Forensic

In a complex business dispute, Deloitte works with organisations and their legal advisers in judicial and alternative dispute resolution forums, across a range of jurisdictions. Drawing on our deep expert witness, financial analysis, damage quantification, and discovery capabilities, we give our clients the insight and understanding they need to strengthen their case, at all stages of a business dispute.

It can be a daunting task to make sense of the current environment and keep abreast of all the information needed for you to make informed choices. It is essential now that we consider the next steps to ensure that costs and losses are minimised, while also making certain that we have identified all mechanisms to recoup losses through either contractual or insurance routes. 

Companies are facing significant operational, financial, and strategic challenges as a result of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) breakout. Lower revenues will likely result in budget modifications, with funding allocated to those parts of the business deemed critical to meet current and near-term operations.

COVID-19 has resulted in significant negative economic and operational consequences for many organizations, as well as personal challenges for individuals to manage during these uncertain times. Many organizations, daily now, are analyzing the impact this crisis is taking on their supply chain, revenues streams, liquidity, and workforce, among a myriad of other impacts. The workforce is also affected by COVID-19. Two elements of the fraud triangle1- pressure and rationalization for organizations, employees, and third parties to perpetrate fraud during a time of crisis-typically rise, and anecdotal information to date informs us this crisis is no different.

Recent accusations of "stock dumping" raise questions about whether those made privy to nonpublic material information during times of crisis have placed their personal financial interests ahead of those of the investing public or their companies, potentially violating insider trading laws.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has quickly advanced on a global scale and responses to it continue to rapidly evolve. The financial impact of COVID-19 will likely put enormous pressure on corporations' financial results and present potential challenges for individual employees. This pressure may increase the temptation for individuals to engage in improper acts in order to address their immediate financial needs or resort to financial statement manipulation to meet stakeholder expectations.

To address the financial impact of COVID-19, organizations are taking initial steps to recover losses, including standing up loss accounting centers; implementing tools to aggregate, analyze, and monitor business impacts; and developing relief recovery strategies. At this point, those pursuing or expecting insurance reimbursements and other potential sources of funding, such as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act or government agency programs, should be preparing wellsupported impact assessments as well as claims and relief recovery substantiation.

As criminals become increasingly sophisticated, they’re finding new ways to channel illicit money through legitimate banks. In the process, they’re managing to stay one step ahead of the industry. This has a potentially significant impact on Ireland, given its role as a dynamic international financial services hub. Read the full article to discover the five steps to collectively tackle illicit finance.

In the November 2021 issue of Eolas Magazine, Deirdre Carwood, Head of Deloitte Forensic, featured in Eolas Magazine’s Justice report. Read her views on the threat illicit finance poses to the security and prosperity of all nations, and how to combat this growing issue in Ireland.

Find out more

To pay or not to pay: That's the essential dilemma for governments faced with ransomware attacks. Deloitte's Tim Li and Doug Powers tell host Tanya Ott how the public sector can face the looming threats.

Using 4IR technologies to prevent and detect the growing ecosystem of financial crime. Our collective connectivity increases the digital attack surface for cyber—both at home and at the workplace. But the same technologies that have given rise to a digital criminal ecosystem can be turned on their head to help combat financial crimes.

Bribery and corruption is a multi-dimensional issue, where incidents can undermine an organisation’s reputation, culture, regulatory standing and profitability. Beyond organisational borders, this force damages people, communities, economies and countries.

There is no single definition of financial crime in Irish law. Money laundering, bribery and corruption, cybercrime, handling the proceeds of crime, financial markets abuse, and accounting and tax fraud are all considered financial crimes. The list is endless and constantly changing.

Find out more

Throughout the numerous fraud investigations we have carried out, we have identified a list of common themes or ‘red flags’. Any one of these could indicate that a possible fraud is taking place. Being alert to red flags and responding appropriately can assist you to detect fraud earlier and in some cases prevent fraud occurring altogether.

An analytics driven approach to fighting fraud

Forensic analytics is a critical capability in the future of investigations. Our five-part series explores analytics-driven fraud fighting approach, the need for available and accurate data, technologies required to extract data and realise its value, and continuous monitoring of transactions and activities, a process that produces invaluable results.

There is growing consensus that the current global framework for fighting financial crime is not as effective as it could be, and that more needs to be done at the international, regional and national levels to help identify and stem the flow of illicit finance – an activity which supports some of the worst problems confronting society today, including terrorism, sexual exploitation, modern slavery, wildlife poaching and drug smuggling.

In the past 10 years we have seen increasing levels of sophistication in fraud schemes and a significant rise in the number of cyber-criminal groups and organisations targeting both companies and individuals with such schemes.

Traditional fraud, focussed on monetary assets, continues to exist but the exponential growth in the amount of data held by companies, facilitated and created by technology, is now a target for fraudsters. On the dark web, private health data typically sells for 10 times more than other personal data.

2020 is going to be both a challenging and rewarding year for EU regulators, as they continue to navigate the fall-out from Brexit and the increasing public appetite to control the use of their own personal data. Our framework provides a high level assessment of the expected regulation to be enacted and progressed in 2020 in the EU. Consider how this may impact you as a technology, media or telecom business.

Harnessing the power of Analytics and AI for contract management

dTrax is an end-to-end Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution that improves contracting efficiency, visibility and compliance through advanced analytics. Using extracted contract-related data and integrating it with business data, dTrax provides standardised templates, first draft automation and management of full negotiation and workflow with streamlining the contract management process with all executed contracts in one place.

Financial Crime & Risk Compliance Solution

Deloitte Beacon, our cloud-based financial crime risk and compliance solution acquires critical information to address gaps between principles and practice in an organisation’s compliance programme.

From compliance risks ratings to controls effectiveness, and other key performance indicators, Deloitte Beacon enables organisations to have an aerial view of their threats and risks while operating in a global market place.

Deloitte Halo is our digital whistleblowing solution. It equips your organisation with secure and confidential reporting channels that help you strengthen governance and internal controls.

Watch Deloitte Halo video