Corporate Forensic Accounting Investigations

Corruption, asset misappropriation, and financial statement fraud in the corporate setting take many forms and may include concealed liabilities and expenses, improper asset valuations, ghost employees or other types of fraud. Forensic accountants play a critical role in uncovering and proving even the most complex cases.

Our professionals’ experience includes financial investigations involving conflicts of interest, bribery, fictitious revenues, improper financial statement disclosures, billing schemes, shell companies, vendor fraud, employee fraud, payroll schemes, improper expense reimbursements, mischaracterization of expenses, counterfeited checks and other common problems organizations face.

To reveal fraud wherever it occurs, Weaver’s forensics professionals serve as investigators, consultants and expert witnesses for companies of all sizes, law firms, government agencies, not-for-profits and individuals. Our experience spans multiple industries, including banking, telecommunications, technology, health care, automotive, construction, real estate, oil and gas, and government sectors.

We are engaged as part of litigation, investigative and administrative matters in state, federal and bankruptcy courts, regulatory hearings, arbitration and other venues. We conduct interviews, review electronic records and analyze the financial books and records of entities to determine the sources and uses of funds and to evaluate specific transactions and business relationships.

Our team consists of forensic data analytics professionals who have applied effective techniques to query large volumes of transactional data. As part of this process, we assign risk scores to entities and transactions to focus our investigative efforts on high risk and high value transactions.

We assemble multi-disciplinary teams to bring clients the right professionals under a simplified “turnkey” approach for complex investigations that require specific industry expertise or knowledge of areas including but not limited to cybersecurity and internal controls.

Our services include:

• Regulatory, internal and external fraud investigations
• Litigation assistance, including expert witness testimony
• Whistleblower and ethics hotline claims assistance
• Forensic accounting
• Digital forensics and forensic data analytics
• Anti-money laundering
• Flow of funds analysis and asset tracing
• Proactive risk assessments and screening of third parties
• Corporate forensic accounting investigations

Our Success Stories (Representative List)

Internal Investigations

Allegations of Manipulation of Inventory Records

Conducted an independent investigation into alleged inventory manipulation at a subsidiary of a publicly traded company. The investigation included a review of electronic inventory system and general ledger data, manual inventory adjustments, daily cycle counts and related adjustments, email correspondence and other related business records. We determined that several employees had improper access rights to certain inventory related systems.

Revenue Recognition

Engaged by legal counsel to investigate potential revenue recognition issues at the European subsidiary of a publicly traded industrials company.  The investigation included the review of hundreds of transactions including supporting documentation such as purchase orders, invoices, and shipping documentation, as well as the acquisition and review of electronic information and interviews with current and former employees to quantify the amount of revenue that was allegedly accelerated during the period of analysis.

Anti-Money Laundering

Retained by outside counsel to assist in the investigation of a series of transactions created by a board member that raised concerns about potential violations of company policies required under the Bank Secrecy Act. The investigation included the evaluation of the entity’s anti-money laundering program including the associated policies and procedures, as well an analysis of multiple transactions in the ERP accounting system and electronic email information.

Forensic Accounting Investigations

Analysis of More than $1 Billion in Company Funds

Completed a detailed analysis of more than $1 billion in total disbursements stored in tens of thousands of individual electronic records. Our team analyzed accounts payable, payroll, construction expenses, travel reimbursements, and bank drafts for signs of improper activity. The forensic professionals used public databases to obtain additional intelligence on vendors and employees, then applied a risk-scoring methodology to flag certain vendors and potentially suspect transactions for further review.

Allegations of Fraud, Collusion, Falsification of Signatures, and Overpricing Arrangements

Investigated the allegation that a senior buyer at a global supplier of engineered systems had falsified signatures, possibly in collusion with certain vendors, through an overpricing arrangement. We analyzed the electronic and physical documentation provided by the company; conducted interviews with key employees in purchasing, production, and warehouse departments; performed a review of key internal controls; analyzed invoices related to the contracts in question; and prepared a presentation detailing the investigation and key findings. We determined that a large vendor had been replaced with two smaller vendors that submitted higher than average invoices.