Commercial fraud has evolved from simple arrangements such as skimming, kiting and embezzlement techniques to complex schemes designed to defraud even the most sophisticated investors and executives. Multi-jurisdictional fraud has globalized these schemes, enhanced their complexity and made them more difficult to detect. The increasingly complex nature of these schemes demands that practitioners be well versed in both the legal and financial dynamics of preventing, discovering, and prosecuting these thefts. Once potential fraud is discovered or threatened, victims often have little time to respond before the assets are dissipated or transferred through a host of jurisdictions and cooperating entities. Practitioners incapable of immediately responding to these threats by quickly unraveling the fraud and tracing the assets will recover little or nothing. CMB has developed extensive expertise in preventing and responding to these threats. Our lawyers are not only seasoned legal professionals but are Certified Public Accountants, Certified Fraud Examiners, and experienced international commercial litigators well versed in fraud prevention and asset recovery.
Our services include:
- Assessing Risk and Damages Exposure
- Performing Financial Analyses and Developing Damages Theories
- Forensics and Fraud Examination
- Commercial Fraud Prosecution
- Asset Recovery
- Design and implementation of internal control policies and procedures to prevent and detect fraudulent activity
- Design and implementation of forensic audits to discover fraudulent activity
- Experience in detecting cross border fraud and involvement in asset recovery efforts abroad
- Risk analysis review of operating agreements, contracts, and corporate governance documents
- Investigation of significant financial statement fraud and financial statement restatement
- Identification of risk analysis exposures and implementation of prevention and detection techniques
- Review of financial affidavits in divorce engagements for evidence of asset concealment
- Detection, tracing and recovery of fraudulent asset transfers involving less than reasonably equivalent value
- Analysis and detection of improper insolvency claims and valuations in bankruptcy
Fraud Prevention
The key to minimizing the threat of fraud is to enable the institution or entity to monitor and evaluate its resources and asset transfers and allocations with minimal disruption to its daily operations and as an integral part of its operating routine. This requires the establishment of simple processes and procedures that deter or dissuade the fraudster from proceeding while minimizing the daily impacts to the employees and the organization. CMB can assist an organization in evaluating operational weaknesses and auditing these processes. Fraud or theft prevention controls are typically developed as afterthoughts to the business requirements, without first understanding the likely fraud exposures and risk factors inherent to the business. This process of risk assessment and internal control evaluation is essential to minimizing these threats, both from within and outside of the organization. Once the process of risk assessment is complete, CMB can recommend the proper segregation of duties, authorization and access controls, and establishment of additional vulnerability controls throughout the organization. Our seasoned lawyers can help companies implement cost effective routines that seek to prevent as well as detect fraudulent behavior.
Forensic Fraud Detection and Mitigation, Here and Abroad
Even the best fraud techniques do not always prevent these thefts. The complement to good fraud prevention is responsive fraud detection. With minimal additional resources, superior fraud detection techniques can be implemented to detect irregular activity. Our attorneys are also seasoned financial professionals who understand these techniques and can implement them as part of a comprehensive fraud prevention program. Once the fraud is perpetrated, however, an organization has little choice but to unravel the sometimes complex and mysterious methods used to misappropriate assets. Our attorneys understand complex business and operational cycles and processes and are adept at tracing and following multi-jurisdictional asset transfers throughout the world, but especially in South and Central America. Our team of international litigators often works closely with local foreign counsel to identify, locate, and seize the fruits of these fraudulent schemes. Unlike domestic fraud, fraud involving foreign entities or jurisdictions often involves unfamiliar laws and institutions, cultural disparities, unique financial and legal hurdles, and a sometimes-hostile reception to US jurisdictional reach and fervor. Our attorneys and staff understand this, and being completely fluent in both English and Spanish, understand the legal and cultural implications of pursuing these thefts abroad. Cross border fraud is perhaps the most daunting challenge to South Florida’s continued international and global presence. Our attorneys have represented foreign clients domestically and domestic clients abroad, and have successfully partnered with foreign local counsel to locate and prosecute fraudsters.
