Forensic Accounting with Michael Schulstad

The Zicklin Forensic Accounting Association board would like to thank Michael Schulstad for joining us for another successful semiannual event on October 10th, 2018. As in past events, Michael gave an informative presentation on what it takes to be a forensic accountant, what his career in the FBI required, and what his most recent cases entailed. 

Michael’s presentation differed in some respects from his previous presentations. Michael delved more into the responsibilities of forensic accountants, including what industries and service lines suffer from fraud cases most frequently, as opposed to events that occurred during his time with the FBI. He also shared three of his most recent cases with the students. One of the cases he described involved an individual who rerouted company checks for clients back into her bank account. She also had a prior history of employer theft that wasn’t detected during the hiring period. Michael covered a major theme throughout his presentation: many of the cases that he worked on while consulting involved the perpetrator successfully committing fraud because their manager or supervisor had trusted them and instituted insufficient internal controls. Michael’s presentation piqued the interest of the students who attended because many great and insightful questions were asked during Michael’s Q&A session. 

The board would also like to thank everyone who came out and attended our event with Michael. We hope that you gained valuable insight into the world of forensic accounting. 

Written by: Russell Bruskin 
Edited by: John Chen