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Please tell us more about your background and experience.
Maria: I work as an Associate Director in the Forensic and Litigation Support Department under the Risk Advisory Umbrella in Nexia TS. Our services are in the advisory realm, and we help to resolve different kinds of issues that the clients have within their organization. I deal with clients who require services such as forensic accounting or fraud investigation issues.
As an Associate Director in Nexia, what is your typical day at work like?
Maria: Everyday will be different because every case is personalized to the client. For instance, company A will have an issue that company B will not share, so it is very individualized to the company and their management style. My job is very client focused therefore, one day I will manage a project and my team but on other days I liaise with stakeholders.
What made you stay in Nexia for over 12 years?
Maria: I started with the audit department and then moved on to the technical and quality control department. From there, I gained a good foundation in the things that were taught in school like accounting standards and audit roles. Subsequently, I went to London on secondment and learned how people were doing audits in a different country.
One of the interesting things that I learned was that there were managers there who never had to do stock takes because there were a lot of financial institutions clients but not a lot of retail, exporters or importers. Hence, the managers were very interested in learning how stock takes are conducted. When I came back, I helped on the implementation of a project management software in the firm and thereafter, I was invited to join the forensics team.
From there onwards, you can say I never looked back as I realized forensic accounting is an intriguing field because every case is going to be different and you are exposed to very interesting situations, which you might only see on TV or CSI. Forensic is usually not a general route that fresh graduates would undertake as opposed to tax or audit.
As it’s considered an advisory role, would you suggest a fresh graduate to directly pursue forensic advisory upon graduating?
Maria: One of the things that I would advise students is to be aware of the current and upcoming market trends. For instance, right now the demand for data analytics is high as many people are generating data and need to make sense of it. If you observe this as a trend, then you might decide that having a data analytics minor would be very useful and relevant to any field you choose to go into.
Another prevalent topic would be the sustainability field, this is something that I am personally interested in - we look into how we could help our clients embark on their sustainability journey. For students who will be graduating in 2 to 3 years time, you have to be savvy not only in the current, but also in the future market trends.
While it is an easy decision if your career interests and choice aligns with the market trend, if it does not, you need to at least know what is happening in the industry so that you are able to make an informed decision.
What are some common misconceptions or myths in forensic advisory?
Maria: One of the most common misconceptions would be that this is a glamorous career, like watching a crime scene or looking at people who are investigating fraud. You might even think that it is exciting to catch these people who are stealing money left and right.
In reality, it can be very intense and detail oriented. To illustrate this, there is no concept of sampling in forensic accounting, so when you are looking for something, you have to look at all of the available documents and this can be a daunting task. There is an instance where one of the fraud investigations that I was involved in went back 20 years. Can you imagine looking at all the invoices generated for that period of time?
It can be quite challenging and you are often operating under time pressure because people want to solve the 'mystery’ as soon as possible. Therefore, this can be one of the challenging aspects of a forensic job.
Could you share some exciting and memorable cases you have encountered in financial forensic?
Maria: There are plenty of them because most of the cases are memorable in different ways. Some of the interesting things I have encountered would be, for instance, doing matrimonial cases. There is a lot of money involved when people are undergoing a divorce and that is when a forensic advisor can be helpful.
Another example would be, you would think people use cutting edge technology to commit fraud, for example, a hacker who would infiltrate your bank account and steal all your money. But one of the cases we handled was so simple that the CEO was taking a pencil and amending the invoices to reflect a different accounting period. Something as low tech as this could also be a successful fraud.
It's kind of like getting different pieces of a puzzle and putting them all together. Although the cases are so different, each one of them is memorable in a different way, thus it keeps the job interesting.
As financial forensic requires a lot of problem-solving, are there situations in which you experienced a mind block, where you couldn’t solve the case? How did you overcome it?
Maria: It is important to manage our client expectations as solving the cases may not be as straightforward as it seems. If you watch TV and see a murder scene, you expect that at the end of the episode, you’ll find the murderer. However, in a commercial world, it may not be that straightforward.
To illustrate, I have SGD 10,000 and I put it in a drawer but did not lock it. If somebody were to steal my money , would it only be the thieves’ fault or would I also be partially responsible for not locking the drawer? This analogy shows that if companies do not protect their assets properly in the first place, it is going to be a little difficult to say that they have done their due diligence in preventing these adversities from happening.
It is also common that a board of directors appoints a CEO and gives them all the executive power in the company. Subsequently, when the CEO does something that the shareholders did not approve of, it may lead to a complicated situation to determine whether the actions are considered fraud.
Another instance would be when a client's account is being hacked and they insist that someone has compromised their system internally. However, after we did a digital forensic on the system, it shows that the hackers are from South Africa. In this case, there is not enough evidence to prove that this was an internal job and as you can imagine, the outcome does not make the client very happy as their suspicions are not proven to be true. This is one of the blocks you might face, hence, client management is very important.
What differentiates the forensic and litigation support team from other service lines in forensic advisory?
Maria: Well, forensic advisory is something relatively new compared to the staples such as auditing and tax. Basically, forensic and litigation support as the name suggests are very closely linked to litigation, so we work a lot with lawyers. There is actually also a demand for forensic work which may not be related to litigation support.
Some of the interesting requests include people who want to digitalize their accounting system and they may need help to reconstruct their financials. This would be a great example of forensic accounting skills which does not involve litigation support. They are overlapping fields but not exactly the same.
Another common request for digital forensics is where you have a critical computer system and it crashes but nobody is able to retrieve the data out of the system. Digital forensic experts will step in to try and retrieve the data in a forensically secure manner. These are pretty interesting cases in both areas that you would experience as a forensic professional, but depending on which team you are in, you will be able to encounter more of the forensic advisory or litigation side.
How can one succeed in the forensic industry? What do you think are some relevant technical and soft skills that are required in this field?
Maria: I recall a director telling me that we do not want a team that solely comprises accountants to lead an investigation because everyone will be looking at things the same way. So we have a team of accountants, people who previously worked for the police force, computer experts and people with a law background. In that sense, there is no one path for somebody to succeed.
With that being said, paying attention to details or being able to put pieces of puzzles together and understanding human psychology are all useful skills on the job. I was very fortunate that I managed to learn on the job and I had very experienced superiors who guided me as well. I also feel like it's very fruitful to learn on the job because learning from actual life cases shows you how to apply your book learning to real life scenarios.
What would you be doing now if not forensic?
Maria: Personally, I am very interested in technology-related things. I feel that data analysis is interesting due to the fact that I like to play with numbers and fiddle around with data. It is also very interesting to use data visualization tools to transform data into graphics for easy understanding.
Another area might be sustainability, as it is a very critical topic right now. If we don't do something about our habits or lifestyle, just imagine the kind of environment that we will be leaving to our future generations? Thus, I feel that it is very meaningful to work in a field which deals with issues which directly impact our lives.
What do you find most fulfilling in this industry?
Maria: At heart, I like to solve problems, starting from simple things such as sudoku. I like to unravel puzzles and try to piece it back together. Even if you can’t get the answer you were looking for, at least you have a bit of clarity on why certain things happen the way they are.
At the end of the day, solving problems or helping people improve their processes are things that I find fulfilling. As you accomplish your job, you are also leaving your client in a more positive position. With that, I think it is very important for job satisfaction.
Working at an accounting firm can get really stressful. What are your favorite ways to relieve stress and relax?
Maria: There is definitely some form of stress working in an accounting firm. However, this is not something unique to accounting. Every job has some form of stress as we have peak periods and there will be people who are more difficult to work with. I relieve stress and relax by keeping my mind engaged in a creative manner or doing things other than work, especially those that involve numbers.
Personally, I have studied Japanese for 5 - 6 years now. Moreover, I also do pottery to engage my creative side and Zumba to keep myself more active. Hence, I will be happier when the restrictions are slightly lifted and we can take part in more social activities. I believe that doing what you like and in a variety of activities are a great way to cope.
As a team, one of the ways we came up with to bond and destress is through playing mobile games together such as mobile legends. By playing together, we also have more common topics to talk about and this improves the environment in the team. It is imperative to try out various activities in order to keep in touch with what is going on outside of the accounting field.
What advice do you have for students and fresh graduates who want to pursue a career in Financial Forensics?
Maria: I strongly advise students who are interested to pick up an internship first as this is a very specialized field. By having an internship, you will be able to test the waters. Learn from seniors and people in the field to have more in-depth knowledge on the field to know if this is really your cup of tea.
There is no right or wrong way of going about it. By doing an internship, it is a fairly risk-free way of doing it. At least, you have the opportunity to try it and focus on the skills that you have learnt from it.
If an internship is not an avenue for you, I recommend trying a couple of years of audit or internal audit as it gives you a good foundation and gives you more exposure to things like financial systems and how people set up internal control systems. Once you have this knowledge, you will know how people circumvented internal control to defraud a company. I feel that these are important skills that people can gain by starting out in an accounting firm.
In your project, is there any project that has sustainability and forensic advisory?
Maria: We are increasingly seeing an intersection between these two areas. For example, green financing is now a popular topic and companies may look for ways to “defraud” the system, while diverting money to other activities. This could easily end up as a litigation case eventually.
Globally, there are a lot of sustainability lawsuits. In Singapore, over the next 10 - 20 years, we may see more of these lawsuits occurring as well. Hence, the overlap between these two fields may only increase in future.
In your daily work do you work with people from other departments?
Maria: A lot of our work is collaborative. For example, we work closely with the tax and valuation department as they may need their expertise to assess if there is tax fraud. They know how to apply certain accounting estimates which can help in detecting tax fraud.
Does the role differ in other companies?
Maria: It depends on the set up in each company, you might see that some companies have people specializing in forensic accounting versus doing the investigation work. Under forensic investigation, there are usually some elements of investigation, digital forensic and forensic accounting.
In bigger firms, the company will be more likely to keep the teams separated and have specialists in each team. It may be rare to find people that can effectively navigate these three arms. It depends on whether you would want exposure or specialize in a certain area. Every firm has its own methodology and its unique selling point.
How do we research the methodology to see which one is the right fit for us?
Maria: A good way to find the right fit is to reach out to people by attending career talks organized by professional bodies. For example, ISCA has a career pathway talk where you can ask industry people questions. The professional bodies are gradually inviting people from unconventional careers to speak at such events.
I feel that doing internships or visiting people in their office and talking to them would also help. If you are at a crossroads, try to develop skills that give you flexibility such as things that keep you relevant or are in high demand in the market. Personality and attitude are also very important when working. Try to do something that complements what you like as a person. You will find the work more interesting.
What are the working hours in forensic compared to working as an audit?
Maria: For audit, you will know there are certain months in a year you will be busy. For example, you will be busy in the month of Jan to Apr. In forensic, it is harder to predict when the busy months will be unless you have a project on hand. You will need to be on standby in case of urgent cases.
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