Mark Nigrini

About Mark Nigrini

Mark Nigrini, CA(SA)
Professor, West Virginia University

Mark J. Nigrini is an associate professor of accounting at West Virginia University. His research passion for many years has been a phenomenon known as Benford’s Law which is related to the patterns of the digits in tabulated data. The smaller digits (1s, 2s, and 3s) are expected to occur more often in scientific and financial data and Benford’s Law has shown itself to be valuable to fraud examiners in their quest to uncover fraud in corporate data. His current research addresses insider threats, and more specifically the cybersecurity risks posed by former employees.

Nigrini is the author of Forensic Analytics (Wiley, 2020) which describes analytic tests used to detect fraud, errors, estimates, and biases in financial data, and Benford's Law (Wiley, 2012). In 2014 he published an article in the Journal of Accountancy that was co-authored with Nathan Mueller, a fraudster. That article won the Lawler award for the best article in the Journal of Accountancy in 2014. Included in his array of academic publications is the lead article in the new premier forensic accounting journal, the Journal of Forensic Accounting Research. His recent publications include the lead article in the Nov/Dec 2020 issue of Fraud Magazine. His work has been featured in, amongst others, The Financial Times, New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. His radio interviews have included the BBC in London, and NPR in the United States. His television interviews have included an interview on a fraud saga for the Evil Twins series for the Investigation Discovery Channel. He is a regular presenter at the ACFE’s Global Conferences and at events overseas such as Brazil’s Interforensics 2023.