Graduate Studies Reports Access
Graduate Course Proposal Form Submission Detail - ACG6688
Tracking Number - 2114
Edit function not enabled for this course.
Current Status:
Approved, Permanent Archive - 2011-03-11
Campus: St Petersburg
Submission Type: New
Course Change Information (for course changes only):
Comments: USF STPT approved 10/4/10; To USF Institutions for concurrence by 10/15/10. SCNS approved. Effective 3/11/11
Detail Information
- Date & Time Submitted: 2008-10-27
- Department: USF St. Petersburg Program of Accountancy
- College: BP
- Budget Account Number: 140100
- Contact Person: John Jewell
- Phone: 34110
- Email: jewell@mail.usf.edu
- Prefix: ACG
- Number: 6688
- Full Title: Forensic Accounting
- Credit Hours: 3
- Section Type: D -
Discussion (Primarily)
- Is the course title variable?: N
- Is a permit required for registration?: Y
- Are the credit hours variable?: N
- Is this course repeatable?:
- If repeatable, how many times?: 0
- Abbreviated Title (30 characters maximum): Forensic Accounting
- Course Online?: C -
Face-to-face (0% online)
- Percentage Online: 0
- Grading Option:
R - Regular
- Prerequisites: ACG 2021 Principles of Financial Accounting, ACG 3103 Intermediate Financial Accounting I, ACG 3113 Intermediate Financial Accounting II, ACG 3401 Accounting Information Systems, and ACG 4632 Auditing I
- Corequisites: None
- Course Description: Designed to further the student's knowledge of the contemporary legal environment faced by forensic accountants.
- Please briefly explain why it is necessary and/or desirable to add this course: This course has been offered in the USF St. Petersburg MBA program since its inception in 2004 under a temporary ACG prefix.
- What is the need or demand for this course? (Indicate if this course is part of a required sequence in the major.) What other programs would this course service? Required for the USF St. Petersburg MBA track in Forensic Accounting; course cannot be applied towards any other program or degree.
- Has this course been offered as Selected Topics/Experimental Topics course? If yes, how many times? Yes, 3 or more times
- What qualifications for training and/or experience are necessary to teach this course? (List minimum qualifications for the instructor.) PhD or DBA in Accounting and academically qualified under research definition of Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
- Objectives: This course is designed to achieve the following objectives:
1. To give students an appreciation of the scope, extent and importance of the law as well as the basic concepts, principles and rules of law that apply to forensic accounting.
2. To help students gain an understanding of the significance of the legal system in making decisions and solving forensic accounting problems.
3. To assist students in gaining an appreciation of the Internet and other databases, such as Lexis-Nexis and ABI Inform;
4. To develop students' abilities to recognize the potential legal problems which may arise in a doubtful or complicated situation, and the necessity of consulting a lawyer.
5. To develop students' research abilities and analytical reasoning skills.
- Learning Outcomes: This course is designed to help the student achieve the following outcomes:
1. To encourage and promote critical thinking, a skill necessary to succeed today as a forensic accountant. This means each student should be able to comprehend an unfocused set of facts, identify, and if possible, anticipate problems, and find acceptable solutions;
2. To improve the students' communication skills. Each student should be able to locate, obtain, and organize information from both human and electronic sources. Each student will also learn to defend his or her views through written work.
3. To help each student acquire a basic knowledge of legal topics that are pertinent to the practice of forensic accounting, both from a law enforcement viewpoint and the private practitioner perspective.
- Major Topics: Topics covered include the grand jury, expert witness testimony, laws that preserve the rights of suspects and witnesses, including those pertaining to searches and seizures, arrest, the privilege against self-incrimination, and laws related to money laundering and terrorist financing, wire fraud, mail fraud, and other fraud-related offenses. The course also provides an overview of offshore entitites such as trusts and shell corporations. Other important topics the course examines are asset tracing and asset forfeiture, tax fraud and alternative dispute resolution.
- Textbooks: Criminal Procedure: An Analysis of Cases & Concepts, 5th ed., by Whitebread and Slobogin (soft cover version). Forensic Accounting by Hopwood, Leiner, & Young. Other materials as provided by the instructor.
- Course Readings, Online Resources, and Other Purchases: Lexis-Nexis and other online law libraries
- Student Expectations/Requirements and Grading Policy: This course is designed to provide the following requirements, which students should master by the end of the course.
1.Understanding the scope, extent and importance of the law as well as the basic concepts, principles and rules of law that apply to forensic accounting
2.Understanding of the significance of the legal system in making decisions and solving forensic accounting problems
3.Knowledege of an appreciation of the Internet and other databases, such as Lexis-Nexis and ABI Inform;
4.The ability to recognize the potential legal problems which may arise in a doubtful or complicated situation, and the necessity of consulting a lawyer
5.The development of research abilities and analytical reasoning skills
6.The promototion of critical thinking, a skill necessary to succeed today as a forensic accountant. This means each student should be able to comprehend an unfocused set of facts, identify, and if possible, anticipate problems, and find acceptable solutions;
7.Improvement of the student’s communication skills. Each student should be able to locate, obtain, and organize information from both human and electronic sources. Each student will also learn to defend his or her views through written work.
8. The acquisition of a basic knowledge of legal topics that are pertinent to the practice of forensic accounting, both from a law enforcement viewpoint and the private practitioner perspective.
9. Necessary preparation of each student for the law section of the Certified Fraud Examiner test.
Two exams will be given in this course. Each exam will
contain objective questions and possibly essays. Each exam will be provided to students and must be completed within the allotted time provided. The instructor will provide detailed information on time allotments in class lectures. The second exam may be comprehensive (cover all material from the entire semester).
Each student’s grade will be based on the following:
Exam 1 150 points
Exam 2 150 points
Oral Presentation 100 points
Homework 100 points
Total Points 500 points
The grading scale for final grades is:
Grade Total Points
A 460-500
A- 445-459
B+ 435-444
B 415-434
B- 395-414
C+ 385-394
C 300-384
D 300-349
F Below 300
- Assignments, Exams and Tests: SCHEDULE OF
ASSIGNMENTS:
PROBLEMS
Unit 1
Slobogin and Whitebread: Ch. 23—Intro to the Grand Jury
Homework problems are in appendix.
Unit 2
Slobogin and Whitebread: Ch. 2—The Exclusionary Rule
Homework problems are in appendix.
Unit 3
Slobogin and Whitebread: Ch. 3—The Law of Arrest
Slobogin and Whitebread: Ch. 6—Search Incident to a Lawful Arrest
Homework problems are in appendix.
Unit 4
Slobogin and Whitebread: Ch. 4—An Introduction to the Law of Searches
Discussion questions and homework problems are in appendix.
Unit 5
Federal Rules of Evidence
In addition to the lecture, please do the following outside readings:
Carl Pacini, William Hillison, and Steve Thompson. 2005. Forensic accountants and attorney-client privilege. Journal of Forensic Accounting, Supplement, pp. 149-166.
Bonita Peterson and D. Barnhill. 2003. Accountants as expert witnesses: A primer on meeting Daubert challenges. Journal of Forensic Accounting IV (December): 113-126.
Mark Gebauer. 2002. The “what” and the “how” of Daubert challenges to expert testimony under the new federal rule of evidence 702. Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly (April): 76-85.
Paul Giannelli. 2001. Forensic science expert qualifications: Traps for the unwary. Criminal Law Bulletin: 249-261.
Most readings available at http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/cpacini under Courses/Supplemental Materials. All articles are password protected. The password is “legal1.”
Also, please read the following two cases after you find them on Lexis-Nexis:
Brinati v. KPMG Peat Marwick, 2 F.3d 183 (7th Cir. 1993)
Sanchez v. KPMG Peat Marwick, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2773 (D.N.M. 1996).
Homework questions and problems are in the appendix.
EXAM 1—exam on all material in units 1-5.
Unit 6
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Federal False Claims Act
In addition to the lecture, please do the following readings:
Pacini, C. and M. Hood. 2007. The role of qui tam actions under the False Claims Act in preventing and deterring fraud against government. University of Miami Business Law Review XV (2): 273-301. (You must find this article in Lexis-Nexis).
Deming, S. 2005. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the new international norms. International Practitioner’s Deskbook Series.
(The instructor will provide you a copy of this article).
No homework assignments for this unit.
Unit 7
Overview of Federal Statutes on Fraud, Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing
In addition to the lecture, please do the following readings:
Davis, K. 2003. Legislating against the financing of terrorism: Pitfalls and prospects. Journal of Financial Crime 10 (3): 269-274.
Silets, H.M. and C.VanCleef. 2003. Compliance issues in the wake of the USA Patriot Act. Journal of Financial Crime 10 (4): 392-399.
Chaikin, D. 2008. Commercial corruption and money laundering: A preliminary analysis. Journal of Financial Crime 15(3): 269-281.
Some of the readings above are available at ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/cpacini under Courses/Supplemental Materials. The password is “legal1.”
FATF. 2009. FATF on Money Laundering: The Forty Recommendations.
Available at http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/pdf/40Recs-2003_en.pdf.
Discussion questions and homework problems are in the appendix.
Unit 8
Trusts and Other Offshore Entities
In addition to the lecture, please do the following readings:
Antoine, R.M. 2007. The offshore trust: A catalyst for development. Journal of Financial Crime 14(3): 264-278.
Ausness, R. 2007. The Offshore Asset Protection Trust: A Prudent Financial Planning Device or the Last Refuge or a Scoundrel? Duquesne University Law Review 45: 147-193. (This article must be obtained from Lexis-Nexis in the USF electronic databases).
Also, please read the following two cases after you find them on Lexis-Nexis:
Alexander v. Thornburgh, 943 F.2d 825 (8th Cir. 1991).
FTC v. Affordable Media, 179 F.3d 1228 (9th Cir. 1999).
One homework assignment is to brief both cases noted above. Another homework assignment is in Appendix A.
Unit 9
Hopwood, Leiner and Young: Chapter 11—Tax Fraud DQs 26,27,
30,32,34,35,41,
44,50
For additional materials on the three methods of reconstructing income please go to:
Net worth method
http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/readingroom/2001ctm/31ctax.pdf
Bank deposits method
http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/readingroom/2001ctm/32ctax.pdf
Expenditures method
http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/readingroom/2001ctm/33ctax.pdf
You have three additional homework problems in the appendix involving application of the three methods to a specific case.
Please do the following reading:
Simser, J. 2008. Tax evasion and avoidance typologies. Journal of Financial Crime 11(2): 123-134.
Unit 10
Asset Tracing and Asset Forfeiture
In addition to the lecture, please do the following readings:
Casella, S. 2008. The case for civil forfeiture. Journal of Financial Crime 11(1): 8-14.
Kennedy, A. 2007. Winning the information wars: Collecting, sharing and analyzing information in asset recovery investigations. Journal of Financial Crime 14(4): 372-404.
Harshman, E., M. Islam, C.A. Nelson, and H. Ordower. 2002. Micro- and macro-economic effects: Secreting assets to evade non-business obligations and responsibilities. Journal of Financial Crime 10 (2): 166-183.
Stotland, G. and K. McGarr. 2003. Investigating offshore financial services in family law cases. American Journal of Family Law 17 (2): 100-107.
Some readings available at http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/cpacini under Supplemental Materials.
Homework problems are in the syllabus appendix.
Unit 11
Slobogin and Whitebread: Ch. 15—Overview of the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination
Discussion questions and homework problems are in the appendix.
EXAM 2—all material in units 6-11.
- Attendance Policy: No formal attendance taken, but student expected to attend and participate.
Religious Observances: The USF Policies and Procedures Manual states that “No student shall be compelled to attend class or sit for an examination at a day or time prohibited by his or her religious belief. In accordance with the University policy on observance of religious holy days, students are expected to notify their instructors if they intend to be absent for a class or announced examination PRIOR to the scheduled meeting.”
- Policy on Make-up Work: Ethics have become an extremely important topic in
today’s environment. An accountant’s only product is his/her service which is measured by his/her integrity and professionalism. It is expected that no academic dishonesty will occur. Cheating on any assignment will be pursued according to the appropriate procedures outlined in the Student Conduct Code. Cheating includes plagiarism on any of the assigned projects.
All students are expected to demonstrate honesty in
their academic pursuits. The university policies regarding issues of honesty can be found on the USF-St. Petersburg website. All students are expected to study this document that outlines their responsibilities and consequences for violations of the policy.
Make-up exams will not be given without the instructor’s approval. If you miss an exam without a reason approved by the instructor, you may receive a “0”. The instructor’s discretion is final. If you hand in a homework assignment late, you may have points deducted from your grade.
- Program This Course Supports: MBA
- Course Concurrence Information: None
- if you have questions about any of these fields, please contact chinescobb@grad.usf.edu or joe@grad.usf.edu.