Forensic accounting

Forensic accounting is a discipline combining accounting expertise and investigative financial analysis to detect, document and quantify fraud, misappropriation, financial disputes or accounting irregularities. It is deployed in deep due diligence, litigation support, arbitration proceedings and internal investigations. Core techniques include journal entry analysis, anomaly testing (Benford's Law), financial flow reconstruction and related party transaction analysis. The forensic accountant may serve as an expert witness before courts and arbitral tribunals, providing technically rigorous and legally defensible findings.

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Example: mandated on a forensic accounting investigation of a French SME following internal fraud suspicions, Hectelion analyses 5 years of accounting records (82,000 journal entries). The investigation identifies CHF 420,000 of misappropriation via fictitious expense claims over 3 years, CHF 280,000 in fraudulent supplier invoices and CHF 150,000 in wire transfers to personal accounts of the CFO — CHF 850,000 of documented losses supporting a criminal complaint.

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Hectelion conducts forensic accounting investigations in transactional due diligence, judicial expert mandates and board-commissioned internal investigations.