Extreme claims

The investigation started in the same way as numerous others on which I had been instructed, recalls Sean Holohan of BDO Stoy Hayward’s Fraud Investigation and Recovery Services Team. The group finance director of an international managed accommodation provider, Jim, rang to say that he had received an anonymous letter alleging incredible misuse of company funds and assets…

Sean Holohan is a senior manager with the Fraud Investigations & Recovery Services Team (‘FIRST’) at BDO Stoy Hayward. For more information on how to protect your organisation from fraud, contact BDO FIRST on 0700 BDO FIRST (0700 236 3477) or by email: first@bdo.co.uk

Jim thought that the letter had been written by “some nutter”, who had “obviously got his facts wrong”, since not even the general manager could misappropriate the volumes alleged. In any case, head office management had never needed to visit the city, in the middle of nowhere, on a different continent. “Hold on a minute”, I said. Instead of just ignoring the letter, I set out the options available to Jim. The internal audit team had already flagged this particular remote site for a random visit in three months’ time. I persuaded him to bring the visit forward and let me go as one of the team to “sniff around”.