the customer, the detective’s entire work, even if the objectives of the investigation were achieved, looked like “sabotage”.

Adherents online (cabinet) investigation, i.e. existing elastic , at the most decisive moment, such annoying mistakes were made that you could only call “failure”.

That is, the success of any investigation is possible when combining its elastic and inelastic form. " Elastic »The detective must be able to combine his online activity with unpopular “field” work, which requires careful planning.

Thus, we see that there is a demand for complex models that should link two different approaches. And to bind them in such a way that they help each other in joint work, especially in critical situations in the mode of shortage of financial resources and time.

source

 

[Группа К]

Detective audit

Detective audit is a comprehensive private investigation of an external independent analysis of the economic and financial activities of a small company, which is carried out by a licensed detective in order to help business partners reduce business risks and possible losses in the short term before signing the contract. The audit includes the collection and analysis of information with the consent of the auditee, including documents and certificates from registration databases, on the current economic and financial activities of the company, on the quality of management, organizational structure, etc.

Most often, a Detective Audit is carried out before entering into a commercial transaction with an unknown company. It makes sense to divide the verification into two main blocks - cabinet search and exit legendary check .

1. Desk Search
The detective collects information about the company on the Internet, in thematic directories, as well as in publicly accessible registers, for example, the register, the Federal State Statistics Service of Rosstat, SPARK, etc., and analyzes them. At the same time, the detective is preparing a legend for an on-site inspection.
2. Field inspection
2.1 Collection of documents . The investigation begins with the collection of electronic documents and certificates and ends with the receipt of paper copies in the office of the company, certified by the seal of the organization and the signature of the responsible person. The detective is trying to get the constituent documents, registration certificates, a company card indicating the registration information and accounts, orders for the appointment of officials, protocols and other documents drawn up during the general meetings of participants, licenses, sample contracts, any printing products (calendars, business cards, booklets), as well as offers, price lists, and samples of goods sold.
2.2. Acquaintance with governing bodies and determination of their authority. The detective meets with the manager or key managers of the company, talks with them, finds out their credentials, sets the staffing table, evaluates the quality of work of employees, talks with neighbors in the office space.
2.3. Inspects, with the consent of employees, office and storage facilities.

The following factors that indicate the counterparty’s unreliability are often found during a detective audit.

Unauthorized persons sign contracts
The detective must find the opportunity to meet in person and talk with a person authorized to sign the contract. If a proxy person acts on behalf of the counterparty, then the detective should find and interview this person, as well as find out his attitude to the future transaction. If the contract is signed by an unauthorized person, then it will be difficult for the counterparty to prove the fact of the provision of the service. Courts refuse to collect debts under contracts if the documents are signed by unauthorized persons without a power of attorney.

Premises for rent
The tenant of the office space is another legal entity. Upon entering the office building, the detective pays attention to the list of tenants of office premises. The office door must have a sign indicating the commercial name of the company. The detective contacts the landlord of the office premises to confirm the tenant’s information, as well as the expiration date of the lease.

Low management, weak internal control
The director is judged, or does not have a higher specialized education. Managers lack management experience in these types of transactions. The detective checks whether the director and accountant are close relatives (most often husband and wife), and whether the founders of the company and its managers are also relatives. The decisions of key leaders who are closely related are more likely to pursue personal interests than the interests of their counterparties.

The company uses other people's phones
The detective finds out the owner of the contract phone number. The discrepancy between the contract owner and its actual user probably indicates that the inspected counterparty hides some significant circumstances that could affect the positive outcome of a future transaction.

The company uses other people's means of individualization
The detective checks the version of the unfair use of means of individualization in economic activity. For example, logos used by the company are the property of others. Also, this applies to commercial designations, trademarks, industrial designs, production secrets (know-how), etc. Illegal use of someone else's trademark will be, for example, designating it on a corporate website, on paper forms, on a product or packaging, in the media, on signs. A characteristic feature of the illegal use of other people's intellectual property rights may be low-quality images of company logos on official forms or on its website on the Internet.

 

[Детективное агентство Тула]

Good time, dear colleagues!

Having decided to take part in the discussion of the topic proposed by colleague K, I propose first to decide on the concepts.

Audit (from lat audit - listens) - a term that has several meanings. In a general sense, it is a branch of economic activity and an academic discipline studied at universities. In the narrow sense of the word, in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation - Russia, an audit refers exclusively to the activity of conducting an audit of financial (accounting) statements and accounting data and expressing, based on the results of such an audit, a substantiated independent opinion of the auditor on the reliability of such statements in the form of a written audit report.

In a broad sense and in accordance with the customs of business turnover, as well as business vocabulary, audit and as a synonym auditing - the procedure of independent verification and evaluation of reports, accounting data and the activities of the organization, as well as the system, process, project or product. Most often, the term is used in relation to verification accounting statements organizations for the purpose of expressing an opinion on its reliability.

In business practice, the concepts of “operational audit”, “technical (industrial) audit”, “ ecological audit ”,“ quality audit ”and other types of audit, however, these concepts and processes do not have a legal (specified by law) definition. Some types of audit are close in value to certification . It should distinguish these types of control, audit and inspection activities from the audit itself financial statements .

In addition, colleague A. Krioni offers us a new concept, the so-called. Detective audit as a completely independent phenomenon, not related to the audit of financial (accounting) statements and accounting data.
I believe that the topic being explored by colleague A. Crioni is “far-fetched”.

What is the point of conducting a separate detective audit, when it is possible, when conducting an audit, to attract a detective for the purpose of secretly conducting the questions he covered above with our specific forces, means and methods, i.e. cheap and cheerful?

Indeed, to conduct a detective audit, a detective auditor is required, but where do you get it?
In Moscow itself, this is only one.
I hope you know his surname.

 

[Группа К]

In addition, colleague K offers us a new concept, the so-called. Detective audit as a completely independent phenomenon, not related to the audit of financial (accounting) statements and accounting data.
I believe that the topic being explored by colleague A. Crioni is “far-fetched”.

The concept of audit is a little broader than what my dear colleague suggests)) To begin with, the audit can be external and internal. The main difference between an external audit and an internal one is the principle of independence. This means that the business expects that the auditors they hire are really not interested in providing an independent assessment of the financial and business activities of the company. But can it be called an independent auditor, who pays the one who needs to be checked ??? In my opinion, this is complete nonsense!

Further. It will not occur to any head of an LLC to conduct its own audit. After all, he has everything he needs for a quiet economic activity, namely: a simplified taxation system, the possibility of “optimization” from taxes, a fictitious registration address, nominal powers of managers, etc., etc. Another thing is his business partner, who wants to sell his services or goods, and who, being a competent financier, does not have the opportunity to audit the counterparty (check his business reliability) because he submits a “zero balance” to the statutory reporting bodies! This is where the private investigator comes to the rescue with his sets of investigation methods and methods for identifying the business reliability level of his customer’s counterparty.

The auditor does not have such an opportunity, but the detective, on the contrary, has it, since the auditor studies only the available financial documents that the audited company provides him, and the detective extracts and analyzes information and documents that the company is not interested in providing to the auditor. And in order to get this information, the detective needs to conduct a comprehensive private investigation - to plan, find, interrogate, identify, collect information, and, if possible, convert everything collected into evidence. The auditor in this case is completely useless, but the detective on the contrary is in demand. Hence my suggestion.

 

[Детективное агентство Тула]

The auditor in this case is completely useless, but the detective on the contrary is in demand.

Is this a statement, a colleague or a question?
If the statement is, then, probably, all private detectives of Russia are inundated with applications for five years in advance from client customers to identify the business reliability of their counterparties.

 

[Группа К]

Is this a statement, a colleague or a question?
If the statement is, then, probably, all private detectives of Russia are inundated with applications for five years in advance from client customers to identify the business reliability of their counterparties.

the trouble is that they are not overwhelmed with such applications by detectives, but by information companies that call themselves detectives ...