ISACA San Antonio Chapter Annual General Meeting - Financial Statement Fraud Post-Pandemic

Following the 2001-2002 and 2008-2009 economic downturns, we saw waves of financial statement fraud cases.  The impact of COVID-19 has the potential to usher in another wave of fraud if accounting practices, processes and changes are not fully understood, vetted and kept in check.

This session will use three case studies to look at the potential for financial statement fraud due to manipulation of financials in accounting valuations and estimates.  Never in history have valuations and estimates been more subjective and easier to manipulate than now.  We will also look at what accounting, audit, compliance and anti-fraud professionals should be questioning and examining to deter, prevent and detect financial statement fraud.

What you will learn:

• How estimates, reserves, and valuations provide opportunity for financial statement manipulation.
• How the pandemic makes estimates more subjective, providing opportunity and concealment for financial statement fraud.
• What auditors and others should be reviewing and what questions they should be asking.

Mary Breslin is the Founder of Verracy and an internationally recognized speaker and training facilitator for Internal Audit, Risk and Fraud.  When she is not speaking publicly and facilitation trainings, Ms. Breslin conducts fraud investigations and provides management consulting for internal audit and fraud.

Ms. Breslin has over 25 years of experience in Internal Audit, Fraud, Accounting and Management, including working for global companies like Costco, Barclay’s Capital, ConocoPhillips, and Boart Longyear.  She has implemented and managed audit programs in more than 50 countries.

On stage, Ms. Breslin has spoken at the Global ACFE Fraud Conference for the past four years.  She has also spoken at the African Fraud Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2018 and is invited to speak at next year’s Asian Fraud Conference in Singapore.  Mary has been an IIA All-Star speaker at their annual Conference – speakers considered the “Best of the Best” in the industry.  Mary speaks and facilitates training regularly for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), and ISACA.

Ms. Breslin attended Rutgers University and University of Phoenix.  She has a BS in Accounting and an MBA.  She completed her MBA from the University of Phoenix while living abroad after accepting an Ex-pat assignment and moving to Italy.  She is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).