Fraud and business irregularities have been shown to increase in times of crisis. In difficult times, the tendency of organizations to solve problems in courts is also greater. Considering the specific changes that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the business environment, it is not hard to conclude that now, we have to be even more cautious, review the existence and effectiveness of compliance systems, fraud risk management and internal controls, and respond to any risks and suspicions in a timely manner. Otherwise, in the future we will certainly be faced with more investigations and disputes, trying to resolve problems from the past.

If you are already in a situation to:

• have noticed something strange in your financial statements or the financial statements of your subsidiary;
• have received a whistleblower allegation of fraud or other irregularity in your company or subsidiary;
• plan initiating a dispute or you are a defendant yourself and need help with assessing damages or interpreting the specific financial-accounting or economic aspects of the lawsuit;
• face a transaction or shareholder dispute over a purchase price or over a subsequent payment in accordance with the earn-out clause;
• plan a business relationship or acquisition of a company that you have not worked with so far and you need more information, not only about the financial aspects but also about the reputation of that company;
• suspect that the other contracting party (supplier and / or buyer) in the contract that contains an audit rights clause does not comply with its contractual provisions; or

• you need help or advice about fraud risk management;

we can help you with:

• investigations into suspected fraud or other misconduct;
• forensic support in working with your internal auditors;
• analysis and preparation of reports or advice about the financial and accounting aspects in disputes and / or arbitrations;
• background checks of potential business partners / acquisition targets;
• compliance reviews relating to specific regulatory or internal anti-fraud requirements (eg. the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act – FCPA);
• implementing, reviewing and / or improving fraud risk management policies and procedures;
• reviewing and evaluating the effectiveness of internal controls to prevent fraud;
• preparing a fraud risk assessment;
• checking compliance with the contractual provisions of significant suppliers and/or customer contracts to assess potentially overstated costs or understated revenues (licensing, distribution and similar contracts).