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 Stewart Burger is a forensic accountant who works for a large Houston CPA firm. His specialty is the investigation of financial crimes and money laundering. He has extensive experience working with the FBI in the areas of narcotics interdiction, bank fraud schemes, organized crime, and international terrorism. Stewart was recently contacted by Maria Fuerte in the FBI's counterterrorism unit in Houston. She told him that she was in the middle of an ongoing terrorist investigation and that she needed his immediate help.

"What kind of help do you need?" asked Stewart. She smiled. "You know the drill. I can't tell you anything unless you first join the team. If you do, we'll have to reinstate your security clearance."

Stewart knew the case would take a lot of time, and the FBI would pay him more with gratitude than with money. "I'm pretty busy these days. Can it wait a couple of weeks?"

Maria leaned over and whispered in his ear, "I understand that you have a daughter working inside the Loop?"

Stewart was a trained interrogator. Her body language and her eyes were warning him of something. "That bad?" he asked. She nodded imperceptibly. He immediately agreed to let her drive him to her office.

In the office, the paperwork had already been done, and within a few minutes Stewart was wearing a counterterrorism field agent badge. Maria's supervisor called his office and told the partner in charge that he was assisting a "routine investigation" as a matter of national security. "Okay, here's what we have," said Maria as she displayed photos of four men on her computer monitor. "These four men are loose in the city, and we know they are planning a bomb attack within the next 48 hours. I need you to help me find them."

All four men appeared to be of U.S. descent and were wearing expensive business suits. "We identified them through an informant," she said. "They're all executives in the Westwood Construction Development Company in Clear Lake."

Stewart recognized the company's name. It was one of the largest commercial developers in the area. Maria continued. "We managed to get a sneak and peek warrant, and last night our agents went in and made copies of all their computer files and paper records. Our guys were out before daylight, and no one but us even knows we were there."

She led him to a room in which there was a large conference table on which piles of documents and six computers were sitting. She explained that the computers were exact copies of the six computers in Westwood's offices. "We also imaged and printed all of their paper documents too." "You're fast," said Stewart. Maria laughed. "We sent in 14 of our best agents. They knew exactly what to do. Now you've got to hurry. We don't have much time. We believe that Westwood has been funding the terrorist cell with bomb plans. We need some kind of evidenceany kind of evidenceto arrest these guys. We think we can stop the plot if we can."

Stewart asked for 10 field auditors. She told them that she had anticipated his request and already had them checked in. They were waiting in another part of the building.

1. How should Stewart proceed with his investigation? How should he use the 10 field auditors?

What areas should he focus on the most?

  

1. What types of leads might Stewart develop for follow-up by Maria?

 

 

1. Is Joey's money-laundering scheme likely to work?

 

1. Is the bank likely to report the deposit of the payment for the yacht by filing a currency transaction report or a suspicious activity report?

 

1. Is law enforcement likely to discover his purchase of the house or boat for cash?

 

1. How would a forensic accountant go about investigating Joey for drug trafficking and money laundering if given subpoena power? Would the investigation discover the under-the-table house and yacht purchases?

 

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Investigating Westwood Construction for Terrorism Funding A Forensic Accountants Approach Stewart can leverage his forensic accounting expertise and the team of field auditors to investigate Westwood ... View the full answer