Forensic Accounting In the 2016 Film The Accountant 

by Devin Caldwell

The field of forensic accounting got a lot of attention with the 2016 film The Accountant, and that interest is sure to surge again, with sequel rumors confirmed in September of 2021. While most accountants are not action movie heroes working with the Mob, they can save clients from embezzlement, lawsuits and fees. A forensic accountant is an auditor, a Certified Public Accountant, or an investigator with experience using legal and financial documents to find evidence of fraud. You often see this field represented in legal dramas and banking or finance-related movies as expert witnesses.

What Is Forensic Accounting?

Forensic accounting uses financial and legal document experts to investigate fraud claims or prepare a company for an audit. These accountants, auditors, and investigators can help find hidden assets during divorce cases, antitrust proceedings, and the tracking of terrorist activities. They can also double-check the numbers before an audit and find erroneous or “cooked” entries before the IRS.

Forensic accounting is just one type of accounting, not all accountants can do it, but most forensic accountants are CPAs. In other words, you would hire an accountant to learn how to get out of a timeshare and a forensic accountant to investigate your books if you need to sue the timeshare company. For example, in the movie The Accountant, the main character, Christian Wolff, is a Certified Public Account who investigates cooked books for criminal organizations who suspect internal embezzlement to determine how much is missing and who the likely embezzler is. He does this with a pseudonym, the Accountant, and under the guise of a regular CPA with a small office in Illinois, he helps clients file taxes, apply for loans and other accounting services.

Who Needs It?

Forensic accounting sounds like a profession that works solely with law enforcement, and many legal cases will have consultants from the field. Still, corporations and private citizens can hire forensic accounting services to investigate their financial and legal paperwork for suspected fraud or to disprove fraud claims. Many corporations will hire a forensic accountant in preparation for an IRS audit to ensure everything is in order when paperwork is turned over to the government or to investigate the finances of a company they want to acquire. This latter service is considered a routine part of the Due Diligence phase of mergers and acquisitions. 

Since the movie The Accountant is an action thriller, the clients of the title character tend to be criminal organizations, such as the Mob, who cannot report embezzlement to the government or have charges filed against the embezzler.

How Is It Used?

Forensic accounting can be used in lawsuits and cases in both civil and criminal courts and ahead of financial processes such as bankruptcy or governmental audit. This field can also be helpful for the merger and acquisition process, small companies applying for business loans, and setting up retirement plans. Forensic accounting is used in action thrillers such as The Accountant and presumably the sequel to find mob members stealing money from the organization by cooking the books. Chris is called in to “uncook” the books or find and investigate discrepancies. He determines how much the books are off by, which ones are the most inaccurate, and which people have the opportunity to embezzle from those accounts. His investment in finishing the puzzle of the embezzler leads him into trouble and then back out again.

Conclusion

While most people will not need the services of The Accountant’s title character, hiring a forensic accountant to go over your financial and legal paperwork before an audit, lawsuit, or court case is a good idea to avoid being surprised by inconsistencies later. This field is an excellent specialty to gain experience as a CPA and diversify the types of clients and cases you can take on, especially since recent news of a sequel to this movie is bound to spark interest in the profession.