Finance sleuths to speak on forensic accounting

Vikram Kumar joined Dotcom's Mega business as chief executive in February. Photo / Duncan Brown

The chief executive of Kim Dotcom's latest start-up, the boss of the Financial Markets Authority, a former police detective and a Buddhist nun are the among the speakers at a fraud and forensic accounting conference beginning in Auckland today.

More than 20 presentations are scheduled at Forensic Conference 2013, including sessions on search and surveillance, the insights learned from the failed finance company prosecutions, and how to manage fraud risk in the insurance sector.

Vikram Kumar, who in February joined Dotcom's Mega business as chief executive, will speak on cryptography - the practice of converting and communicating data as a secret code.

"[I will] try to work through what cryptography is, where it's being used and its evolution," Kumar said. "I'm trying to get to the point where now I think it's there for the masses and looking at what factors are required for it to succeed at a mass level."

In other sessions, Nick Paterson of the Serious Fraud Office will speak on corruption while Buddhist nun Kelsang Kyobpa is due to give a talk on "the art of happiness".

The conference, last held in 2011, is organised by an arm of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants and the New Zealand chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

The chairman of the Auckland Forensic Accountants Special Interest Group, Peter Preece, said the event's aim was to bring together fraud or forensic accounting experts, a "relatively small field in New Zealand".