Are you concerned that you or your business might be the victim of fraud?
If you suspect fraud or misconduct, your financial data may contain all the information you need to make your case and seek restitution. That’s where Culpepper CPA comes in. Our forensic CPAs provide investigative accounting services, as well as litigation support to our clients.
Have you noticed financial irregularities that don’t make any sense? Or maybe you are in the middle of divorce proceedings and you need an expert to uncover disputed or hidden assets on your behalf?
Forensic financial analysts can help you navigate a number of complex situations.
Who Needs Investigative Accounting?
Forensic and investigative accounting vary from person to person and industry to industry. Here are some common situations that our clients face:
- Shareholder Disputes: These cases revolve around compensation and other nuanced disagreements where equity, salaries, dividends, and profit distributions are at stake.
- Motor Vehicle Accidents or Personal Injury: A forensic accountant can investigate economic losses, which come under investigation by insurance companies and other parties after a car accident or personal injury incident.
- Insurance Claims: Whether you are the insured or the insurer, our forensic accountants can analyze an insurance policy and help to determine the appropriate methodology for calculating a loss.
- Fraud Investigations: Forensic accountants determine the extent of employee fraud and misconduct, determine losses, and works with your attorney to develop a strategy for justice. This may include collecting evidence, identifying the perpetrator(s), and interviewing staff.
- Matrimonial Disputes: Investigative accounting can be instrumental in divorce proceedings when one spouse needs to locate and evaluate disputed assets, such as property, businesses, and other sources of income.
- Business Economic Losses: Many business-related cases deal with economic losses within a business—everything from contract dispute and patent infringement to losses stemming from embezzlement or breach of contract.
Investigative Accounting Services from Culpepper CPA
When you hire Culpepper CPA to investigate fraud or misconduct, we take the time to examine all your financial records and data. Put simply, we try to find and document the truth.
Our specialized accounting knowledge and experience will enable you to gain a clear understanding of the situation. Not only do we analyze your financial information, but we also organize an in-depth investigation and provide you with a report of our findings. When you retain our services, we go through the following steps:
- Review your situation
- Recommend appropriate courses of action
- Assist you in the protection and recovery of assets
- Coordinate with private investigators and other experts to lend a hand with the investigation as needed
- Act as an expert witness in any necessary civil action or criminal prosecution
Once our investigation is complete, it’s then up to our clients to take the appropriate action. Although we are unable to recommend what you should do with the information we provide you with, we can discuss the options available to you.
These two real case studies will give you a clear idea of what investigative accounting looks like in action.
Case Study #1 – Using Investigative Accounting during Divorce
Some forensic accounting projects deal with divorce. The settlement of assets can obviously be a major, emotionally charged issue.
For example, one of our clients believed her spouse was hiding assets and lying about both the type of assets and their value. She hired Culpepper CPA to help identify all of the assets, determine their worth, and figure out where other assets, which had disappeared, might be hidden.
Once we had helped our client ascertain the full depth and breadth of the asset portfolio, she and her attorney were able to reach a fair settlement. This type of investigative accounting happens quite often during a divorce.
Case Study #2 – Using Investigative Accounting to Terminate Employees
The corporate office of a fast food franchise noticed that a particular location filed reports with obvious inconsistencies. Upper management personnel hired us to look into those inconsistencies and figure out what was going on.
What we discovered was this: Employees were eating a lot of food while on the job, and they were also taking inventory home with them.
On top of that, those employees were either undercharging their friends for large orders or giving away food for free.
The manager at the location had to make additional purchases to replace lost inventory, but total sales were obviously out of sync.
By conducting interviews, both with the guilty parties and with other employees, we pinpointed the various ways in which the store was bleeding profits. We also identified the employees responsible.
This particular project had less to do with recovering damages and more to do with liability. The corporate office needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt who was responsible so that they could terminate the guilty parties without risking a lawsuit.
The amount of money spent on extra “unsold” inventory wasn’t significant, but the cost of the engagement was worth it for our client. Thanks to forensic accounting, they now know the warning signs of low-grade theft and frequent freebies.
Let Knoxville’s top investigative accounting firm help resolve your financial issues.
It’s difficult to know what to do when you encounter fraud or financial misconduct.
If you are concerned about these issues in your business or personal life, then call Culpepper CPA. We pride ourselves on being the best forensic accountants in the Knoxville area.
We are happy to offer a free initial consultation to help you determine whether our services are needed. Please call us today at (865) 691-8509.
