Specialty / Forensic accounting
Fraud detection + expert-witness work, on the same audit-trail spine.
Forensic accounting is litigation evidence. Marco Reid surfaces the anomalies, applies the standard, drafts the report — and the credentialled forensic specialist signs every output before it reaches a court, regulator, or insurer. Hash-chained AuditLog + DocumentVersion ensures the chain of custody is unbroken from intake to expert opinion.
Coverage by jurisdiction.
The statutes, the regulators, and the matter types Marco Reid handles for this specialty in each market.
New Zealand
Authorities
- ✓Crimes Act 1961 — fraud, dishonesty offences
- ✓Companies Act 1993 — directors' duties + insolvent trading recoveries
- ✓Insolvency Act 2006 — voidable transactions, voidable preferences
- ✓Evidence Act 2006 — expert-witness standards, hearsay, propensity
- ✓ISA (NZ) 240 — auditor's responsibility for fraud (XRB)
- ✓Serious Fraud Office Act 1990 — major-fraud investigations
- ✓CA ANZ Code of Ethics — APES 110 + APES 215 (forensic accounting)
What we cover
- ✓Voidable transaction recoveries (Companies Act ss 292–296A)
- ✓Asset tracing for liquidators + trustees in bankruptcy
- ✓Section 261 examination support (Companies Act)
- ✓Expert reports under Evidence Act + High Court Rules Sch 4
- ✓SFO referrals + fraud-investigation support
- ✓Family Court financial-disclosure forensics (relationship property)
- ✓Cybercrime + ransomware-payment forensic analysis
Common matters
Australia
Authorities
- ✓Corporations Act 2001 — Pt 5.4 + Pt 5.4B liquidation, voidable transactions (s 588FE)
- ✓Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) + state criminal codes — fraud, deception
- ✓ASIC Act 2001 — ASIC investigations + s 19 examinations
- ✓ARITA Code of Professional Practice — investigation methodology
- ✓ASA 240 + APES 110 + APES 215 (forensic accounting standard)
- ✓Federal Court Rules + UCPR (NSW) — expert-witness Code of Conduct
What we cover
- ✓Voidable transactions under s 588FE — uncommercial, preferences, related-party
- ✓Section 530A books-and-records analysis
- ✓Section 596A + 596B examination support
- ✓Insolvent trading recovery support (s 588G)
- ✓ASIC s 19 examination preparation + supporting evidence
- ✓Expert reports under FCA Practice Note + Harman undertakings
- ✓AUSTRAC investigation support — money-laundering-trail analysis
Common matters
United Kingdom
Authorities
- ✓Insolvency Act 1986 — preferences (s 239), undervalue transactions (s 238), wrongful trading (s 214)
- ✓Fraud Act 2006 — fraud by false representation, abuse of position, failure to disclose
- ✓Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 — money laundering + confiscation
- ✓Companies Act 2006 — directors' duties + breach-of-trust recoveries
- ✓ACCA / ICAEW Code of Ethics + ICAEW Forensic Standards
- ✓CPR Pt 35 — expert evidence + duty to the court
What we cover
- ✓Insolvency Act preference + undervalue claim analysis (Insolvency Act 1986 ss 238–245)
- ✓Wrongful trading evaluations (s 214) — when did the directors know?
- ✓POCA confiscation calculations + benefit-of-criminal-conduct quantum
- ✓SFO + NCA evidence preparation
- ✓CPR Pt 35 expert reports — Single Joint Expert + party-appointed
- ✓Family Division forensic accounting (financial remedies)
- ✓FCA disciplinary investigation support
Common matters
United States
Authorities
- ✓Defend Trade Secrets Act 2016 — trade-secret misappropriation damages
- ✓Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 — financial-reporting integrity + internal controls
- ✓Bankruptcy Code — preference (§ 547), fraudulent transfer (§ 548), avoidance powers
- ✓Federal Rules of Evidence — Rule 702 (Daubert), Rule 703 (expert basis), Rule 705
- ✓AICPA Statement on Standards for Forensic Services (SSFS)
- ✓PCAOB AS 2401 — fraud in financial-statement audits
- ✓RICO 18 USC § 1962 — pattern of racketeering analysis
What we cover
- ✓Bankruptcy avoidance actions — preference + fraudulent transfer analysis
- ✓Daubert-compliant expert reports + deposition preparation
- ✓SOX 404 internal-control deficiencies + restatement support
- ✓DTSA + state UTSA trade-secret damages quantification
- ✓RICO predicate-act analysis + pattern proof
- ✓FCPA + AML investigation support
- ✓Securities fraud — earnings-management + revenue-recognition forensics
Common matters
How Marco Reid helps.
Benford's Law on every dataset
First-digit + second-digit Benford analysis on transaction tables, expense reimbursements, journal entries. Variance from expected distribution flagged with statistical significance. Mark Nigrini methodology applied; output cited in the report.
Ghost vendor detection
Vendor master + transaction join surfaces vendors that share addresses with employees, vendors that only invoice round numbers, vendors that only invoice just-under-approval-thresholds, vendors with no W-9 / IR3 / ABN on file.
Money trail + tracing
Following funds through bank statements, intermediate accounts, related-party loans, loan-account drawdowns. Outputs a directed graph the report can visualise as Schedule A.
Payment splitting + structuring
Detects payments split to stay under approval thresholds (procurement) or reporting thresholds (AML). Standard pattern Marco surfaces in the AML/CFT module too — same algorithm, different surface.
Daubert / Pt 35 / FCA Practice Note expert reports
Court-admissible expert report drafting per the relevant procedural code. Reviewer must hold the credential the court will accept (CFE / CA ANZ Forensic Specialist / CPA-FCPA / AICPA-CFF). Marco drafts; the named expert signs.
Hash-chained chain of custody
Every input source, every methodology applied, every reference relied on logged in DocumentVersion + AuditLog. The opposing expert's first cross-examination is "how did you handle the data?" — the audit trail answers in seconds, not days.
Marco Reid is a workspace and tooling vendor. It is not itself licensed to practise. Every consumer-facing output passes through SignoffRequest and is approved by a credentialled practitioner in the relevant jurisdiction before release.
Forensic work is litigation evidence. We build it on a litigation-grade audit trail.
Benford's, ghost-vendor, money-trail, payment-splitting — automated. Expert-report drafting per Daubert / Pt 35 / FCA / Evidence Act 2006 — drafted, reviewed, signed. The chain of custody never breaks because the platform records every step.