Get to Know Corey Anne Bloom, Eastern Canada Leader, Forensics & Litigation Support

Meet Corey Anne, the Eastern Canada Leader of our Forensics & Litigation Support team. Corey Anne turned a passion for mystery - solving into an impactful career, and she’s passionate about helping business owners and managers, executives and individuals protect themselves against fraud. Get to know her better in this Q&A.

1. What led you to forensics?

I've always enjoyed mysteries. From a young age, I enjoyed solving puzzles; whether I was reading a book, watching a movie or cracking a riddle, I always liked to solve problems. As a kid, I saw math equations in that light, so I was immediately drawn to that area of study in school. 

I started my career in assurance and audit. During one of my first files, I discovered significant irregularities which turned out to be fraud-related. My team decided that I had an affinity for the area, so I moved naturally into forensics. 

There's also an important side to forensics and fraud that people don't really think about, but it’s always there and it matters a lot to me: the people aspect. When someone is in a potential fraud situation, there's a lot of uncertainty and anxiety. It can affect people personally while at the same time also having a major impact on the business.

Through the stressful period that inevitably accompanies periods of uncertainty surrounding potentially fraudulent situations, we help to reduce the stress which accompanies their financial straits by discovering if issues exist and by creating solutions. We can also assist with future deterrence. I find it personally rewarding to be able to help people through a difficult period.

2. What do you love most about your role at MNP?

What I really love most is the interaction between the teams that I have the good fortune of leading and/or working with across the country. There's a unique camaraderie here.

I am fortunate to work with people who really care about each other and our clients. We're a professional team that does not fit any stereotype.

3. What are the major lessons for you and your clients from the pandemic?

There's a lot we can learn. A crisis of this magnitude does not happen very often, but when it does, people in leadership have to focus on managing the crisis. Reacting and adapting takes up a significant amount of time and attention, which inevitably increases the vulnerability to fraud. 

COVID-19 has taught our clients that they need to have a plan for remaining vigilant and maintaining controls during a crisis period. Even though focusing on addressing the critical issue at hand, they need to balance that with risk management and controls in order to avoid falling victim to two problems at once.

Another lesson to learn is how the actions taken in response to COVID-19 can create or amplify risk. Some organizations are forced to lay off people either temporarily or permanently. This can create opportunities for fraud because there are fewer team members to maintain the defence controls.

4. What are the major fraud trends impacting Canadian businesses?

We have seen quite a few large trends. In Quebec, there's an increase in internal fraud — employees taking the opportunity to defraud the organization they work for from within. As an example, more recently, we've seen more payroll frauds. 

There have also been a number of joint-venture or partner frauds. This can happen when there is more than one partner or joint venture partner where one has more of an operating role than the others. This sometimes creates opaque views of the financial information for the other partners.

Another trend is increased fraud in estate matters. There are cases where one party in an estate feels it has not received what was due to them and there are questions surrounding the events leading up to distribution. We can assist by performing a forensic review and an equalization calculation for the different parties in the estate.

We've also seen an increase in wire transfer frauds and ransomware, especially during the pandemic. This is a risk that isn’t going away and will grow as a threat as new work trends continue. Keeping current in these areas is important and one thing which sets us apart is our internal forensic technology lab.

5. How can business owners protect themselves against these trends?

To protect yourself against a threat, you need to acknowledge it and build a strategy to defend yourself. We host anti-fraud training workshops and these can really help staff/team members become aware of the threats out there. There are so many tips we can give and the range of risks is large but business owners need to know that awareness is half the battle.

The workshops can engage your team members about fraud and teach them the risks. This empowers them to become assets in the fight against fraud.

To learn more about fraud prevention, contact Corey Anne Bloom, CPA, CA, CA∙IFA, CFF, CFE, ACFE Regent Emeritus, Eastern Canada Leader, Forensics and Litigation support at 514.228.7863 or [email protected].