Forensic Audit: Investigating Abuse in a Company

When companies turn to us

• Shortages, unexplained discrepancies or suspicious transactions have been found
• There are signs of collusion with suppliers or inflated purchase prices
• An employee's departure was accompanied by the loss of documents or data
• The owner suspects management of stripping assets
• The amount of loss needs to be assessed in order to bring claims

Typical schemes

• purchases through "friendly" suppliers and inflated prices;
• fictitious services and expenses with no real performance;
• asset stripping through affiliated companies and loans;
• payroll schemes: ghost employees, unjustified bonuses;
• cash and advances: unsettled advances, substituted documents.

Stages

• Securing data: preserve documents and electronic traces before they change.
• Analysis of transactions and relationships: suppliers, bank flows, affiliations.
• Interviews with employees and counterparties.
• Calculation of loss.
• Report with findings and supporting materials.

What the client receives

A report describing the facts identified, the schemes, the persons involved and an estimate of the loss, together with recommendations on controls. The materials can be used when applying to law enforcement bodies or the courts; those bodies decide whether to open a case and how to assess the evidence — the outcome cannot be predicted in advance.

Forensic audit, statutory audit and forensic accounting examination

• Financial statement audit — an opinion on the reliability of the financial statements as a whole (Art. 32, 39 of ZRU-677).
• Forensic audit — an investigation of specific facts commissioned by the client (Art. 36).
• A court-ordered forensic accounting examination is appointed within judicial or criminal proceedings.

Confidentiality

An investigation is almost always conducted by a limited circle of people: premature disclosure leads to documents being destroyed and participants aligning their stories. The procedure for interaction and the circle of informed persons are agreed before work begins.

Auditors may not disclose information obtained in the course of their services without the client's written consent, except in cases provided for by law (Art. 8 of ZRU-677).