Forensic Analysis & Financial Investigations
Prepared by
Brattle experts investigate and analyze allegations of accounting and financial fraud in a wide range of cases. We investigate whether accountants may have been complicit or negligent and can determine whether financial accounts reflect alleged illicit or deceptive activity, are misstated to avoid detection, or create a misleading impression of financial performance. The results of our forensic analyses provide critical evidence of the financial facts.
In investigations of potential financial fraud, forensic analysis of financial records is often used to test for misstatements in accounts that could hide illicit activity, and reconstruction of account balances and restatements may reveal the effects of fraud.
Financial
Investigations
White-collar cases that allege covert or illicit schemes are often ultimately exposed or explained through analysis of financial records other than company financial statements. In the simplest examples, financial analysis may show whether investor funds were used for their stated purpose. More elaborate schemes may involve trading strategies; bribery; false claims; money laundering; start-ups, initial coin offerings (ICOs), or reverse mergers that are, in fact, pump-and-dump schemes; or classic Ponzi schemes in which the most recent duped investors’ funds are used to pay off earlier investors as well as enriching perpetrators.
In such cases, Brattle experts assist investigators and defense counsel by organizing and analyzing financial records, such as bank statements, brokerage accounts, trading data, and wire transfers. Increasingly, financial records include public and private blockchain activity and cryptocurrency wallets. Our analysis may also integrate email, phone calls, texts and IMs, SWIFT messages, and other communication media to link financial activity with specific stated purposes and individuals.
Representative Engagements
Forensic
Analysis
Brattle experts include certified public accountants (CPAs), certified fraud examiners (CFEs), and financial economists with training in forensic accounting. We routinely assist prosecutors, regulators, and counsel in reviewing internal corporate financial records, bank records, audit work papers, financial reports, and related records and correspondence to answer key questions on what economic activity took place and whether it was properly recorded, reported, and disclosed.
In white-collar cases involving suspected deliberate accounting misrepresentations, forensic analysis typically includes examining the communications among company officials, internal accounting staff, and external auditors for evidence of possible complicity.
Representative Engagements
Representative Engagements
Representative Engagements
Representative Engagements
Paul Hinton, “How Celsius Customers May Use Tracing to Recover Deposits,” Law360 (March 6, 2023)
Experts
Forensic ANalysis
Financial Investigations
Publications
Related Practices
Mr. Hinton has over 20 years of experience in litigation consulting, directing projects, and providing expert testimony in product liability, financial, and commercial disputes.
An expert in product liability, finance, economics, and valuation topics, Mr. Hinton has testified before arbitral tribunals and legislative committees, and in litigation. He has assisted US-based and multinational companies in estimating and modeling their personal injury liabilities. Mr. Hinton has advised insurance companies on claims liability estimation and in insurance coverage litigation involving insurance allocation. In the decade beginning in 2000, Mr. Hinton worked on claims liability estimations on behalf of a number of asbestos defendants that choose to use bankruptcy restructuring to resolve asbestos personal injury claims against them. These asbestos-related bankruptcies included W.R. Grace & Co., Owens Corning, Combustion Engineering, and Armstrong World. Other recent mass tort bankruptcy case experience includes the Boy Scouts of America case and the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey case.
For a full bio, casework, and publications, please visit Mr. Hinton’s web bio.
Mr. McKnight has over 20 years of experience in economic consulting, providing expert testimony and consulting services in litigation, bankruptcy, and arbitrations pertaining to mass torts, bankruptcy, valuation and commercial disputes.
In mass tort matters, Mr. McKnight has worked with liability forecasts, insurance coverage, and discounted cash flows. He has forecasted future liabilities for personal injury claims resulting from exposure to asbestos, silicosis, PFAs, pollution, and various drugs and medical devices. Mr. McKnight has allocated projected losses to available insurance coverage and estimated the resulting cash flows. He developed models of exposure to asbestos, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices to estimate the future incidence of disease for use in litigation, financial accounting, due diligence, and assessing the adequacy of bankruptcy trust funding. He has submitted written testimony on the estimation of sexual abuse claims to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy and has testified before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey in the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey bankruptcy.
For a full bio, casework, and publications, please visit Mr. McKnight’s web bio.
Forensic Accounting
Financial Investigations
about brattle
The Brattle Group answers complex economic, finance, and regulatory questions for corporations, law firms, and governments around the world. We are distinguished by the clarity of our insights and the credibility of our experts, which include leading international academics and industry specialists. Brattle has 500 talented professionals across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.