Spoliation
Definition
The destruction, alteration, or concealment of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding. Spoliation can result in adverse inference instructions to a jury, sanctions, or dismissal of claims. Preventing spoliation is a primary objective of early engagement planning.
Related terms
- Predication
- The reasonable basis that justifies opening a fraud examination. The ACFE holds that no examination should begin without adequate predication, meaning a...
- Benford's Law analysis
- A data analytics technique based on the observed distribution of leading digits in naturally occurring financial data. Significant deviations from the expected...
- Chain of custody
- The documented chronological record of who collected, handled, transferred, and examined a piece of evidence. For digital evidence, chain of custody includes...
- Engagement scope
- The defined boundaries of a fraud examination: the organisational units, time period, transaction types, and evidence sources to be examined. Scope is...
- Forensic imaging
- The process of creating a bit-for-bit copy of a digital storage device using specialist tools that do not alter the original. The...
- Legal hold
- A directive from legal counsel instructing relevant people within an organisation to preserve documents, data, and physical items that may be relevant...
- Scope creep
- The unintended expansion of a penetration test beyond the agreed boundaries, either because testers follow a vulnerability chain into an out-of-scope system...
- Whistleblower statement
- An allegation or tip from an individual with inside knowledge of suspected fraud. It often constitutes the predicate for a fraud examination...
- Working hypothesis
- A precise, falsifiable statement of the fraud scheme suspected, derived from the predication. It names the scheme type, the suspected perpetrator or...
Explained in these topics
- Evidence Gathering Methods in Fraud ExaminationsThe destruction, alteration, or concealment of evidence after a duty to preserve it has arisen. Courts in most jurisdictions may draw adverse inferences agains...
- Predication and Engagement Planning in Fraud ExaminationsThe destruction, alteration, or concealment of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding. Spoliation can result in adverse inference instructions to a jury, sanc...