Forensic CPAs: A Key Resource for Corporate Counsel

Kara Stearns Sharp, CPA, CFF,CFE,CVA and Patrick Gannon, CPA, CFF,CVA,ABV | Kaufman Rossin | junio 22, 2011

When an absentee owner suspected long-time top executives of stealing, our forensic team was engaged to investigate. Using after-hours physical searches, digital forensics, and data analysis, we found that four trusted executives who had been running the owner’s $170 million distribution company for more than 15 years had been treating the company like one big cookie jar. They had been stealing vendor rebates, taking kickbacks, and diverting business opportunities to separate companies of their own. They had even been taking what we call «middleman mark-up,» where the fraudster creates a fictitious company to act as an unnecessary middleman and takes a mark-up for arranging the purchase of real products from real vendors.

Kara Sharp, CPA, CFF, CFE, CVA, is a Forensic, Advisory and Valuation Services Practice Leader at Kaufman Rossin, one of the Top 100 CPA and advisory firms in the U.S.

Patrick Gannon, CPA, CFF, CVA, ABV, is a Forensic, Advisory and Valuation Services Principal at Kaufman Rossin, one of the Top 100 CPA and advisory firms in the U.S.