Forensic Accounting Consulting: Services

Any accounting that may be litigated can be classified as “forensic accounting.” So, whether you need to account for an estate, or you hire a CPA who may testify concerning a partnership dispute, a matrimonial issue, a fraud investigation, or how an elder was exploited, these fit the definition of “forensic accounting,” since the CPA may testify in court.

An ideal goal of any business is to not have fraud occur. If you “hope” you don’t have fraud or rely on “honest employees,” you may be shocked when you find that your trusted employee has tapped into your bottom line. Linda Saunders tells potential clients, “You can pay me now or pay me later,” when it comes to the question of whether fraud can happen in your business.

Embezzlement is defined as the taking (e.g., of money) for one’s own use in violation of a trust and by fraudulent means.

Initial assessments or examinations of a company’s records may reveal that accounting irregularities may have been due to intentional, fraudulent actions taken by one or more employees. At this point Forensic Accounting Consulting can move into a fraud examination or employee embezzlement investigation.

In fraud or embezzlement cases, Forensic Accounting Consulting may have to reconstruct the financial records after the perpetrators have “cooked the books.” If QuickBooks or similar proprietary electronic accounting software is used, Linda Saunders can navigate through the software audit trails. Having QuickBooks experience can greatly reduce the time it may take to ferret out and document such fraud. Linda often finds trends and intentional deletions or changes to the financial transactions.

QuickBooks analysis can be used to both prove intentional manipulations of the company books and to correct the disguised financial transactions. QuickBooks analysis is also very effective for civil matters that may not have fraudulent elements, such as for matrimonial and partnership disputes. Linda Saunders has worked many such cases.

If joint business ventures or corporate affairs meet an impasse between members, a forensic accountant is often necessary to sort out the details of their business. Forensic Accounting Consulting is frequently called on to provide an independent analysis to document what the accounting records support in resolving who contributed what, how the money generated by the business venture was accounted for, and what, if anything, was inconsistent with each partner’s rendition that caused friction between or among the partners or shareholders.

In divorces and meretricious relationship disputes, there are many needs for forensic work to decipher financial information and research the possibility of hidden assets. Linda Saunders has been very successful in discovering hidden assets in divorce engagements during her forensic analysis process.

Forensic accounting often includes child support computations or subsequent modifications. Businesses owned or acquired during the marriage require valuation, the marital estate needs to be quantified, and who owns what may often need to be determined. Forensic Accounting Consulting leaves valuation issues to valuation professionals, but often works in tandem with valuation experts when business income “doesn’t quite add up.”

A relative or trusted caregiver thankfully helps vulnerable or elder citizens with many of their daily functions. Financial assistance is often requested, as these citizens have sight impairments or cannot clearly think through the bill paying process. Their vulnerabilities can lead to exploitation by those caregivers. Forensic Accounting Consulting has sorted out many exploitation cases, and also assists in reviewing controls to prevent such financial abuse of these vulnerable adults.

For more on elder financial exploitation, including the “red flags” of elder financial abuse, read Linda Saunders’ article “Financial Exploitation of Elders” that was published in the CFE Fraud journal.

Forensic Accounting Consulting can assist in sorting out estate and probate issues when financial transactions are in dispute. As a result of documenting elder exploitation in one case, FAC was instrumental in facilitating the overturning of a Will that had been changed to give the exploiter millions of dollars when she passed. As a result, the charities in the original Will were reinstated during probate.

Agencies contract with Forensic Accounting Consulting as a consulting and/or testifying expert witness for both criminal and civil cases in litigation. The Department of Financial Institutions hired FAC to investigate a credit union to determine the financial institution’s viability after irregularities were discovered in their personal loan department. The Washington State Attorney General’s Office has used FAC services on multiple occasions in criminal investigations of complicated Labor and Industries cases in Northwest Washington.

When someone is accused of theft or fraudulent activities, Defense Counsel often hires Forensic Accounting Consulting as a consulting expert witness to advise Counsel of the strength or weaknesses of their case. Linda Saunders testified in a high profile Idaho case where the client was accused under the RICO statutes of 156 predicate acts of theft, forgery, and insurance fraud. The jury vindicated the accused after ten weeks in trial. Linda’s testimony in rebutting the Prosecutor’s expert witness testimony was instrumental in educating the jury of the facts in this case. The client was ultimately vindicated on all charges.

FAC has been hired by Prosecutors, Washington State Attorney General’s Office, and Public Defenders offices for criminal cases in Seattle and Tacoma, and in Clark, King, Kitsap, Kittitas, Mason, and Thurston counties in Washington and other venues out of Washington state.