Last month, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced that there will now be a Pulitzer for audio reporting, further proving that podcasting has become an unignorable cultural force. In the announcement, Pulitzer Administrator Dana Canedy explained that the renaissance of audio journalism in recent years has given rise to an extraordinary array of non-fiction storytelling.

Investigative podcasts are exploding. Here are six great ones to get you started.

Find out EVERYTHING you want to know about your friends, family, neighbors, employees, even your boss! People search & locate people! Find email addresses!

Specialized Investigative and Research Consulting for the Legal and Business Communities

Frasco and Defense Investigators Group Combine Strengths

The advent of the Internet began the age of electronic media and information platforms, giving out a huge amount of contradictory information. Center for Geostrategic Studies presents the investigation on one of them - online media Bellingcat

Financial Investigative Reporting and Mentorship Initiative

reyesm1 Tue, 09/19/2023 - 12:17

The stage is changing as more women and queer folk take the helm, and practitioners experiment with new stories

Israel is not sufficiently proactive in detecting and investigating foreign bribery, with no prosecutions over the past 7 years, despite 14 allegations of foreign bribery involving Israeli individuals or companies. The OECD Working Group on Bribery is, however, encouraged by the recently-opened investigations, and will pay close attention to how these evolve.

This study explores good practices and challenges in the detection of international corruption cases via media reporting and investigative journalism.

On February 28, ICITAP completed an intensive two-week engagement to provide the Nepal Police Job Task working group assistance in finalizing the criminal investigator task list, equipment list, and risk analysis lists for criminal investigator position. 

At Evidence Live this year, the focus of the conference was on communication of evidence - both academically, and to the public. And part of that is the role that investigative journalism has to play in that. At the BMJ we’ve used investigative journalistic techniques to try and expose wrong doing on the part of government and industry - always...

Signing off after 30 years at the ABC, award-winning reporter Margot O'Neill writes about the thrill of the big scoop and gives an insight into the grinding slog of investigative journalism.

Following a comprehensive investigation, the Justice Department today announced its findings that the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) has engaged in patterns of misconduct that violate the Constitution and federal law.

Following a comprehensive investigation, the Justice Department today announced its findings that the Puerto Rico Police Department has engaged in a pattern and practice of misconduct that violates the Constitution and federal law.

"As outlined in our findings report, we found reasonable cause to believe that PRPD engages in a pattern and practice of unconstitutional and/or unlawful conduct in three areas," said Assistant Attorney General Perez.

Following a comprehensive investigation, the Justice Department today announced its findings that the state of Florida’s oversight system failed to detect and sufficiently address harmful practices at both the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys and the Jackson Juvenile Offender Center.

Following a comprehensive investigation, the Justice Department today announced its findings in the ongoing civil rights investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

"As outlined in our findings letter, we found reasonable cause to believe that MCSO engages in a pattern or practice of violating the Constitution and laws of the United States in 3 areas," said Assistant Attorney General Perez.

Following a comprehensive investigation, the Justice Department today announced its findings that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) has engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force that violates the Constitution and federal law.

"Our attorneys, investigators and experts conducted extensive interviews with command staff and rank-and-file officers; participated in ride-alongs with officers; and reviewed thousands of pages of documents," said Assistant Attorney General Perez.

The investigation found that EHPD intentionally targets Latinos for traffic enforcement and treats Latino drivers more harshly after traffic stops in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, Title VI and the Safe Streets Act.

"Based on our investigation, we find that the East Haven Police Department engages in discriminatory policing against Latinos," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Austin.

Following a comprehensive investigation, the Justice Department announced today its findings that the state of Mississippi violated the constitutional rights of youth detained at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility.

The International Competition Network (ICN) launched and approved three new initiatives on international enforcement cooperation, the investigative process in competition cases and working with the courts.

Following a comprehensive investigation, the Justice Department today announced its findings regarding the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County (JCMSC), and the Shelby County Juvenile Detention Center in Tennessee. The Justice Department found that the juvenile court fails to provide constitutionally required due process to all children appearing for delinquency proceedings, that the court’s administration of juvenile justice discriminates against African-American children, and that its detention center violates the substantive due process rights of detained youth by not providing them with reasonably safe conditions of confinement. The investigation, opened in August 2009, was conducted under provision of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Justice Department released a letter of findings today determining that the Lauderdale County Youth Court, the Meridian Police Department (MPD), and the Mississippi Division of Youth Services (DYS) are violating the constitutional rights of juveniles in Meridian, Miss. The department’s investigation found reasonable cause to believe that these agencies have violated the constitutional due process rights of children in the city of Meridian and the county of Lauderdale under the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

Following a comprehensive investigation, the Justice Department today released its letter of findings determining that the Topeka Correctional Facility (TCF), an all-female facility in Topeka, Kan., under the jurisdiction of the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC), fails to protect women prisoners from harm due to sexual abuse and misconduct from correctional staff and other prisoners in violation of their constitutional rights. The Justice Department delivered a letter detailing the findings to Governor Samuel D. Brownback and Secretary of the KDOC Ray Roberts.

Following a comprehensive investigation, the Justice Department announced today its findings that the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) in North Carolina, under the leadership of Sheriff Terry S. Johnson, engages in a pattern or practice of misconduct that violates the Constitution and federal law. The department conducted its investigation, which it opened on June 2, 2010, pursuant to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI).

The International Competition Network advanced convergence through important initiatives on international enforcement cooperation and investigative processes in competition cases.

Following a comprehensive investigation, the Justice Department today released its letter of findings determining that the city of Miami Police Department (MPD) has engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive use of force through officer-involved shootings in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.

Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer and FBI Assistant Director Ronald T. Hosko testify on cartel prosecution before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights

Following a comprehensive investigation, today the Justice Department announced its findings that the Albuquerque Police Department has engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force that violates the Constitution and federal law.

"This investigation was not an easy task, but through all of these efforts, we made certain to gather the facts and apply the law to the facts to reach our conclusions."

by Marshall Allen

The links to the viral video “Plandemic” started showing up in my Facebook feed Wednesday. “Very interesting,” one of my friends wrote about it. I saw several subsequent posts about it, and then my brother texted me, “Got a sec?”

My brother is a pastor in Colorado and had someone he respects urge him to watch “Plandemic,” a 26-minute video that promises to reveal the “hidden agenda” behind the COVID-19 pandemic. I called him and he shared his concern: People seem to be taking the conspiracy theories presented in “Plandemic” seriously. He wondered if I could write something up that he could pass along to them, to help people distinguish between sound reporting and conspiracy thinking or propaganda.

So I watched “Plandemic.” I did not find it credible, as I will explain below. YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo have since removed it from their platforms for violating their guidelines. Now it’s available on its own site.

Sensational videos, memes, rants and more about COVID-19 are likely to keep coming. With society polarized and deep distrust of the media, the government and other institutions, such content is a way for bad actors to sow discord, mostly via social media. We saw it with Russia in the 2016 election and we should expect it to continue.

But what surprised me is how easily “Plandemic” sank its hooks into some of my friends. My brother also felt alarmed that his own church members and leaders in other churches might be tempted to buy into it.

The purpose of this column is not to skewer “Plandemic.” My goal is to offer some criteria for sifting through all the content we see every day, so we can tell the difference between fair reporting and something so biased it should not be taken seriously.

Here’s a checklist, some of which I shared with my friends on Facebook, to help interrogate any content — and that includes what we publish at ProPublica.

Is the Presentation One-Sided?

There’s never just one side to a story. I mentioned this point in 2018 when I wrote about my faith and the biblical basis for investigative reporting. One of my favorite Proverbs says, “The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.” So a fair presentation should at least acknowledge opposing points of view.

I didn’t see this in “Plandemic,” so I called the filmmaker, Mikki Willis, who is also the film’s narrator, to ask him whether I had somehow missed the other side of the argument. I had not. “The other side of the argument plays 24/7 on every screen in every airport and on every phone and in every home,” Willis said. “The people are only seeing one side of the story all the time. This is the other side of the story. This is not a piece that’s intended to be perfectly balanced.”

I asked Willis if it was fair to call his film “propaganda,” which the Oxford dictionary defines as “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.”

He said he doesn’t feel there’s anything misleading in his film, but otherwise the definition fits. And based on that definition he feels 100% of news reporting is propaganda. “What isn’t propaganda these days?” he asked. “In that sense, what we’re doing is fighting fire with fire.”

Is There an Independent Pursuit of the Truth?

The star of “Plandemic,” medical researcher Judy Mikovits, is controversial. The magazine Science reports that it published and then retracted one of her papers in 2011. A search warrant provided to ProPublica by one of her former attorneys shows she was fired from her position at Whittemore Peterson Institute, a research center in Nevada, in September 2011. Then she allegedly stole notebooks and a laptop computer from the Institute, the search warrant said, leading to an arrest warrant for alleged possession of stolen property and unlawful taking of computer data. She was arrested on Nov. 18, 2011, but denied wrongdoing. The charges were dropped.

But “Plandemic” ignores or brushes past these facts and portrays her as an embattled whistleblower. “So you made a discovery that conflicted with the agreed-upon narrative?” Willis says to Mikovits, introducing her as a victim. “And for that, they did everything in their powers to destroy your life.”

A typical viewer is not going to know the details about Mikovits’ background. But as the primary source of controversial information being presented as fact, it’s worth an online search. The fact-checking site PolitiFact details her arrest and criminal charges. Clearly, there’s more to her story than what’s presented in “Plandemic.” That should give us pause when we assess its credibility.

Is There a Careful Adherence to the Facts?

In “Plandemic,” Willis asks Mikovits about her arrest: “What did they charge you with?”

“Nothing,” she replies. “I was held in jail, with no charges.”

Being charged with a crime is one of those concrete facts that we can check out. Science magazine reported Mikovits’ arrest and felony charge. I also found a civil lawsuit she filed against the Whittemore Peterson Institute in 2014 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. “Mikovits was arrested on criminal charges…” her complaint says in the case, which was eventually dismissed.

I asked Willis about the apparent discrepancy, where she said in his film that she wasn’t charged, when court documents show that she was charged. After my inquiry, he said he spoke to Mikovits and now feels it is clear that she meant that the charges were dropped.

I tracked down Mikovits and she said what she meant in the film is that there were no charges of any type of wrongdoing that would have led to her being charged with being a fugitive from justice. She admitted that all the controversy has been hard for her to sort out. “I’ve been confused for a decade,” she told me. She said she would try to be more clear in the future when she talks about the criminal charge: “I’ll try to learn to say it differently,” she said.

This underscores the importance of careful verification, and it distinguishes the craft of journalism from other forms of information sharing. People often speak imprecisely when they’re telling their stories. It’s our duty to nail down precisely what they do and do not mean, and verify it independently. If we don’t, we risk undermining their credibility and ours. That’s in part why we at ProPublica and many other journalists often link directly to our underlying source documents, so you can verify the information yourself.

Are Those Accused Allowed to Respond?

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is one of the nation’s leaders in the response to the coronavirus. In “Plandemic,” Mikovits accuses Fauci of a cover-up and of paying off people who perpetrate fraud, among other things. PolitiFact found no evidence to support the allegations against Fauci.

Every time I write a story that accuses someone of wrongdoing I call them and urge them to explain the situation from their perspective. This is standard in mainstream journalism. Sometimes I’ve gone to extreme lengths to get comments from someone who will be portrayed unfavorably in my story — traveling to another state and showing up at their office and their home and leaving a note if they are not there to meet me. “Plandemic” doesn’t indicate whether the filmmakers reached out to Fauci for his version of the story. So I asked Willis about it. “We did not,” he told me.

Are All Sources Named and Cited, and if Not, Is the Reason Explained?

All sources should be identified, with their credentials, so viewers can verify their expertise or possible biases. If they can’t be for some reason, then that should be explained. “Plandemic” features unnamed people in medical scrubs, presented as doctors, saying they’re being wrongly pressured to add COVID-19 on people’s death certificates or are not being allowed to use the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat patients. But the speakers are not named, so we can’t really tell who they are, or even if they are doctors at all. That makes it impossible to tell if they are credible.

I asked Willis why he didn’t name those people. He told me he was in a hurry to release the 26-minute version of “Plandemic,” but the doctors will be named in the final version. “We should have done that,” he said.

Does the Work Claim Some Secret Knowledge?

“Plandemic” calls itself a documentary that reveals “the hidden agenda behind COVID-19.” We are in the midst of a global pandemic where few people in the world can figure out what is happening or the right way to respond, let alone agendas. We have almost every journalist in the country writing about this. And if the truth about a conspiracy is out there, many people have an incentive to share it. But “Plandemic” would like us to think it’s presenting some exclusive bit of secret knowledge that is going to get at the real story. That’s not likely.

Plus, to be honest, there were so many conspiratorial details stacked on top of each other in the film I couldn’t keep them straight. When I spoke to Willis I told him I was having a hard time understanding his point. Then I took a stab at what I thought was the main thrust of his argument. “Are you saying that powerful people planned the pandemic and made it happen so they could get rich by making everyone get vaccines?” I asked.

It turns out Willis isn’t sure either. “We’re in the exploratory phase,” he told me. “I don’t know, to be clear, if it’s an intentional or naturally occurring situation. I have no idea.”

Then he went on to say that the pandemic is being politicized and used to take away our civil liberties and leverage other political policies. “Certain forces” have latched onto the situation, he said. “It’s too fishy.”

He had me at, “I have no idea.” That sums it up. This is a vast pandemic and massive catastrophe. Our country wasn’t prepared for it, and the response by our top leaders has been disjointed. We’re restricted to our homes. Many people have lost their jobs and some are afraid or sick or dying. That makes us vulnerable to exploitation by people who will present inaccurate or intellectually dishonest information that promises to tell us the truth.

Perhaps “Plandemic” is guilty of sloppy storytelling, or maybe people really do believe the things they’re saying in the video. Or perhaps they’re being intentionally dishonest, or it’s a biased connecting of the dots rooted in personal and professional grievances. I don’t know because I can’t get inside their heads to judge their motives.

Ultimately, we’re all going to need to be more savvy consumers when it comes to information, no matter how slickly it’s presented. This may be but a signal of what’s to come in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, when memes and ads of unknown origin come across our social media feeds. There are standards for judging the credibility of the media we take in every day, so let’s apply them.

---

Israel is not sufficiently proactive in detecting and investigating foreign bribery, with no prosecutions over the past 7 years, despite 14 allegations of foreign bribery involving Israeli individuals or companies. The OECD Working Group on Bribery is, however, encouraged by the recently-opened investigations, and will pay close attention to how these evolve.

This study explores good practices and challenges in the detection of international corruption cases via media reporting and investigative journalism.

Dilip D'Souza comments on the climate for investigative reporting and public expectations of it.

[Hagerstown, MD, etc.] [Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, etc.]

CCH's Forensic and Investigative Accounting (4th Edition) is a complete and readily teachable text on today's most timely accounting topics. Forensic accounting is a growing area of practice in which the knowledge, skills and abilities of advanced accounting are combined with investigative expertise and applied to legal problems. Written by three top accounting and forensic teachers, Forensic and Investigative Accounting covers all the important underpinnings, as well as the substance of forensic accounting. It covers both litigation support and investigative accounting, examining the practical aspects of these two areas, as well as many of the newer technological areas.

Forensic and Investigative Accounting explains and demonstrates how an effective forensic accountant needs a solid understanding of accounting, investigative auditing techniques, criminology, and courtroom procedures, as well as excellent communications skills, both written and oral. In today's litigious and highly regulated climate, all accountants--external, internal, forensic consultants, and corporate accountants--must possess this knowledge base and develop these techniques. This intriguing text provides unparalleled guidance to help develop the mindset and the skill set to meet the evolving challenges facing accountants today. 

The 4th Edition includes new fraud schemes, numerous new eyewitness and spotlight stories, and new forensic techniques and tools, such as timeline analysis, link analysis, invigilation, genograms, proof of cash, entity charts, and full-and-false inclusion tests. This edition brings the reader up to date with the latest cybercrime activity and cases, and it documents the latest corruption schemes and explains how to find and prevent them.  

Learning Aids:

• Pedagogical aids built into the text include chapter objectives and numerous illustrative examples, figures, tables and special informational sidebars to engage students throughout and keep the presentation lively. Each chapter includes problems to test a student's understanding of the material presented. A special Instructor's Guide that includes chapter problems and solutions along with a testbank with solutions is available to adopting instructors.
• CCH® Study MATE is an online learning center for college students. The Study MATE Forensic Topics Library was created to supplement this textbook by providing an easy online tutor to help students with difficult concepts and test them on their knowledge. CCH textbook adopters and their students have free access to the Forensic Topics library for a full year! To view the courses available, visit www.cchstudymate.com. Enrollment instructions are provided with each textbook.

Table of Contents

PART ONE: THE FIELD AND PRACTICE OF FORENSIC

If you would like more details about this product, or would like to order a copy online, please click here.

Available: July 2011

Author: D. Larry Crumbley, CPA, CFD, Cr.FA

CCH's Forensic and Investigative Accounting (5th Edition) is a complete and readily teachable text on today's most timely accounting topics. Written by three top accounting and forensic teachers, this text covers all the important underpinnings, as well as the substance of forensic accounting. It covers both litigation support and investigative accounting, examining the practical aspects of these two areas, as well as many of the newer technological areas.

Forensic and Investigative Accounting explains and demonstrates how an effective forensic accountant needs a solid understanding of accounting, investigative auditing techniques, criminology, and courtroom procedures, as well as excellent communications skills, both written and oral. In today's litigious and highly regulated climate, all accountants-external, internal, forensic consultants, and corporate accountants-must possess this knowledge base and develop these techniques.

CONTENTS:
Forensic and Investigative Accounting is presented in 18 Chapters divided into five Parts, beginning with a discussion of fundamental concepts and culminating in a real-world case study that ties the elements together.

PART ONE: THE FIELD AND PRACTICE OF FORENSIC ACCOUNTING Chapter 1 - Introduction to Forensic and Investigative Accounting Chapter 2 - Forensic Accounting Education, Institutions and Specialties.

PART TWO: UNCOVERING ACCOUNTING CRIME Chapter 3 - Fraudulent Financial Reporting Chapter 4 - Detecting Fraud in Financial Reporting. Chapter 5 - Employee Fraud: The Misappropriation of Assets. Chapter 6 - Indirect Methods of Reconstructing Income. Chapter 7 - Money Laundering and Transnational Financial Flows.

PART THREE: COURTROOM PROCEDURES AND LITIGATION SUPPORT Chapter 8 - Litigation Services Provided by Accountants Chapter 9 - Proper Evidence Management. Chapter 10 - Commercial Damages. If you would like more details about this product, or would like to order a copy online, please click here. Full Article investigative Forensic and Investigative Accounting Casebook (1st Edition) By www.cch.ca Published On :: Fri, 31 May 2013 14:44:52 GMT Author: Professor D. Larry Crumbley, PhD, CPA, CFF, CrFA A collection of Problem-Based Learning cases designed to reinforce principles taught in forensic accounting/auditing courses throughout the United States. Each case: lays out the basic principles and parameters of analysis to be applied in uncovering and proving fraudulent activity in domestic and/or international operations; provides a fact pattern and supporting documentation that allow students to not only uncover illegal activity, but also to prove such fraud in a court of law under American rules of evidence and courtroom procedure; is designed for students to perform forensic investigation, alone or in teams, with the instructor serving as a facilitator; and includes secondary documents that either corroborate the superficial accounting information initially provided or reveal anomalies and discrepancies pointing to who, what, when, where, how, and why. 350 pages Related Products Forensic - Bundle Book and Casebook - 4441 + 5818 Forensic and Investigative Accounting (6th Edition) If you would like more details about this product, or would like to order a copy online, please click here. Full Article investigative Forensic and Investigative Accounting (6th Edition) By www.cch.ca Published On :: Fri, 31 May 2013 14:37:07 GMT Authors: Professor D. Larry Crumbley, CPA, CFD, Cr.FA,, Lester E. Heitger, CPA,, G. Stevenson Smith This book is a complete and readily teachable text on today's most timely accounting topics. It covers all the important underpinnings, as well as the substance of forensic accounting. It covers both litigation support and investigative accounting, examining the practical aspects of these two areas, as well as many of the newer technological areas. This book demonstrates how an effective forensic accountant needs a solid understanding of accounting, investigative auditing techniques, criminology, and courtroom procedures, as well as excellent communications skills, both written and oral. In today's litigious and highly regulated climate, all accountants — external, internal, forensic consultants, and corporate accountants — must possess this knowledge base and develop these techniques. This intriguing text provides unparalleled guidance to help develop the mindset and the skill set to meet the evolving challenges facing accountants today. The 6th Edition includes new fraud schemes, numerous new eyewitness and spotlight stories, and new forensic techniques and tools, such as timeline analysis, link analysis, invigilation, genograms, proof of cash, entity charts, and full-and-false inclusion tests. This edition brings the reader up to date with the latest cybercrime activity and cases, and it documents the latest corruption schemes and explains how to find and prevent them. CONTENTS: PART ONE: THE FIELD AND PRACTICE OF FORENSIC ACCOUNTING Chapter 1 — Introduction to Forensic and Investigative Accounting Chapter 2 — Forensic Accounting Education, Institutions and Specialties. PART TWO: UNCOVERING ACCOUNTING CRIME Chapter 3 — Fraudulent Financial Reporting Chapter 4 — Detecting Fraud in Financial Reporting. Chapter 5 — Employee Fraud: The Misappropriation of Assets. Chapter 6 — Indirect Methods of Reconstructing Income. Chapter 7 — Money Laundering and Transnational Financial Flows. PART THREE: COURTROOM PROCEDURES AND LITIGATION SUPPORT Chapter 8 — Litigation Services Provided by Accountants Chapter 9 — Proper Evidence Management. Chapter 10 — Commercial Damages. Chapter 11 — Litigation Support in Special Situations. Chapter 12 — Computing Economic Damages. PART FOUR: CYBERCRIME Chapter 13 — Computer Forensics: A Brief Introduction. Chapter 14 — Internet Forensic Analysis: Profiling the Cyber Criminal. Chapter 15 — Cybercrime Management: Legal Issues. Chapter 16 — Cybercrime Management: Loss Valuations. PART FIVE: BUSINESS VALUATIONS Chapter 17 — Business Valuation. PART SIX: FOREN If you would like more details about this product, or would like to order a copy online, please click here. Full Article Recent Trending Investigative podcasts are exploding. Here are six great ones to get you started. Net-Vestigator! People Search Investigative Software Frasco® Integrated Research Adds Barbara Rudd to Investigative Consultant Team Defense Investigators Group Joins Forces with Frasco: A New Era of Investigative Services Unveiled Geostrategy.rs: Investigative Journalism: Who is the Investigator? Undercurrents: Episode 27 - Financing for Developing Countries, and Investigative Journalism in West Africa Financial Investigative Reporting and Mentorship Initiative Manam Theatre Festival 2024 | Fresh, investigative takes on gender and the body OECD encouraged by Israel’s recent investigative activity, but remains seriously concerned with overall efforts to enforce foreign bribery laws The role of media and investigative journalism in combating corruption Nepal: ICITAP Mentors National Police to Strengthen Criminal Investigative Capacity Undercurrents: Episode 27 - Financing for Developing Countries, and Investigative Journalism in West Africa When an investigative journalist calls Forum 2019 : 7B Privilege : recent developments as to privilege self: incrimination and stay of civil proceedings, privilege over investigative reports and privilege over instructions to experts / paper presented by Alex Lazarevich, Anthony Mason Chambers ABC's Margot O'Neill shares insights from 30 years of investigative journalism Subscribe To Our Newsletter