Business Fraud: Forensic Accountants Make it Add Up

R. Dixon Grier

Corporate fraud, insider trading, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, intellectual property infringement-the list goes on and on as to instances in which parties have committed acts resulting in financial losses. The legal challenge in proving financial wrongdoing is a minefield in itself, but what steps need to be taken when documenting economic damages?

This article is reprinted with permission from the December 13, 2004 edition of THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL. © 2004 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. For information, contact American Lawyer Media, Reprint Department at 800-888-8300 x6111. #005-01-05-0005.

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Dallas Office

Matson, Driscoll & Damico's Dallas office was originally opened in 1966 as a regional office of our predecessor firm, Johnson, Atwater & Company. During those early years, two of our firm's founding partners, Norman Matson and Michael Driscoll, served as Managing Partner for the Dallas office. In addition, current MD&D partners Dennis McBay (Dallas), Kent Bogdan (Dallas), Shannon Rusnak (Houston) and Brad Ryden (Philadelphia) all began their careers as staff accountants in Dallas.

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Appraising the 9/11 Damages to the World Trade Center

 Randall W. Wulff


One of the most important provisions found in many property insurance policies is the appraisal clause. Although not as often in the public eye as other ADR processes (like arbitration and mediation), appraisal is commonly used to provide an informal, less expensive and faster way to quantify the property damages owed by insurers. It is particularly well suited to deal with catastrophic losses, and its usefulness was confirmed in the aftermath of the tragedy of 9/11 and the destruction of the World Trade Center.

MD&D was originally retained by VeriClaim, Inc. and Edward R. Reilly & Company, Inc. on behalf of numerous domestic and international property carriers during the adjustment phase, and later assisted leading law firms and J.S. Held, Inc. during the arbitration process.

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Q: The insurance policy is subject to a monthly limit and the business income and extra expense loss for the first period exceed the limit of liability. Is it proper to amortize set-up costs over the period of restoration and not charge them all to the first period? For example, the insured purchases a temporary office trailer for $25,000 with set-up charges of $5,000. Is the entire $30,000 written off in the first period or is it appropriate to charge off 1/6 of the charges per month? The benefit derived from the expense is experienced during the entire restoration period. If the item is accounted for incrementally, then do you also amortize the costs to remove and take down the office? In other words, are 1/6 of the charges accounted for in the first period?

A: Click here to read the full answer.

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Matson, Driscoll & Damico Announces Two New Partners for 2008

Matson, Driscoll & Damico, an international forensic & investigative accounting, firm will admit Martin Pavelic and Suzanne Tarchala to the firm as partners in 2008. Martin manages the firm's Montreal, Quebec office, while Suzanne manages the Detroit, Michigan office.

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In the next issue of Forensic Insight...
Bob Rubinstein to retire on January 31, 2008 after 40 years with the firm