Asset tracing is a crucial part of any financial fraud investigation. Asset tracing helps investigators answer the five essential questions of any asset recovery investigation:
- Who
- Who stole the money?
- Who were the co-conspirators?
- What
- What was stolen?
- From whom?
- Where
- Where were the assets stolen?
- Where did the assets go?
- Where are the assets now?
- When
- When did the offense or the money laundering take place?
- How
- How were the assets stolen?
- How were the assets moved?
- How do we get the assets back?
Asset tracing helps link the movement of assets to criminal activity.
Therefore, the process by which assets undergo assortment and analysis must be fast, accurate, and allow for collaborative and intelligent insights.
Today’s sophisticated technology can automatically transform a task that used to take days or months into a job that can be completed during a lunch break.
Consider the case of the largest financial scams in sports history at Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). This global scam included over 50 individual and corporate defendants from over 20 countries, including the officials of FIFA, owners of the broadcasting corporations, and sports marketing executives.
In August 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) recognized and remitted losses of up to $200 million to the victims of this scandal. In addition, powerful automation software assisted officials with the help of processing, analyzing, and conveying humongous data in an insightful manner backed by powerful visuals and reports to close the process of asset tracing successfully.
Thousands of documents can be extracted, sorted, and made ready for analysis in the time it takes you to enjoy a burger or salad.
Several solutions in the market capture and prepare data with the accuracy and precision required for asset tracing and recovery. Here’s an overview of the top six asset tracing tools; everything they offer; and how to learn more:
- ScanWriter
- Chorus Financial
- CFIS®
- Valid8
- Cobwebs
- Verafin
#1 – ScanWriter
ScanWriter is a data entry automation and visualization tool to assist financial fraud investigators in tracing hidden assets. It has been purpose-built – it’s used and trusted by many district attorneys, forensic accountants, and fraud investigators across the USA working in the public sector. It aids investigators in saving precious time in tracing the flow of stolen assets by providing in-built automatic visualization of financial models like the ‘flow of funds.’
How It Works
- ScanWriter’s check reader automatically reads, captures, and organizes data from all checks.
- ScanWriter converts data from PDF check images to custom Excel spreadsheets.
(ScanWriter converts check image data into intuitive Excel columns)
- ScanWriter integrates processed data with Power BI to visualize patterns and activities and identify data relationships.
- District attorneys, forensic accountants, and fraud investigators across the USA call ScanWriter their number one fraud investigation tool because of its automation and accuracy.
Features
- Processes any source, from computer-typed characters to handwritten documents.
(ScanWriter can import and process multiple formats of documents)
- Ensures 100% accuracy
(ScanWriter offers the ability to verify and amend data)
- Automatically generates reports which can be customized within ScanWriter for in-depth analysis to uncover hidden assets.
Also, check out how to smartly uncover hidden assets in divorce proceedings.
(ScanWriter generates in-depth reports for asset recovery analyses)
- Offers case management functionality making it easier for fraud investigation teams to collaborate over cases.
(ScanWriter – Case Management Feature)
- ScanWriter supports more than 40,000 institutions, including more than 15,000 financial institutions.
(ScanWriter supports more than 15,000+ financial institutions)
Benefits
- Captures any document, including bank statements, check images, wires, cash receipts, medical records, EOBs, flight logs, payroll reports, and more.
- Supports 21+ languages
- ScanWriter is an on-premise solution. It processes data only on your local computer.
- Dedicated customer support, available 24/7
Their Clients
ScanWriter benefits businesses of all types. Clients boost productivity by 90% through time-saving tools and technology.
“ScanWriter has been such an effective tool, particularly in helping us crack a trade-based money laundering case recently.
To put things in perspective: We input over 10,000 checks and around 15,000 wires in ScanWriter.
In a usual scenario, a program would be unable to read wires. Not only did ScanWriter resolve this issue, but it also helped determine over $300 million of wire transactions in this case.
Moreover, with the speed and accuracy of ScanWriter, we could get evidence to the judge in time to obtain necessary seizure warrants. Additionally, generating specific Excel fields to review important information promptly was a smooth experience.
I use ScanWriter every day to read checks and other documents. ScanWriter is a game changer.” — Analyst, HIFCA.
Demo
Learn more about ScanWriter’s automated solutions for financial fraud investigation. Try us here.
Case Study
Learn more about ScanWriter’s role in helping Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) trace assets using money from Medicaid funds. View the case study here.
Must Read: Asset Recovery and Management Through AI
#2 – Chorus Financial
Chorus Financial uses advanced analytical modeling techniques to facilitate asset tracing and confidently turn data into intelligence and evidence. A fully integrated suite assists at every financial fraud investigation stage.
How It Works
- Drag and drop functionality
- Automatic and intelligent categorization tool that codes all transactions
- A summary table shows how an account is functioning
Features
- Modular intelligence suite
- Dynamic visualizations include charts and tables
- Summarized account view
- Pattern finder, which links transactions
- Finds flow of funds moving through multiple bank accounts
Benefits
- Intuitive, self-serve interface
- Automated data cleansing
- Automatically generates custom reports to identify connections and build an investigation for asset tracing and recovery
Their Clients
Chorus Financial is used successfully for asset tracing and analysis by investigators in financial fraud investigations.
“The time spent analyzing data has cut to a fraction of that used before Chorus.” — Investigator
Demo
Request a demo here to see how Chorus Financial can help save your data challenges.
#3 – Comprehensive Financial Investigative Solution
CFIS® was designed as a purpose-built financial investigation system for federal, state, local prosecutors, law enforcement, regulatory agencies, and forensic accountants. With tools to accelerate asset tracing and the flow of funds, CFIS increases an agency’s ability to conduct large and small financial fraud investigations.
How It Works
- Automated data capture into a centralized, comprehensive database.
- Reconciles statements to zero.
- CFIS visualizes the flow of funds.
- Reads all wire formats, MICR line of checks – typed and printed.
Features
- Centralized database
- All support documents are linked to statement transactions for 100% accuracy
- Visualization of financial transactions patterns
Benefits
- CFIS allows selecting reports, queries, and a flow of funds analysis in a moment
- Ability to quickly search through thousands of files
Their Clients
Because of its accuracy and speed, CFIS® is a popular solution for federal agencies and law enforcement.
“Four years of brokerage statements reconciled in less than two minutes. This is phenomenal!” — Dept. of State, US Government
Learn More
Request more information about CFIS® here.
#4 – Valid8
Designed by CPAs for CPAs, Valid8 integrates evidence and client accounting entries into a single transaction database where transfers are identified and then visualized into a flow of funds chart.
How It Works
Valid8 accelerates data prep and integrates financial entries into a single transaction database to visualize and facilitate financial fraud investigations.
Features
- Extracts statements transactions in any format from any institution.
- Automated quality control reconciliation assures 100% accuracy.
- Syncs to Microsoft Excel to clean up and categorize data.
Benefits
- Simplifies and standardizes accounting system data
- Interactive reporting using data visualizations automates asset tracing and flow of funds
- Hosted at Amazon Web Service and SOC2 certified to ensure data security
- Clarifies analysis with custom categories for each case and transaction group
Their Clients
Investigators of financial crimes and forensic accountants use Valid8 to turn financial records into intelligence.
“Every time I introduce anyone to Valid8 and show them what it’s capable of doing, they’re shocked, and they say, ‘Why didn’t you show this to me a year ago?” — Senior Accountant
Demo
See Valid8 live. Schedule your demo here.
#5 – Cobwebs
Cobwebs is a powerful, easy-to-use platform that enables users to weave the web of their business opportunities and risks with AI-delivered intelligent insights on AML, fraud, and cyber threats.
How It Works
Cobwebs provide a complete intelligence solution that automatically collects and analyzes information from dynamic web sources such as social media, deep web, and dark web, as well as public records. Security experts and financial professionals rely on this exclusive technology to drive complex investigations and decisions based on precision data.
Features
- Automates and expedites the due diligence process
- Instantly uncovers and analyzes networks using artificial intelligence
- Triggers automated real-time alerts based on defined inputs
Benefits
- Easy-to-use yet powerful search engine for all KYC/AML/CFT queries
- Real-time insights provide 24/7 peace of mind
- Safe, anonymous workflow and compliant sources
Their Clients
Organizations worldwide rely on Cobweb’s award-winning technologies to make risk-based decisions via precision intelligence and protect themselves from threats.
Demo
Request a Cobwebs demo here.
#6 – Verafin
Verafin uses artificial intelligence and machine learning for cross-institutional, multi-channel analysis. Verafin’s approach includes big data intelligence, visual storytelling, and collaborative investigations to help institutions stay a step ahead of regulatory change and financial crime.
How It Works
Verafin offers fraud and money laundering alerts, end-to-end due diligence solutions, robust case management functionality, automated regulatory reporting, and the ability to share information with other institutions.
Features
- Provides targeted alerts packaged with supporting information and evidence
- Unique visual storytelling capabilities expedite investigations with rich, detailed reports
Benefits
- Integrated case management lets you create a fully audited and tracked investigation.
- Verafin allows collaborative investigations spanning multiple institutions.
- Verafin saves time and resources with intelligent evidence and investigation tools for asset tracing.
Their Clients
Verafin provides financial institutions with a complete solution to detect, investigate, and report the financial crime.
“The increasing sophistication of the ‘bad guy’ creates a growing challenge for banks of any size to recognize fraudulent and money laundering activity. Verafin provides a holistic view and behavioral analysis of our clients within the bank and also provides a view of client activity among collaborative institutions.” — Texas Bankers Association
Demo
See Verafin’s industry-leading financial crime management platform in action. Click here.
In Summary
When choosing the best asset tracing tool for your financial fraud investigation, you’ll want to consider these four essential features.
- Data Preparation. Your platform should:
- Read any document — handwritten or text.
- Handle large volumes of data without compromising speed and accuracy
- Information Extraction. The program must be able to:
- Convert data from PDF check images to Microsoft Excel
- Generate customizable reports
- Data Visualization. Data you can see and interact with is often the key to identifying the links and connections you need to build a case. You want:
- A built-in visualization tool that helps you “see” the money trail and trace assets
- An intuitive and user-friendly interface
- Collaboration Ease. Your asset tracing software must be easy and accessible for every stakeholder in your case.
We understand that switching from manual processing to automated financial data analysis for fraud investigations might seem daunting. However, here are three reasons to help you consider otherwise.
ScanWriter is a data entry automation and visualization tool for financial fraud investigators. It’s a game-changer for tracing assets as it automatically populates financial models to follow the money trail. But, unfortunately, creating these financial models by yourself in Excel is quite a cumbersome task – won’t you agree?
The importance of data analytics and visualizations in financial investigations is paramount. These learnings from The Pandora Papers case will help you understand why.
We bring you speed, accuracy, and dedicated customer service to make every step of your financial fraud investigation productive, accurate, and effective.
Made in the USA, ScanWriter is trusted by district attorneys, forensic accountants, and fraud investigators across the country.
Our commitment to excellence is your assurance that we’re the best partner to turn to for your financial fraud investigation asset tracing needs.
See what we can do for you. Contact us for a demo.