Industries

Versatility and experience, across the spectrum

Every industry faces unique operations and process risks, in addition to exposure to fraud, abuse or unintentional mistakes. With broad and deep investigative, controls assessment and litigation support expertise in the following industries, we understand the nuances of different businesses, and the risks and exposures each face. Before we begin a risk analysis, risk assessment or investigation, we consider the characteristics of that client’s industry sector and design our approach accordingly.

Aerospace

Stakeholder Disputes: Largest Contract Dispute in History against the United States Government ($5 Billion), involving development of a stealth attack aircraft. Responsible for Radar component of the claim ($101 Million, including $60 Million in subcontractor settlements).

Automotive

Financial & Economic Damages: Calculation of damages and lost profits in connection with defective paint hardening materials.
Financial Transaction Card Fraud: Investigation and forensic accounting analysis of embezzlement of funds by company accountant in the automotive industry. Provided analysis to local law enforcement for criminal prosecution by District Attorney.
Preferential Treatment of Vendors: Control weaknesses and exposure to fraud risk at three locations of an automotive and industrial battery manufacturer, including purchasing, accounts payable and receiving.
Inflated Payroll Salary, Rates and Hours: Control weaknesses and exposure to fraud risk at three locations of an automotive and industrial battery manufacturer, including payroll and human resources.

Banking & Financial Services

Investment / Securities Fraud: Investigation of diversion of funds by investment broker in an alleged Ponzi scheme. Referred case to Georgia Bureau of Investigation and IRS Criminal Investigative Division.
Financial & Economic Damages: Investigation and forensic accounting on behalf of the plaintiff, involving of misapplied mortgage payments by mortgage lender.
Financial & Economic Damages: Bankruptcy Settlement Administration for the credit card services division of a Fortune 10 Corporation. Managed the Atlanta team, and served as key client contact for the Atlanta-based client, while coordinating with project leadership in Chicago and New York.
Financial & Economic Damages: Investigation and forensic analysis on behalf of the plaintiff / borrower, involving of misapplied mortgage payments by mortgage lender.
Embezzlement, Employee Theft and Abuse: Investigation of former directors of the Brazilian subsidiary of an American bank, for embezzlement of more than $32 million. The embezzlement and related asset overstatement resulted in a falsely inflated purchase price paid by the American bank in acquiring the Brazilian subsidiary bank. The acquisition overpayment was approximately $15 million, in addition to the initial embezzlement. Performed financial analysis and prepared expert witness affidavit for counsel. Affidavit was later used in prosecution of the case by law enforcement authorities in Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, and Bahamas. Managed a team of 15 professionals, and coordinated efforts of no less than 20 other professionals.
Embezzlement, Employee Theft and Abuse: Investigation of allegations of mortgage fraud and employee theft.

Construction

Stakeholder Disputes: Investigation and forensic accounting analysis of $14 million condominium development, involving diverted payments by general contractor and non-payment to sub-contractors.
Bribery, Corruption, Kickbacks and Bid Rigging: Investigation of alleged kickbacks in connection with overseas construction projects.
Financial Transaction Card Fraud: Investigation of embezzlement by former accounting clerk. Provided analysis to local law enforcement for criminal prosecution by District Attorney.
Financial Transaction Card Fraud: Investigation of embezzlement of funds using business credit cards and fraudulent use of accounts payable system for a flooring distributor. Provided report to District Attorney for criminal prosecution.
Embezzlement, Employee Theft and Abuse: Investigation and forensic accounting analysis of embezzlement of construction loan proceeds and alleged transfers of funds to off-shore entities.
Overspent Contracts and Budgets: Ineffective reconciliation and monitoring processes for $400 million construction program of a private university.

Energy & Environmental

Investment / Securities Fraud: Calculation of lost profits due to breach and non-performance of contract. Investigation included consideration of securities fraud, earnings management and misuse of shareholder investment and contributed capital.
Bribery, Corruption, Kickbacks and Bid Rigging: Investigation of alleged vendor fraud, kickbacks and tax evasion for a distributor of natural gas products.
Financial & Economic Damages: Financial Statement Audit for a waste hauling and disposal company, with $13 Billion in annual revenue, in response to a large earnings restatement. In a supervisory role, was responsible for six of the 350 locations audited. Uncovered over $350,000 in overstated accounts receivable, which required direct write-off as bad debt expense.

Family Law & Marital Dissolution

Financial & Economic Damages: Forensic accounting and asset tracing in connection with divorce dispute.
Financial & Economic Damages: Forensic accounting analysis of marital estate, in connection with alleged wrongful death.

Government

Money Laundering: Retained by United States Attorney for investigation and forensic accounting analysis of funds allegedly received from trafficking of illegal narcotics.
Bribery, Corruption, Kickbacks and Bid Rigging: Forensic accounting investigation, in coordination with the Office of the District Attorney and Grand Jury, relating to depletion of a fund balance of more than $20 million, for a municipality with annual budget of $85 million. Identified transactions indicating potential corruption activity, including bribery, kickbacks, and bid rigging, as well as money laundering and ghost employees. Referred case findings to United States Attorney’s Office, which attracted interest from five federal agencies, to continue investigation at the Federal level.
Bribery, Corruption, Kickbacks and Bid Rigging: Forensic Accounting Analysis regarding misapplication of over-spent budgeted programs in a disease research agency, in response to Congressional inquiry. Findings reports issued internally to the research agency, and to United States Congress.
Capital Murder: Forensic data recovery and analysis of victim’s home computer, on behalf of defense counsel. Testimony considered and addressed prosecutorial misconduct, as well as the effect of failure to follow proper forensic and investigative procedure by law enforcement.
Lack of Controls over Inventory and Fixed Assets: Internal controls risk assessment for colleges within the University System of Georgia.
Inflated Payroll Salary, Rates and Hours; Understated Assets and Revenue: City-wide internal controls risk assessment. Identification of risk for payroll fraud and lost revenue.
Embezzlement, Employee Theft & Abuse; Understated Assets and Revenue: Internal controls assessment related to skimming of business tax and license revenue of a city government.
Embezzlement, Employee Theft and Abuse; Overspent Contracts and Budgets; Inflated Payroll Salary, Rates and Hours: County-wide internal controls risk assessment. Identification of budget over-spending, payroll fraud and kickbacks.
Investigation of conflicts of interest between local business owner and elected official.
Capital projects that overspent authorized limits, in connection with $65 million local option sales tax.

Hospitality & Entertainment

Stakeholder Disputes: Dispute analysis on behalf of the plaintiff, involving misappropriation and mis-classification of distribution payments to shareholders.
Fraudulent Expense Reporting: Investigation of former Chief Executive Officer of a publicly traded gaming corporation, for misappropriation and misuse of company assets, in anticipation of shareholder litigation. Chief Executive Officer resigned soon thereafter.
Understated Assets and Revenue: Series of forensic audits for a national franchisor of hotels, involving underpayment of franchise fees, resulting in identification of under-reporting of hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.
Money Laundering; Understated Assets and Revenue: Forensic accounting analysis in defense and risk mitigation in connection of tax evasion allegations.
Investigation of falsely reported hours and acceptance of unauthorized compensation.
Financial & Economic Damages: Prepared forensic financial analysis and qualified as testifying expert (testimony not required) on behalf of the United States of America (Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office) in connection with bankruptcy fraud case and related investigation of asset concealment.
Financial & Economic Damages: Forensic accounting analysis and damages calculation in response to falsified advertising revenue by an outsourced advertising sales firm with their client, a national sports magazine publisher.
Financial & Economic Damages: Arbitration Analysis in support of a food service and nutrition provider, regarding profit sharing and bonus calculation for an outsourced payroll and human resources contractor.

Hospitals & Healthcare

Bribery, Corruption, Kickbacks and Bid Rigging: Forensic Due Diligence in connection with an acquisition by a Fortune 20 healthcare provider, in response to findings of illegal payments under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, resulting in a decrease of $300 million in the acquisition price. Used forensic data mining tools to detect further questionable payments and relationships at the target’s domestic operation, resulting in termination of contractor / vendor relationships. Managed a team of 7 professionals, and coordinated efforts with no less than 10 other professionals.
Financial & Economic Damages: Forensic financial analysis and projection for a home health facility, in response to default on payment to our client, a commercial mortgage lender. Provided report to state health authorities.
Financial & Economic Damages: Dispute analysis in arbitration, regarding dissolution of medical practice. Calculation of assets, net book value, and revenue sharing.
Embezzlement, Employee Theft and Abuse: Investigation of the former Vice President of a privately-owned hospital, for using the hospital’s capital projects fund to construct his personal residence, at a cost of approximately $900,000, and a total estimated theft of $1.9 million. In addition to assisting legal counsel with civil aspects of the case, worked in conjunction with state and local law enforcement, to prepare the case for criminal prosecution, and arrest of co-conspirators.

Manufacturing

Bribery, Corruption, Kickbacks and Bid Rigging: Investigation of alleged kickbacks and conflicts of interest at a chemical manufacturing company. Recommendations resulted in improvements of internal controls, and terminations of relationships with questionable and suspicious contractors and suppliers.
Financial & Economic Damages: Intellectual Property Dispute involving trade dress infringement and disgorgement of profits, which resulted in a favorable outcome for the client, a world-renowned handgun manufacturer.
Financial & Economic Damages: Analysis of business and economic factors in defense of claim of alleged financial damages, for a global manufacturer of heavy construction machinery and equipment.
Check Fraud, Counterfeiting and Theft: Investigation of check tampering, check counterfeiting and internal computer theft for a manufacturer of printed products
Check Fraud, Counterfeiting and Theft: Investigation and internal controls assessment of embezzlement by several different members of accounting staff, involving fictitious vendor and check tampering / theft schemes.
Fraudulent Expense Reporting: Fraudulent reporting of travel and entertainment expenses and personal use of company funds.
Change Order Abuse: Capital expenditures made prior to authorization, indicating override of internal controls of capital approval process, or potential bid rigging, kickbacks, or preferential vendor treatment ($815K).
Change Order Abuse: Capital projects not regularly monitored, denoting exposure to over-spent contracts, kickbacks, change order abuse, and/or bid rigging ($114 Million).
Understated Assets and Revenue: Expensed items for which corporate policy requires capitalization.
Understated Assets and Revenue: Income understatement, resulting from inventory valuation errors. Provided new formula for calculating mass storage inventory.
Overspent Contracts and Budgets: Capital projects that overspent authorized limits, revealing circumvention of corporate policy.
Lack of Controls over Inventory and Fixed Assets: Process inefficiencies in monthly financial closing, inventory management, and sales and production forecasting processes for a global manufacturer of tractors and farm machinery.
Lack of Controls over Inventory and Fixed Assets: Inventory shipments from suppliers that were 50% less than their reported amounts.
Inflated Payroll Salary, Rates and Hours: Lack of separation of duties in the payroll and human resources function (5 instances in 10 locations under review).
Fictitious / Overstated Revenue: Uncollected sales invoices older than 60 days, indicating exposure to skimming or inflated / fictitious revenues.
Fictitious / Overstated Revenue: Assets listed on fixed asset ledger, which were no longer in existence.
Fictitious / Overstated Assets: Current assets for a single division overstated, and not reconciled with balance sheet, indicating exposure to overstated revenue or understatement of expenses.
Fictitious / Overstated Revenue; Fictitious / Overstated Assets: Accounts receivable older than 60 days, indicating ineffective collection procedures and exposure to skimming and/or inflated / fictitious revenue ($7.7 Million).
Fictitious / Overstated Revenue; Fictitious / Overstated Assets: Inefficient cash application, resulting in unapplied cash receipts ($2.8 Million).

Not-for-Profit

Embezzlement, Employee Theft and Abuse: Investigation of embezzlement, forgery and risk of workplace violence. Coordinated with forensic handwriting examiner.

Professional Services

Bribery, Corruption, Kickbacks and Bid Rigging: Investigation of unethical business practices of a professional staffing company, in connection with contractual arrangement with vendors.
Inflated / Overbilled Revenue: Forensic accounting analysis relating to amounts over-billed by employees of an interiors design firm. Four employees responsible for perpetrating the improper billings, including the Chief Financial Officer, were terminated. Conducted additional forensic analysis to ensure that no further over-billings occurred.
Inflated / Overbilled Revenue: Investigation in response to whistleblower complaint in connection with inflated revenue.

Real Estate & Development

Financial & Economic Damages: Investigation and calculation of damages in dispute regarding former officer of a real estate development company.
Embezzlement, Employee Theft and Abuse: Investigation of former Chief Financial Officer of a real estate development company, for alleged embezzlement of more than $400,000.

Technology

Stakeholder Disputes: Investigation and forensic accounting analysis of diversion of revenue by shareholder.
Financial & Economic Damages: Purchase Price Dispute for the computer leasing division of a Fortune 10 Corporation. In a joint effort between Atlanta and New York Offices, served as key Atlanta contact for client and the client’s defense attorneys.
Embezzlement, Employee Theft and Abuse: Investigation of the Chief Financial Officer for embezzlement of $25 million. Assisted U.S. Attorney, FBI and IRS in forensic analysis for criminal indictment, which included 15 counts of wire fraud, and 10 counts of money laundering. Also advised investment banking firm in calculation of civil damages and financial restatement.

Telecommunications

Check Fraud, Counterfeiting and Theft: Investigation of the preparation of a counterfeit check ($375,000) against the account of a telecommunications service provider. Coordinated efforts between the victimized corporation, bank investigators, polygraph examiners, and FBI.

Transportation & Logistics

Embezzlement, Employee Theft and Abuse: Investigation and forensic accounting analysis of fraudulent use of company retirement and pension program of a global airline.
Lack of Controls over Inventory and Fixed Assets: Investigation and controls risk assessment of fraudulent credits to debit cards for a distributor / supplier of restaurant supplies and equipment.
Preferential Treatment of Vendors: Forensic data analysis for multi-million dollar distribution firm, in response to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.