Forensic Investigation Services

Financial scandals have rocked the business world over the past two decades, with various high-profile global cases. Although the rise in these corporate disasters may not be relevant to most organisations operating in South Africa, the risk of financial impropriety remains the same. This is evidenced by the high rate of fraud and corruption in South Africa, which has its own local examples that are well publicised.

It is against this background that the Deloitte Forensic Investigations service line was founded. Established in 1995 to investigate instances of financial impropriety, it has grown from a small team that specifically focuses on fraud investigations to a practice of more than 100 professionals who provide solutions to clients who are facing a wide range of issues in addition to fraud and theft.

The Deloitte Forensic Investigations service line provides solutions to clients who face a variety of issues, ranging from fraud, corruption, conflicts of interest, disputes with third parties, transactions that may contravene various laws and/or regulations, cyber-attacks, loss of confidential information, “black holes” in financial records and ghost employees on the payroll.

Our forensic investigations team is geared to perform investigations on behalf of clients who are facing these issues, so as to provide clients with cost-effective solutions to assist in recouping losses, litigation support or criminally prosecuting fraudsters.

In addition to fraud, theft and corruption investigations, our services include investigations relating to the following:

• Cyber incident response
• Fronting in the supply chain/procurement environment
• Financial statement fraud
• Regulatory incidents
• Identity theft
• Intellectual property theft
• Capital projects
• Pyramid/Ponzi schemes
• “Black hole” irregularities
• Market abuse
• Asset tracing
• Money laundering
• Contraventions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
• Contraventions of the UK Bribery Act

Clients use our services to independently and objectively investigate issues such as fraud, corruption and bribery, in order to understand them and to quantify possible losses.

We assist clients in:

Instituting recovery procedures arising from our investigations

Presenting evidence in disciplinary procedures, criminal prosecutions and civil litigation proceedings

Providing expert services to clients in disputes with third parties, in the form of forensic/accounting expertise, as well as independent quantifications, backed by factual findings, in support of claims

Leveraging our global reach and footprint to conduct investigations in most jurisdictions, including a well-established network in Africa

SME's 

We have approximately 100 forensic investigation specialists, of which seven are directors and five are associate directors. Our senior leadership team has extensive experience in conducting investigations across all sectors and across a number of African countries. Our subject matter experts have all more than 15 years’ experience in investigating white-collar crime and have backgrounds inter alia in:

• Accounting – chartered accountants
• Prosecuting authorities – former prosecutors and state advocates
• Law – attorneys and advocates
• Technology – data analytics specialists