We were contacted by a company of the food industry to confirm some initial evidence which made them suspect that the current Marketing director, could be making operations above the market value, on most occasions being contracts for promotion and public relations services.
From Winterman, the following actions were adopted:
- A team made up of fraud consultants and forensic accountants began an audit process of the Marketing department which identified that the invoices that were paid above the market price always corresponded to the same event organisation company. Furthermore, the way of acting outside the invoice authorisation process, indicated that at least another two people should be involved. The first findings indicated that the company had paid for services that had never been rendered.
- A team of forensic computer technicians, made a copy of the computers of the suspected, always respecting the rights of those affected, and from the subsequent investigation, evidence of the co-operation of the suspected and of the mechanics of the fraud was obtained.
- Winterman’s fraud investigation team could obtain evidence of all the structure organised to commit the fraud which consisted of a company created with the corporate purpose of promotion and organisation of events, behind which we had the Marketing Director of the client company who contracted himself services for a cost over the market cost, services which were never rendered. Profits were distributed through crossover invoices with the rest of those implied in that corruption act.
RESULT
Everything obtained during the investigation, was consigned on an expert report and ratified on court. The matter ended with the termination, with no compensation, of the employment relationship of the affected who had a seniority of more than 12 years, and with a criminal conviction for the main accused which resulted in the corresponding criminal records and in the attachment of accounts that allowed a certain compensation by the client after the end of the civil case.