In this study, the development of the computer related crime will be examined in the first chapter. After a detailed introduction to computer crimes, the most common types of the computer crimes will be examined and the characteristics of the offenders and their motivates will be identified. The general investigation process of the computer crime investigation will be outlined in the second chapter. After attempting to define computer crime, computer criminals and investigation process, a case study related to the topic will be examined and the characteristics and the motives of the criminals will be identified. In the last chapter the response by law enforcement officers to high technology crime will be discussed.

Cette étude propose l’analyse de la figure et des mécanismes de l’imposture dans l’oeuvre romanesque deGeorges Bernanos, dans son lien de contradiction ontologique et d’imitation factice avec la figure et lephénomène de la sainteté. Elle est conduite en trois axes. Le premier tente de dégager ce qui, dans sonitinéraire personnel, a déterminé Bernanos à faire de ces deux thèmes à la fois solidaires et contradictoiresun sujet de roman récurrent, sinon obsédant. Le second prolonge l’étude biographique par un commentairesur la genèse de l’oeuvre en lien intrinsèque avec les deux figures, autrement dit, sur l’élaborationprogressive des deux thèmes, telle qu’elle se dégage des premiers travaux d’écriture et d’inventionromanesques. Le troisième axe se penche plus manifestement sur la réalité et les mécanismes del’imposture, tels que les dévoilent les personnages bernanosiens, particulièrement celui de Mouchette dontle parcours dans Sous le soleil de Satan est typique, annonçant et préfigurant les autres parcoursd’imposteurs de l’oeuvre (particulièrement ceux de l’abbé Cénabre, du faux curé de Mégère et de M.Ouine), puis celui du diable lui-même, menteur et père du mensonge selon le verset de l’Evangile auquelle romancier se réfère, et dont la figuration dans son premier roman représente ce qui constitue finalement,à ses yeux, la seule imposture totale, surnaturelle. / This study offers an analysis of the fraud figure and mechanism in Georges Bernanos’ fiction as it islinked in both contradictory and imitative way with sanctity figure and phenomenon. It is handled by threeaxes. The first axe tries to highlight the reason why, through his personal career, Bernanos decides to usethese two themes, both interdependent and opposed, as a recurring if not obsessive fiction subject. Thesecond axe stretches the biography by a comment on the genesis of his works, essentially linked to the twofigures, in other words, on the development of these two themes, as it appears in his first written worksand fictions. The third axe favours fraud reality and mechanism as Bernanos characters may reveal, mostdistinctively Mouchette, whose path in Sous le soleil de Satan is characteristically announcing the otherimpostors’ paths : in particular those of Abbé Cénabre, the fake priest of Mégère and M. Ouine. Then, thepath of the devil himself, liar and father of lies, following the Gospel verse, which the author is referringto, and whose representation in his first fiction, appears to be the only total supernatural imposture.

"Mémoire présenté à la faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maîtrise en droit des affaires (LL.M)" / Le commerce international ne cesse de se développer avec l'évolution des technologies de l'information de nos jours. Le crédit documentaire, qui est un instrument de règlement du prix de prestations commerciales entre un vendeur exportateur et un acheteur importateur, fait partie du domaine touché par l'évolution électronique. C'est la raison pour laquelle la Chambre de commerce international de Paris a adopté récemment le Guide sur le crédit documentaire informatisé (eRUU), supplément aux règles et usances uniformes (les RUU 500) appliqué aux crédits documentaires. Le crédit documentaire doit être basé sur une grande confiance et une énorme sécurité. Ainsi, la fraude nuit au principe de l'autonomie de la lettre de crédit et détruit le besoin de sécurité qu'elle engendre. Les divergences relatives à certains critères de la fraude et la délimitation des obligations de la banque dans la vérification des documents sur support papier sont assez complexes pour les commerçants internationaux et pour les banques. Et même si la dématérialisation des documents a tendance à diminuer la fraude en la matière, le crédit documentaire dématérialisé serait encore loin d'être réalisé sans difficultés, avec l'émergence directe des tiers dans l'opération. Son analyse exhaustive doit donc continuer sur le plan doctrinal. La délimitation du devoir de la banque dans la recherche de cette fraude électronique, et dans le paiement des documents électroniques deviendrait aussi discutable que celle dans le crédit documentaire traditionnel. Les banques devraient, entre autres, être sensibilisées sur la nécessité de prendre dans les meilleurs délais certaines dispositions, pour permettre à la clientèle des entreprises d'effectuer des présentations ou des réceptions électroniques des documents de la lettre de crédit en conformité avec le règlement eUCP. / The international trade does not cease developing with the evolution of information technology nowadays. The documentary credit, which is an instrument of payment of the price of commercial services between an exporting salesman and an importing purchaser, is part of the field touched by the electronic evolution. This is why the international Chamber of Commerce of Paris recently adopted the Guide on the computerized letter of credit (eRUU), supplement to the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credit (RUU 500). The letter of credit must be based on a great confidence and an enormous safety. Thus, the fraud harms the principle of the autonomy of the letter of credit and destroyes the need for safety which it generates. The divergences relative to certain criteria of the fraud and the delimitation of the obligations of the bank in the checking of the documents on paper medium are complex enough for the international tradesmen and the banks. And even if the dematerialization of the documents tends to decrease the fraud on the matter, the dematerialized credit on security would be still far from being carried out without difficulties, with the direct emergence of the thirds in the operation. Its exhaustive analysis must then continue on the doctrinal level. The delimitation of the duty of the bank in the search for this electronic fraud, and in the payment of the electronic documents would become as debatable as that in the traditional documentary credit. The banks would have to be somewhat sensitized on the need for making certain provisions as soon as possible, to allow companies' customers to carry out presentations or electronic receptions of the documents of the letter of credit in conformity with the eUCP.

To maintain public confidence in the financial system, it is essential that most financial fraud is prevented and that incidents of fraud are detected and punished. The responsibility of uncovering creatively implemented fraud is placed, in a large part, on auditors. Recent advancements in technology are helping auditors turn the tide against fraudsters. Big Data, made possible by the proliferation, widespread availability and amalgamation of diverse digital data sets, has become an important driver of technological change. Big Data analytics are already transforming the traditional audit. Sampling and testing a limited number of random samples has turned into a much more comprehensive audit that analyzes the entire population of transactions within an account, allowing auditors to flag and investigate all sorts of potentially fraudulent anomalies that were previously invisible. Artificial intelligence (AI) programs, typified by IBM’s Watson, can mimic the thought processes of the human mind and will soon be adopted by the auditing profession. Machine learning (ML) programs, with the ability to change when exposed to new data, are developing rapidly and may take over many of the decision-making functions currently performed by auditors. The SEC has already implemented pioneering fraud-detection software based on AI and ML programs. The evolution of the auditor’s role has already begun. Current accounting students must understand the traditional auditing skillset will not longer be sufficient. While facing a future with fewer auditing positions available due to increased automation, auditors will need training for roles that will be more data analytical and computer-science based.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

This diploma thesis accents the value of accounting as the most important business informational system especially in the recent period of time. The most of financial decisions are based on accounting, thats why accounting is used for manipulation with financial results by management. I described various ways of accounting frauds including the creative accounting. The economic criminality and accounting frauds became a serious problem so I suggested possible methods for preventing frauds.

LL.M. (Banking Law) / It has long been the vogue that the traditional fraud exception is the only exception capable of defeating the doctrine of independence in documentary-credit and performance-guarantee practice. The reason for this is self-explanatory, for it has been stated authoritatively that fraud unravels all. And on construction, this must be the correct legal position. Even then however, the fraud exception is not in itself unassailable. Given the nature and exigency of the contractual relationships peculiar to documentary credits and performance guarantees, it is indubitable for their success that these unique contractual relationships be independent of one another. The latter argument is well established in the law and practice of many jurisdictions. Commercial comity, aspirations, expediency, fair trading and a measure of certainty, inter alia, dictate the necessity for the sanctity and preservation of the doctrine of independence. Without such certainty, international commercial enterprise and entrepreneurship will be the victims. Nevertheless, it would still be fair to state that there is a broad consensus within various jurisdictions regarding the application of a fraud exception to the doctrine of independence, which simply cannot be said for an exception based on unconscionability. There are cogent reasons for this disparity, some in favour of and some against an unconscionability exception. The question which begs an answer is whether the recognition of such an exception would erode the certainty and cash characteristics, inherent and integral to documentary credit and performance guarantee practice. These instruments were, after all, designed and predicated upon tenets of certainty and considered as immediately redeemable cash. Ultimately, this debate involves a choice between embracing commercial certainty on the one hand, and fairness on the other hand. In South Africa however, unconscionability does not exist as a specific concept of law with wide and uncertain parameters. But, the concept of good faith, equally confusing, awkwardly finds its place in the South African general law of contract, but in an informative capacity to the substantive requirements of the law, and not as an independent general defence. A defence in the general law of contract in South Africa, premised on the lack of good faith is bad in law, given the established brocards such as inter alia, caveat subscriptor, caveat emptor, pacta sunt servanda, 5 and the contra proferentem rule. South African legal heritage and precedent have jettisoned the exceptio doli generalis, and this precedent is peculiarly protected by the judiciary at the highest level. Good faith, in the South African context, is not the equivalent of the so called doctrine of unconscionability analysed and discussed in the academic literature and court decisions of certain common-law jurisdictions, but the exceptio doli generalis may have been, or rather, if properly developed, could have been. And so, from a South African perspective, there is the added difficulty of considering the introduction of a foreign broad-based, uncertain and undefinable doctrine grounded in equity, when the narrowly defined concept of good faith, only informative of the substantive law, finds no general application in the law of contract in South Africa. Regard will thus be had to inter alia: the nature, scope and elements (facta probanda) of this exception; certain arguments for and against its recognition; its inability to be defined with the necessary precision required for legal efficacy and practice; its lack of certainty being in essence descriptive of a host of other conduct short of fraud and inclusive of fraud; and whether the case for its recognition might perhaps have merit and applicability in relation to performance guarantees, separate and distinct from documentary credits.

The Upper Echelons Theory states that CEO characteristics, among them the Dark Tetrad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) of personality, affect decision-making. In an accounting context, the presence of the Dark Tetrad of personality in CEOs can reduce accounting information quality because the personalities of the Dark Tetrad are associated with callousness, impulsivity, manipulation, criminality, grandiosity, enjoyment of cruelty, and misconduct, therefore CEOs with these traits are likely to manipulate earnings or commit fraud. However, companies with strong reputation due to the credibility and trustworthiness built into the company values and culture can reduce the effect of dark personality in accounting information quality. In such context, this study aims to investigate the moderating effect of corporate reputation on the relationship between the Dark Tetrad of personality and accounting information quality. The main assumption is that CEOs with strong Dark Tetrad traits engage more in earnings management and fraud; however, in companies with strong reputation, earnings management and fraud would be lower due to the values, structures, and formal or informal rules built around corporate reputation. This implies that companies with strong reputation tend to suppress the opportunistic actions of CEOs, enabling better accounting information quality. The research design was divided into two parts: the first part involved an archival method and the second part used an experiment method. For the archival method, I analyzed 434 firms (2,645 observations) with headquarters in the United States, covering the period between 2010 and 2017, using abnormal accruals, real earnings management, and classification shifting for earnings management, the overall Fortune\'s World\'s Most Admired Companies score for reputation, CEO speeches, and dark personality literature to measure the Dark Tetrad of personality. I ran regressions to test the research hypotheses and found that the Dark Tetrad of personality shows a positive relationship with all types of earnings management. Regarding reputation, only abnormal accruals show a negative relationship with corporate reputation. In turn, the interaction between the Dark Tetrad of personality and corporate reputation is negatively related to all types of earnings management. For the experimental method, I used a 2x2 between-subjects experiment design involving 101 MBA students who, in general, have had experience in management in Brazil and the United States of America. To measure the Dark Tetrad of personality, I used the Short-Dark Triad (Jones & Paulhus, 2014) and the Assessment of Sadistic Personality (Plouffe et al., 2017). For reputation, I adapted the scenarios from Goldberg and Hartwick (1990) and Lafferty (2007). For fraud, I developed two proxies, the first with five situations based on literature addressing accounting issues, and the other based on D\'Souza and Lima (2015). To test the hypotheses, I applied Ordinary Least Squares regressions and Poisson regressions and found that psychopathy, sadism, Machiavellianism, and the Dark Tetrad of personality show a positive relationship with accounting fraud and misrepresentation. Regarding reputation, in all the models, reputation is not related to fraud. On the other hand, in relation to the interaction between the Dark Tetrad of personality and corporate reputation, only highly Machiavellian CEOs are discouraged from committing fraud by a strong reputation. Therefore, this study demonstrated that CEO personality can affect accounting information quality, however, corporate reputation is an intangible resource that influences CEO decision-making, so as a result, reputation helps to increase accounting information quality. / A Teoria dos Altos Escalões afirma que as características do CEO afetam a tomada de decisão deles, na qual uma delas é a Tétrade Sombria (narcisismo, maquiavelismo, psicopatia e sadismo) da personalidade. No contexto contábil, a presença de traços da Tétrade Sombria em CEOs pode reduzir a qualidade da informação contábil, porque as personalidades da Tétrade Sombria estão associadas à insensibilidade, impulsividade, manipulação, criminalidade, grandiosidade, prazer na crueldade e má conduta, portanto, CEOs com esses traços provavelmente gerenciariam resultados ou cometeriam fraudes. No entanto, as empresas com forte reputação devido à credibilidade e confiabilidade que estão incorporadas em valores e cultura da empresa podem reduzir o efeito da personalidade sombria na qualidade da informação contábil. Neste contexto, o presente estudo tem como objetivo investigar o efeito moderador da reputação corporativa sobre a relação entre a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade e a qualidade da informação contábil. Assim, o principal pressuposto é que os CEOs com traços altos da Tétrade Sombria envolvem mais em gerenciamento de resultados e fraude, no entanto, em empresas com forte reputação, o gerenciamento de resultados e fraude seriam menores devido aos valores, estruturas e regras formais ou informais construídas em empresas com forte reputação. Isso implica que as empresas com forte reputação tendem a suprimir as ações oportunistas do CEO, permitindo uma melhor qualidade da informação contábil. O método de pesquisa foi dividido em duas partes: primeira parte, um método documental; e segunda parte, um método experimental. Para o método documental, foram analisadas 434 empresas (2.645 observações) com sede nos Estados Unidos para o período entre 2010 e 2017, utilizando accruals anormais, gerenciamento de resultados por atividades e mudança de classificação para gerenciamento de resultados, a pontuação geral das empresas mais admiradas da Fortune World para reputação, e o discurso do CEO e a literatura de personalidade sombria para mensurara Tétrade Sombria da personalidade. Para, foram executadas regressões para testar as hipóteses de pesquisa e verificou-se que a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade possui uma relação positiva com todos os tipos de gerenciamento de resultados; em relação à reputação, apenas os accruals anormais mostram relação negativa com a reputação corporativa; por sua vez, a interação entre a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade e a reputação corporativa está negativamente relacionada a todos os tipos de gerenciamento de resultados. Para o método experimental, foi utilizado o desenho de experimento 2x2 entre sujeitos com 101 alunos de MBA do Brasil e dos Estados Unidos da América que, em geral, tiveram experiência em gestão. Para medir a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade, foi usado The Short-Dark Triad (Jones & Paulhus, 2014) e Assessment of Sadistic Personality (Plouffe et al., 2017). Para a reputação, foi adaptado os cenários de Goldberg e Hartwick, (1990) e Lafferty (2007). Já para a fraude, foi empregada duas variáveis, a primeira tem cinco situações baseadas em literatura abordando questões contábeis e a outra baseia-se em D\'Souza e Lima (2015).Para testar as hipóteses, aplicou-se regressão por Mínimos Quadrados Ordinários e regressão Poisson, e observou-se que a psicopatia, o sadismo, o maquiavelismo e a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade mostraram uma relação positiva com a fraude contábil e a falsa representação; sobre a reputação, a reputação de todos os modelos não apresentou relação com fraude; Por outro lado, em relação à interação entre a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade e reputação corporativa, apenas os CEOs altamente maquiavélicos estão desencorajados a cometer fraude devido a uma forte reputação. Portanto, este estudo demonstrou que a personalidade do CEO pode afetar a qualidade da informação contábil, no entanto, a reputação corporativa é um recurso intangível que influencia a tomada de decisão do CEO, então a reputação ajuda a aumentar a qualidade da informação contábil.

Atualmente a medição de energia elétrica para residências em centros urbanos é realizada por meio de medidores eletromecânicos lidos de forma manual. Neste processo uma série de problemas foram observados, dos quais se destacam: erros de leitura, dificuldade de acesso ao ponto de medição, bancos de dados sem atualização, dentre outros. A automação do processo de medição e da leitura, com base nos medidores existentes ou com o uso de medidores eletrônicos da energia elétrica, além de resolver os problemas citados, tem potencialmente uma série de vantagens, que incluem: combate a fraudes e furto de energia, implementação de tarifas diferenciadas em função da hora de consumo (tarifa amarela), corte e religamento remoto de energia, implementação de programas de energia pré-paga, levantamento de curvas de carga e eliminação de erros e custos do processo de leitura manual. Por outro lado observa-se que existem no Brasil cerca de 43 milhões de medidores residenciais instalados, sendo relativamente baixos os custos dos medidores eletromecânicos e do sistema de leitura manual. Desta forma, somente será possível implementar sistemas de automação da medição de energia elétrica residencial se os sistemas ora propostos forem ao mesmo tempo de custo reduzido e altamente confiáveis. O sistema de automação em estudo irá considerar inclusive o aproveitamento dos medidores eletromecânicos existentes, com a instalação de sistemas eletrônicos de coleta dos dados de consumo comunicando-se com concentradores locais, que por sua vez são interligados a sistemas computacionais instalados dentro da concessionária. Os resultados do estudo mostram que hoje existe uma concreta possibilidade de se obter sistemas de automação da medição de energia elétrica residencial seguros e de custos reduzidos. O trabalho ora proposto será desenvolver um sistema automatizado para a medição de energia residencial em centros urbanos, constituído por um módulo concentrador para oito residências, com comunicação deste para um centro de operação da concessionária. Será apresentada a metodologia para a implementação do sistema e considerado um estudo de caso. / In these days, the energy measurement system for residences in urban areas is carried out by eletromechanical meters, which are read manually. Several problems have been observed in this process, which we can emphasize: reading errors, difficulty to access the measurement place, outdated databases, etc. The reading and the measurement automation processes, based in the current eletromechanical meters or with the electronic version of these equipment, besides solving the mentioned problems, have several advantages, such as: minimization of fraud and robbery of energy, implementation of differentiated rates depending on the time of the day (ex:yellow rate), remote energy switch-off and switch-on, implementation of a prepaid system, possibility to get the load curve of each consumer and elimination of error and costs embedded in the manually reading process. On the other hand, we can observe that in Brazil there are an estimated 43 millions residential meters already installed, and the costs for the current measurement system, and also of the meters, are very low. In this scenario, the implementation of a automated system for residential energy measurement is that the proposed system has a very low cost at the same time provides a high reliability. The proposed automation system will consider the reutilization of the current mechanical meters, with the installation of an electronic systems for the consumption data collection, communicating with local concentrators, which in their turn are linked to a computing systems in the energy company. The results of the present work show that, nowadays, there is a real possibility to get, a trustable and cheap automated measurement system for energy in residential urban area. The proposed work is the development of an automated system, for residential energy measurement in urban area. It's composed of a concentrator module for eight residences, with communication from this point to the energy company's operation center. It will be presented a methodology to implement such a system and also a case study.

Defesa dos alimentos ou Food Defense são técnicas desenvolvidas para a proteção e segurança do alimento sendo aplicadas em toda a cadeia produtiva. O princípio que norteia a defesa dos alimentos abrange técnicas para o controle e gestão da qualidade na indústria e técnicas de controle contra contaminação cruzada, intencional ou não. Os atentados terroristas de 11 de setembro de 2011 desencadearam uma série de medidas protecionistas por parte dos EUA e por serem um dos principais importadores de bens de consumo mundial, impactou em todos os países que possuem transações econômicas com os EUA. Acontecimentos recentes relacionados a fraudes em alimentos têm enfatizado a importância de proteger a cadeia de suprimentos de alimentos, necessitando a coordenação de esforços para a segurança/defesa destes, oferecendo a melhor proteção possível. Por sua vez empresas que optam por ter relações comerciais com os EUA precisam atender e compreender as medidas que o país adotou para a proteção contra os ataques terroristas. Junto às medidas de defesa do alimento (Food Defense), exigências paralelas para evitar fraudes em alimentos (Food Fraud) também são exigidas. Esses atos fraudulentos também podem ocorrer devido a motivação econômica, conhecida como EMA - Economically Motivated Adulteration. As técnicas de Food Defense e Food Fraud abordadas nesse trabalho tem o objetivo de descrever as possíveis formas de contaminação e adulteração nos insumos utilizados por uma indústria de pequeno porte para a produção de tempero cárneos bem como atender a nova legislação norte americana para possíveis exportações, criando um padrão de trabalho para a empresa e que possa servir de elemento replicador para outras empresas que possuem relações com os EUA. Os resultados permitiram identificar os pontos vulneráveis na fábrica e facilitaram a criação de um plano Food Defense e um plano Food Fraud no qual foram descritas as possíveis formas intencionais ou não de contaminação e adulteração em insumos utilizados pela empresa. / Food Defense are techniques developed for the protection and safety of food and are applied throughout the production chain. The guiding principle of food protection encompasses techniques for quality control and management in industry and control techniques against cross-contamination, intentional or otherwise. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011 triggered a series of protectionist measures by the United States, one of the main importers of world consumer goods, which had an impact on all countries that have economic transactions with it. Recent events related to food fraud have emphasized the importance of protecting the food supply chain, necessitating the coordination of food security / defense efforts, offering the best protection possible. In turn, companies that choose to have commercial relations with the USA need to attend and understand the protection measures that the country has adopted to protect against terrorist attacks. Along with the Food Defense measures, parallel demands to avoid food fraud are also required. These fraudulent acts can also occur due to economic motivation (also known as EMA - Economically Motivated Adulteration). The techniques of Food Defense and Food Fraud addressed in this project have the objective of describing the possible forms of contamination and adulteration in the inputs used by a small industry to produce meat seasoning as well as to meet the new North American legislation for possible exports, creating a working standard for the company that can serve as a replicator for other companies that have relations with the USA. The results allowed to identify the vulnerabilities in the factory and facilitated the creation of a Food Defense plan and a Food Fraud plan in which were described the possible intentional or non-intentional forms of contamination and adulteration in inputs used by the company.