fraud – Association of Corporate Investigators

A Practical Two-Module Online Training Programme

2 × 90 Minutes

For In-House Investigators · Auditors · Lawyers ·

· HR Professionals ·

Even the most accomplished investigators sometimes get it wrong …

…. And this is what you can do about it to help protect you, and your organisation !

It’s a well-known fact – every year many organisations

reach inconclusive findings as a result of poor investigative process (not a lack of evidence)
lose employment tribunals when they are poorly prepared
suffer unnecessary regulatory enforcement actions and civil litigation because the investigation that followed was flawed.

Whether poorly scoped, using compromised or incorrect evidence, applying bias during interviews and/or producing Investigation Reports which don’t hold up to scrutiny, the failures are not a result of being able to uncover the truth, it was in “the process”.

The Association of Corporate Investigators has spent years reviewing investigations in every possible sector that went wrong: cases where reporters and whistleblowers weren’t taken seriously, where regulatory interventions exposed procedural gaps, and where the investigative process itself became the liability.

This unique and unrivalled programme distils that hard-won experience into two intensive, practical sessions designed to make your investigations defensible, proportionate, and fit for purpose.

Register

Who This Programme Is For

This training is built for the professionals who are called upon to investigate, or support / advise / audit / challenge related cases into workplace and corporate misconduct:

In-house investigators and compliance professionals who need clearly defined, structured, repeatable frameworks they can deploy under pressure
HR professionals who often manage grievances alongside investigations together with disciplinary processes and sensitive workplace matters where procedural fairness is non-negotiable
Lawyers and legal advisers supporting investigations or anticipating litigation, regulatory scrutiny, or tribunal challenge
Auditors and risk professionals assessing the quality, assurance and integrity of investigative processes within their organisations
Senior Leaders and Decision-Makers who are required to understand and navigate through investigation reports, recommendations and actions (and challenging where required to do so)

What the Programme Covers

Across two 90-minute online modules, you’ll work through the full lifecycle of a corporate investigation, from the moment a complaint lands on your desk to the final report, with a consistent focus on where things go wrong and how to stop them.

Module 1: The Foundations: Triage, Scoping and Evidence
Monday, 11th May 2026
10:00 – 11:30 UK time

The earliest decisions in an investigation are often the most consequential. This module examines the critical phase between receiving an allegation and triaging / assessing concerns before committing to a course of action. It also examines why mistakes made here tend to increase significant risks throughout the entire investigation process.

You’ll explore how to conduct effective triage, scope an investigation proportionately, and establish an audit trail that will withstand challenge. We examine the most common evidence-handling failures, including poor preservation, chain of custody gaps, and digital evidence pitfalls. We look at planning tools and risk assessment frameworks that keep investigations on track from day one.

Module 2: Interviews, Reports and Regulatory Scrutiny
Monday, 18th May
10:00 – 11:30 UK time

An investigation is only as strong as its conclusions, and conclusions are only as strong as the evidence and reasoning that support them. This module focuses on the stages where investigations most frequently unravel: the interviews conducted at every stage of an investigation through to the final investigation report, recommendations and actions.

Participants work through structured interviewing techniques, explore common failures in questioning and note-taking, and examine what fair, legally sound interview practice actually looks like. The module closes with a forensic look at investigative reports, including what regulators, tribunals, and legal teams look for, and how to produce findings that are clear, supported, and defensible.

Register

How the Programme is Delivered

This is a working programme, not a series of lectures. Insightful and inspirational thought leadership across both modules means that you’ll engage with:

Case studies drawn from real investigative failures across sectors
Scenario based learning which replicate the pressure of live investigations
Practical and helpful tools including investigation planning templates, scoping frameworks, interview checklists, and report structures aligned with regulatory and tribunal expectations
Workshop exercises many of which are built around the ACi GIR Corporate Investigators Handbook, key principles and applicable ISO frameworks.

The format is deliberately interactive. You’ll leave with tools and techniques you can put to work immediately.

What You’ll Take Away

By the end of both modules, participants will have a better understanding of how to:

Triage and scope investigations proportionately, reducing the risk of scope creep and missed issues
Gather, preserve, and document evidence to a standard that withstands legal and regulatory challenge
Conduct structured, fair, and legally defensible interviews
Produce clear investigative reports that support robust decision-making and survive internal and external scrutiny
Identify the warning signs of an investigation that is going off the rails and intervene before the damage is done

Why the ACi

The Association of Corporate Investigators occupies a distinctive position: reviewing not just how investigations should be conducted, but studying in detail the cases where they weren’t. That insight into regulatory failure, whistleblower mismanagement, and procedural collapse is what makes this programme different from standard investigative training. It is built on what actually goes wrong.

Places are limited. This programme is suited to in-house delivery for teams as well as open enrolment for individual practitioners.

Tickets: £349

ACi Members: 314.10

Register

Global report reveals how cybercrime, governance gaps and AI-turbocharged deception are converging to create an industrialised fraud environment that demands coordinated action.

According to Combatting fraud in a perfect storm, cyberfraud now dominates both prevalence and materiality globally, amplifying all other risks. Procurement, abuse of authority, and third-party frauds follow close behind as the most prevalent types worldwide. Yet they remain chronically underreported, particularly in SMEs and the public sector.

Drawing on responses from over 2,000 professionals and 31 roundtable discussions around the world, the study – launched during International Fraud Awareness Week – shows how fraud has become industrialised, converging across value and supply chains and outpacing conventional controls.

In collaboration with ACFE, IIA, CISI, ISC2, Airmic and ACi, the report introduces a new Prevalence vs Materiality matrix lens to help organisations make better decisions about allocating resources before fraud diminishes them. Through its companion Calls to Action and Thematic Typology, the report also provides new guidance on assessing what works and doesn’t – and crucially how to incorporate behavioural insights into risk governance, moving fraud prevention from compliance theatre to operational reality.

Key findings:

Cyberfraud ranks highest for both prevalence and materiality, 39% and 38% respectively, overall, acting as an amplifier for every other form of fraud and interconnecting with harder-to-stop frauds like crypto-linked crimes.
The survey showed that despite rising prevalence, only 10% of crypto fraud cases are referred to law enforcement – the lowest referral rate of any fraud type.
Organised crime networks professionalising “fraud-as-a-service”: fast-moving, AI-powered and cross-border operations outpacing traditional defences.
Procurement, abuse of authority and third-party frauds are silent drains on value, often under-reported like many internal frauds, and misclassified as “operational leakage”.
Cultural weakness and siloed accountability allow fraud to persist: while 62% of respondents agree that fraud awareness training is important, only 57% believe their organisation proactively looks for fraud and that drops to 51% for accountancy professionals, who emphasised fraud is silently eroding trust and organisational value.
The survey found that the ease of reporting averaged 70% across fraud types even though fraud risk management maturity and trust in anti-fraud measures varied significantly by region, sector, teams and seniority.

‘Fraud is no longer isolated or opportunistic,’ said Rachael Johnson, head of risk management and corporate governance in ACCA’s policy and insights team.

‘AI has accelerated its scale and speed while lagging governance and siloed accountability still allow it to thrive in organisation’s processes and architecture. We need to start asking harder questions: Where are the blind spots? Who owns prevention? And how do we make integrity measurable?’

Dr Roger Miles, behavioural scientist and member of ACCA’s special interest group on fraud, added that ACCA’s report is a “wake-up call” no organisations can ignore. ‘The Fear of Finding Out (FOFO) is a major barrier to fraud awareness. We’ve reached a watershed moment where we’ve got to deeply question the truth of the bookkeeping in front of us.’

The report calls for a collective reset, one that embeds proactive detection, strengthens accountability, and builds cultures where raising concerns is safe and expected. It emphasises that combating modern fraud requires uniting disciplines, modernising oversight and making integrity measurable. Download the full report here: https://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/professional-insights/risk/combatting-fraud.html