Forensic Accounting in AFL Betting Scandal Investigation

Running head: FORENSIC ACCOUNTING
Forensic Accounting
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Authors Note:

1FORENSIC ACCOUNTING
Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Examples of manipulative changes to the data in the file recovered from the arrested master mind
of the betting scandal:......................................................................................................................2
Process used in the investigation to identify the examples of games where the data has been
changed:...........................................................................................................................................3
Meaning of the findings:..................................................................................................................6
References:......................................................................................................................................8

2FORENSIC ACCOUNTING
Introduction:
The betting scandals have tainted the image of number of sporting events in all across the
globe. Australian Football League (AFL), an annual soccer league held in Australia, has also
been alleged with number of betting scandals including allegations of match fixing by players.
Recently a betting leader has been arrested in connection with the betting scandals in AFL. A
laptop has been recovered from the person arrested in connection with the betting scandal that
contains a file of all the data of the matches played since 1897 till 2018. The investigation team
has been handed with the original file containing the data and information about all the matches
played in chronological order along with the file of the betting leader containing data of these
matches in chronological order. The investigator has decided to use the analytical characteristics
of excel to conduct a detailed investigation on the data of the both files to identify the examples
where changes have been made to the data of AFL matches in the betting master mind’s file by
comparing the data with the original data of the matches (Selwyn, Henderson and Chao, 2015).
Examples of manipulative changes to the data in the file recovered from the arrested
master mind of the betting scandal:
The period of investigation span over 120 years. The games played between 1897 and the
year 2018 are under the scrutiny in the investigation to find out changes made in the excel file of
the betting master mind. There have been more than tens of thousands of game that have been
played in the AFL over the course of 121 years, i.e. since 1897. It is practically impossible to go
through all the games and check scores of team 1 and team 2 manually in the original file and
then to compare these with the data in the betting master mind’s laptop (O'Flaherty and Phillips,
2015). Thus, using the “IF” function in excel, a logic has been created to identify matches of
which data has been changed in the betting file by comparing the data of the original file.