National Post

October 11, 1999

EXPOSING THE NUMBERS GAMES:
Business is booming for forensic accountants, sleuths who know the numbers can lie and are riding a wave of corporate crime, investigating cooked books, hacked computers and old-fashioned theft

NEW YORK - Michael Kessler was hired by Monsanto Co. to track down a sweetener counterfeiting ring. Fake packages of Equal, the St. Louis-based Monsanto's sugar substitute, were showing up in stores from Minnesota to South Carolina. The 49-year-old forensic accountant uncovered a clue to the source not in the ledger books but in the trash. Staking out Haskel Trading Co. in Brooklyn, N.Y., he found bogus boxes of Equal buried amid crates and cardboard in a bin outside.

Such sleuthing is a booming business for Mr. Kessler and other forensic accountants, who charge about $300 an hour for investigative work, a third more than for audits. They're riding a wave of corporate crime from cooked books and hacked computers to infringed copyrights and old-fashioned theft.

'This is without doubt one of the fastest-growing areas of our practice,' said Frank Piantidosi, head of the investigative group at Deloitte & Touche.

Fraud of all types cost U.S. companies more than $400-billion last year, reports the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) Investors sued 235 corporations for securities fraud in 1998 -- a record number -- according to the Stanford Securities Class Action Clearing House at Stanford Law School.

Bank of New York Co. says it has hired investigators from the accounting firm KPMG LLP to determine whether a Russian crime syndicate laundered as much as $10-billion through the bank, as U.S. law enforcement officials allege.

And for months, scores of accountants have combed documents at six insurance companies for clues to hundreds of millions of dollars that vanished with Martin Frankel, according to state regulators. German police captured the money manager in Hamburg in September after a global manhunt, but investigators still don't know how much money is missing, let alone where it is.

Big Five accounting firms like Arthur Andersen LLC, Deloitte & Touche and KPMG are expanding their forensic businesses, units that are often part of what executives call 'litigation support services' or 'dispute resolution.'

Deloitte has added at least 75 people to its investigative unit, including more than two dozen former agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. federal prosecutors and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. At KPMG, the New York forensic practice has grown from four to 90 people in the past five years.

In the past, forensic accountants were little more than glorified insurance examiners. An insurer might, for example, hire an outside investigator to value a factory flooded by Hurricane Floyd.

Now the sleuths are landing work because more companies are suing each other, or being sued by their shareholders.

Cendant Corp., formed in 1997 by the merger of CUC International Inc. and HFS Inc., held the 'dubious honor' of being the most frequently sued company last year, according to the Stanford Law School study, published in January. The franchising and discount-shopping company, based in Parsippany, N.J., was the defendant in at least 70 class-action complaints.

The suits alleged that former CUC executives booked fictional revenue and used money set aside for merger-related expenses for other things. Cendant itself sued the accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP for certifying allegedly false financial statements from CUC.

'Blame the lawyers,' said Steven Bankler, the investigative accountant for the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee. 'We're a litigious society, and that is a big reason why forensic accounting is a boom business.'

Mr. Bankler isn't complaining. His San Antonio, Tex., firm charges $300 an hour. Big firms often charge more.

Some accountants come to the field with specialized training in computers. They say the ability to retrieve and secure electronic evidence is increasingly vital to solving white-collar crimes.

'Ten years ago, only the geeks had access to computers,' said Lorraine Horton, a 44-year-old investigative accountant who teaches courses in accounting computer systems at the University of Rhode Island. 'Now everyone has access and can hack in for nefarious purposes.'

Stephen Silver, the partner in charge of business fraud in the Midwest for Arthur Andersen, said he hires people from the FBI, state police forces or district attorneys offices. 'You've got to have experience with wrong-doing,' he said.

Spotting clues is a knack some experts say can't be taught. That is especially true with some accountants, trained to believe numbers don't lie.

Auditing is about following the rules,' said Ms. Horton. 'In forensic accounting there are no rules -- anything is possible.'

It was a lesson Mr. Kessler learned while investigating tax fraud, government corruption and organized crime in New York.

A beefy Brooklyn native standing well over six feet tall, he's worked as the director of the New York State Revenue Crimes Bureau, deputy inspector general for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and assistant chief auditor for the New York State Special Prosecutor. His Park Avenue firm, Michael G. Kessler Associates, employs about 35 accountants, researchers and private investigators.

Monsanto hired Mr. Kessler after stores began complaining in April, 1996, that their scanners couldn't read the bar codes on some Equal boxes. The boxes turned out to be fakes.

Working from a database he keeps on people linked to product-counterfeiting, Mr. Kessler staked out Haskel. His team snapped dozens of photos of employees at work and gathered evidence outside.

With a court order to seize Haskel's books, Mr. Kessler then put on his accountant's hat. The accounts showed Haskel had been buying Equal in 2,000-pack boxes designed for restaurants and repackaging the sweetener into counterfeit boxes holding 50 packs, the size sold in stores, Monsanto later alleged.

Monsanto says its prices are 'proprietary information' and won't disclose them. But the company does say that it sells Equal cheaper in bulk than it does to stores. A 50-pack box retails for $3.99 at Delmonico Gourmet Food Market off Park Avenue.

Monsanto filed a lawsuit against Haskel, saying the wholesaler had taken advantage of the difference in prices at its expense for five years. Monsanto has spent more than $110-million advertising and promoting Equal since 1992, according to the suit, so the company has a big stake in protecting its brand.

Haskel eventually settled, according to Mr. Kessler. People at the wholesaler didn't return telephone calls seeking comment. Not your typical accounting work. But then Mr. Kessler isn't your typical number-cruncher. 'While accountants look at the numbers,' he said, 'forensic accountants look behind the numbers.'