12 June 2024 | Hybrid | Follow the Money | By Suelen McCallum of dVT Group

Disputes between parties, whether they arise out of commercial disputes or family law proceedings, often lead to claims that money or other assets have been wrongly dealt with by the other side. Consulting by dVT are often engaged to assist in these proceedings, and will present on the topic of “Follow the Money!” and will talk about some of their assignments involving forensic investigations for the recovery of assets. The discussion will cover the circumstances leading to the assignment, the processes involved in reviewing various transactions and the common issues and outcomes that arise out of such engagements.

The discussion could cover the following:

• Set the scene – example of circumstances leading to our appointment – e.g. dispute arising out of family law proceedings, loan accounts with family companies
• What were the main issues? – the overall scope of the assignment – e.g. finding where the cash had gone, what books and records we had available, difficulties with stakeholders
• How did we go about it? – use of specialist tools, e.g. Power BI for data analysis, Missing Link for processing bank statements into searchable data
• Issues that arose – finding a lack of documentation, needing to get further searches done (e.g. on bank transactions), resistance from parties etc.
• Our approach – talk about being pragmatic, looking for material issues and not wasting time and money on the small stuff, providing clear and well-explained reports, often with recommendations where appropriate
• Expert Witness – the ability to attend in court if necessary, our reports are done on that basis so well prepared for being cross-examined.