Lokanan, Mark
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Dr. Mark Lokanan is a highly trained and skilled certified fraud examiner with expertise in financial forensics, forensic accounting, fraud examination, securities fraud, forensic data analysis, fraudulent financial statements, Benford Law for accounting fraud detection, anti-money laundering legislation and investigation, and forensic and investigative interviewing. Lokanan is one of the few scholars and practitioners in Canada with the requisite education, experience, expertise and publications in financial criminology, law, accounting and finance that qualify him as an expert in financial crimes and investigations. Lokanan has worked and taught in the United States., the United Kingdom and Canada at the University of Guelph, San Diego State University, Simon Fraser University and in the Newcastle Business School. He has published in the areas of corporate accounting and securities fraud and regulatory compliance. Before working in academia, he worked for the Ministry of the Attorney General in Ontario as a fraud investigator, managing numerous projects and investigations from inception to completion, and devising and presenting reports and feedback to keep clients informed. Lokanan holds a PhD in Accounting for Financial Crimes from Simon Fraser University (2012), a Master of Science in Forensic Accounting (2017) from Portsmouth University, a Master of Science in Financial and Organized Crime from San Diego University (2004), a Master of Arts in Sociology and Data Analysis from University of Guelph (2001), an undergraduate degree in Sociology and Law from York University (1998), an Advance Specialty Certificate in Securities Fraud Analysis (with Forensic Accounting) from BCIT (2012) and a Certificate in Advanced Accounting from McMaster University (2017). He also is a CFE and is reading for his CPA.
These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 Canada License.
Recent Submissions
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Mapping the individual and structural theories of financial crimes
(Journal of Financial Crime, 2020)The purpose of this paper is to argue for an integrated explanation of financial fraud. Greater emphasis must be placed on the structural and situational factors that are elements of fraud risks and fraud. The paper is ... -
The effectiveness of anti-money laundering policies and procedures within the banking sector in Bahrain
(Journal of Money Laundering Control, 2020)Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the anti-money laundering (AML) policies and procedures applied by the banks operating in Bahrain and assess the effectiveness of these policies. Design/methodology/a ... -
Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing threats posed by mobile money
(Journal of Money Laundering Control, 2019)There has been an increase use of mobile money involving retail users and financial institutions (Scobey-Thal, 2015). In 2015, the GSMA (an organization that represent the interests of mobile operators worldwide) states ... -
Data mining for statistical analysis of money laundering transactions
(Journal of Money Laundering Control, 2019)Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use statistical techniques to mine and analyze suspicious transactions. With the increase in money laundering activities across various sectors in some of the world’s leading ... -
The banks and market manipulation: A financial strain analysis of the libor fraud
(Advances in Public Interest Accounting, 2019)The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is considered to be the most important interest rate in finance upon which trillions in financial contracts are decided. In 2008, it was revealed that the LIBOR traders were rigging ... -
Detecting anomalies in financial statements using machine learning algorithm: The case of Vietnamese listed firms
(Asian Journal of Accounting Research, 2019)The vast amount of data and the increasing development in technology in recent years have changed the way in which many industries operate and compete with each other. Millions of bytes, commonly referred to as big data, ... -
A fraud investigation plan for a false accounting and theft case
(Journal of Financial Crime, 2019)Purpose The purpose of this paper is to formulate and propose a fraud investigation plan that forensic accountants can use to investigate financial frauds. In particular, the paper sets out the structure and rationale of ... -
An update on self-regulation in the Canadian securities industry (2009-2016): Funnel in, funnel out, and funnel away
(Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, 2018)Purpose –The paper analyzed the processing of complaints against investment advisors and Member firms through the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) enforcement system between 2009 and 2016. The ... -
The application of cognitive interviews to financial crimes
(Journal of Financial Crime, 2018)The purpose of this paper is to present an argument for the use of cognitive interviews to be use in financial crime investigations. In particular, the paper argues that the components of cognitive interview make it useful ... -
A fraud triangle analysis of the libor fraud
(Journal of Forensic & Investigative Accounting, 2018)This study examines the effectiveness of Cressey’s (1953) fraud risks factors adopted by the AICPA and the ACFE in detecting fraud in banks involved in the LIBOR scandal. Cressey (1993) posits that, for fraud to occur, ... -
Auditors’ liability and investors’ protection in Canada: The ‘leaky umbrella’
(Journal of Accounting and Auditing: Research & Practice, 2018)In the spring of 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada (“Court”) rendered a decision in Hercules Managements Ltd. v. Ernst & Young [1997] (“Hercules”) that left shareholders out in the cold. Ever since the verdict in Hercules ... -
Informing the fraud triangle: Insights from differential association theory
(Journal of Theoretical Accounting Research, 2018)The fraud triangle (FT) has been criticized by scholars and practitioners for not being thorough enough to include every occurrence of fraud. However, not every case of fraud can follow the FT and the problem might have ... -
Chains of finance: How investment management is shaped. Diane-Laure Arjalies, Philip Grant, Iain Hardie, Donald MacKenzie and Ekaterina Svetlova.
(Oxford University Press, 2018)The finance literature is inundated with research that empirically examines financial institutions and the broader capital markets in which they operate. Yet, despite the amount of assets that the investment management ... -
Self-regulation and compliance enforcement practices by the Investment Dealers Association in Canada
(Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, 2017)Purpose: This paper aims to examine the enforcement practices of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada (IDA) and argue that self-regulation simply does not work in the financial sector, as the sanctions available ... -
Testing for impression management in creative accounting: A case of the automobile industry
(Journal of Forensic & Investigative Accounting, 2017)In a world of corporate scandals and economic difficulties, the need for transparency is becoming ever more apparent. Managers are becoming increasingly cognizant of the demand from stakeholders and feel pressured into ... -
Theorizing financial crimes as moral actions
(European Accounting Review, 2017)The paper maintains that all acts of financial crimes can be explained within a general theory of moral action and analyzed as such. In this regard, the paper presents such a theory – Situational Action Theory (SAT) – and ... -
Ritualisation and money laundering in the Swiss banking sector
(Journal of Money Laundering Control, 2017)Switzerland, a landlocked country located to the west of Central Europe, is well-known as one of the world’s most competitive financial centres. It is also known as ‘the Swiss Confederation’ as it is a federal directorial ... -
Regulatory capture of regulators: The case of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada
(International Journal of Public Administration, 2017)This study employed Stilger’s (1971) capture theory to investigate whether the Investment Dealers Association (IDA) of Canada experienced regulatory capture by weak enforcement. The study used data of the IDA’s enforcement ... -
Securities regulation: Opportunities exist for IIROC to regulate responsively
(Administration and Society, 2015)This article examines the applicability of responsive regulation within an inter-agency framework in the financial sector. To do so, the article uses the self-regulatory organization that is responsible for governing ... -
Challenges to the fraud triangle: Questions on its usefulness
(Accounting Forum, 2015)Fraud is increasing with frequency and severity. In this paper, I explore the assertion of the fraud triangle as a useful practitioner framework employed to combat fraud. This paper is anchored through Fairclough's critical ...