76. Criminal Defense Casework | Tracy Coenen & Mary Breslin

The Data Sleuth Podcast

This summer while at the ACFE Global Fraud Conference several speakers and friends of the podcast got together to play an escape room. Before and after the escape room adventure, Leah found herself engrossed in stories from investigators around the US and didn’t want the conversation to end. It was these valuable conversations that inspired the format for the next 6 episodes of the podcast. For the remainder of 2022, Leah is joined by investigators to share case stories from investigations worked in a variety of areas.

In this episode, Leah is joined by Tracy Coenen CPA, CFF, MAFF and Mary Breslin, CFE, CIA who discuss cases involving criminal defense.

Data Sleuth: Using Data in Forensic Accounting Engagements and Fraud Investigations by Leah Wietholter, CFE, PI, CPA

When Leah joined the financial investigation industry over 15 years ago, her goal was to work as many cases as possible, but getting those first few cases felt extremely challenging with questions like, “How do I get the casework without the experience? And how do I get the experience without the casework? And when I get the casework, will I know what to do?”

Based on her experience of working over 200 cases in her career, she wrote Data Sleuth® to help others facing this very problem. It is the book she needed so many years ago. In this book, she explains how to start a financial investigation from case planning, to finding best evidence, to incorporating non-financial evidence – like interviews and open source intelligence, and ultimately, how to put it all together for clients or even law enforcement with step by step details and case examples. If you want to gain confidence in financial investigations to build your case experience, you need to read Leah’s book. Data Sleuth® is available on Amazon, Goodreads, or wherever you like to buy books!

Tracy Coenen CPA, CFF, MAFF

Tracy has been investigating fraud for more than 25 years, but she didn’t always want to be a forensic accountant. With a dream of one day being a prison warden, Tracy went to Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI to get a criminology degree. A class on financial crime investigations reminded her how much she loved Encyclopedia Brown books as a kid. She continued her criminology degree, but added accounting and economics courses so she could sit for the CPA exam. Tracy is a Certified Public Accountant and holds the designations Certified in Financial Forensics and Master Analyst in Financial Forensics.

Now, Tracy is finding money in cases of corporate fraud, high net worth divorce, and other financial shenanigans.

Connect with Tracy:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracycoenen/

Website: http://sequenceinc.com/

Mary Breslin, CFE, CIA

Mary Breslin is the Founder of Verracy and an internationally recognized speaker and training facilitator for Internal Audit, Risk and Fraud. When she is not speaking publicly or facilitating trainings, Ms. Breslin conducts fraud investigations and provides management consulting for internal audit and fraud.

Ms. Breslin has over 25 years of experience in Internal Audit, Fraud, Accounting and Management, including working for global companies like Costco, Barclay’s Capital, ConocoPhillips, and Boart Longyear. She has implemented and managed audit programs in more than 50 countries. Additionally, she has led fraud investigations in numerous countries spanning six continents.

Ms. Breslin attended Rutgers University and University of Phoenix. She is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).

Connect with Mary:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marybreslin/

Website: http://www.verracy.com/

Connect with Workman Forensics

Youtube: @WorkmanForensics

LinkedIn: @workmanforensics

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