Forensic Technology Solutions

The Forensic Technology Solutions team (FTS) finds truth from data. We capture and process vast amounts of disparate electronic information to find the evidence that proves a case.

It’s essential to have forensic technology specialists who are trained in the forensic acquisition and analysis of electronic evidence and are equipped with the most cutting-edge tools and technology.

It is even more important to have a team of professionals who understand the wider commercial issues — such as how to minimise the cost and disruption to the business - and the wider legal issues, such as data protection and proportionality.

We have the knowledge and experience to handle evidence in relation to specific regional requirements. We understand the implications of various applicable laws and Acts. Critically, we understand the legal aspects of transferring data between multiple jurisdictions.

Our teams not only have this knowledge and experience, they’re supported by consistent methodologies built from our experience with engagements across the globe. Our reach is extensive: our global network of over 300 forensic technology professionals spans 30 countries. Here in India we have dedicated professionals in our forensic lab at Kolkata and Mumbai.


Responsive services (summary)

We do a great deal of work helping clients respond to incidents such as:

  • Regulatory orders and regulatory investigations (including Anti-Corruption Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigations)
  • Corporate investigations (including whistle-blowing, suspicion of fraud, etc)
  • Dispute analysis, litigation support and electronic disclosure

Since the vast majority of business records are created and stored electronically, these incidents require us to respond quickly to capture, analyse and deliver the relevant information. In general, our methodologies involve the following steps:

  • We map the data universe and determine what is relevant
  • We capture and validate that information
  • We work with our clients to determine what is responsive
  • We analyse the information (see below) or make it available for review
  • We produce the results.

Extensive analysis can include:

  • Conducting a fraud investigation or other form of corporate investigation
  • Collecting email and other electronic documents, scanning paper documents, determining which documents are responsive to a disclosure or a regulator’s order and making those documents available for clients or lawyers to review online
  • Sifting through vast volumes of transactions in financial or ERP systems and performing sophisticated data analytics to look for fraud, anomalous transactions or control weaknesses.

With all our work, preservation of the evidential integrity is paramount, and we provide clients with the ability to examine electronic data in a legally robust manner.

 
Responsive Services (detail)
Corporate Investigations (including whistle-blowing and suspicion of fraud)

We often assist corporations’ internal audit or relevant departments with their investigations. We can work as an integral extension of the internal team or work in locations where clients don’t have investigations personnel. We will capture data from individual workstations, servers or enterprise systems (such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) or financial systems). We will analyse the data and provide the results in a variety of easy-to-use tools that allow the investigators to review the results.

  
Data analytics

Large organisations have massive amounts of data, often split across financial systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, procurement systems and so on.
We have developed sophisticated routines to unlock the data that these systems contain, and we help clients:

  • Investigate suspicion of fraud
  • Extract data (such as financial data or clinical trial data) to comply with regulatory disclosure
  • Investigate regulatory compliance, such as looking for payments to agents that violate the Anti-corruption and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
  • Look for corruption or collusion
  • Extract data (such as financial data or clinical trial data) during litigation support or electronic disclosure
  • Verify or dispute creditor claims or perform other claims management
  • Conduct data mining
  • Support business decisions through business intelligence reports
  • Look for patterns or trends
  • Search for anomalous transactions.

We have in-depth experience with Oracle Financials, SAP, JD Edwards and PeopleSoft. We can help you determine which data to extract, then:

  • Transfer the data (in its native format where possible, so the data import is faster, cheaper and more accurate)
  • Validate the data, easily detecting exceptions
  • Analyse the entire data set, not just a sample
  • Create extremely complex tests (including compound analyses)
  • Run red flag reports and reports customised to the business issue at hand.

 

Dispute Analysis and Litigation Support

Many cases can be resolved before they go to court, and good litigation support can help cases settle more quickly. We can extend the reach and capability of law firms’ litigation support departments to provide the global reach and expertise required in the most demanding cases. We can also draw on our extensive forensics and investigation teams to examine the underlying matter and its related issues.

 

Electronic Disclosure

If your organisation is subject to litigation, chances are that over 95% of the information you are required to produce will be electronic. We routinely help law firms and their clients:

  • Understand and comply with preservation orders
  • Map the data universe and determine what is relevant
  • Forensically capture and preserve relevant data
  • Validate and de-duplicate the data
  • Pre-search where appropriate to help with proportionality
  • Use search terms and other methods to determine what is responsive
  • Conduct online reviews of relevant data using secure web-based tools accessible from any location
  • Deliver the data electronically and encrypted to the opposing party.

 

Regulatory Compliance and Investigations (including Anti-corruption and FCPA investigations)

Many organisations must demonstrate compliance to a variety of regulators, including:

  • Financial regulators, such as the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), UK Financial Services Authority (FSA), US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
  • Industry regulators such as the UK Competition Commission (CC) or the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

We have conducted numerous Anti-corruption and FCPA investigations on behalf of global multinational clients in locations spanning the globe. This US legislation applies to many non-US corporations, and carries severe penalties.
Whether it’s redacting data from a clinical trial database to provide efficacy data to the FDA, or reviewing emails to disprove collusion or unfair competition, it still needs to be done in a forensically sound manner to satisfy the regulator.

 

Transaction reconciliations

Our clients often obtain our help to reconcile transactional data held in their systems, usually to validate results to another party — such as a regulator or another company with whom they have a contractual relationship (including licensees, licensors, suppliers, et cetera).
We work with both financial and non-financial systems to:

  • Validate financial results
  • Verify stock inventory
  • Check royalties
  • Review medical and healthcare data.