The Corporate and Financial Investigative Group of SVA has deep experience in conducting corporate and financial investigations on behalf of corporations, financial institutions, law firms and governments.

As national and international business compliance requirements become increasingly stringent, the responsibility shouldered by companies and corporations becomes more complex and onerous. Differing legal requirements and jurisdictions, multiple languages, cultures, social mores and business practices complicate matters even further. Safeguarding a company’s hard-earned reputation and brand image is of paramount importance to today’s business organisations. As corporations outsource, partner, joint-venture, merge and acquire; the corporation, its officers, directors and staff must remain vigilant to avoid potential anti-bribery and corruption statutes – both local and international.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) anti-bribery regulations and the recently updated UK Bribery Act, to name but a few, legislate for the ethical business actions of its country’s citizens at home and abroad. Navigating through this regulatory regime with “long-arm jurisdiction”, and very punitive penalties for offenders is both complex and challenging. SVA is equipped to respond to these requirements to support our clients. Our approach is four dimensional: proactive (assessing and mitigating risk); reactive (responding to allegations utilising multi-disciplinary resources, investigative forensic accounting and data preservation experts); and monitoring and remediation (designing and testing controls modifications, or pursuant to prosecutorial settlement arrangements). In essence we assist our clients to develop and independently monitor the necessary internal controls and to investigate suspected violations. This is especially relevant in Asia where we are at the nexus of emerging economies, immature national legal and enforcement systems and diverse cultural attitudes toward corruption.

Our Approach

Our SVA professionals are highly adept at discovering and analysing the most sophisticated breaches of internal controls, unwinding complicated transactions and reconstructing events from incomplete or corrupt data. We begin our process by investigating the available financial data to discover how and when a suspicious event or transaction took place; this will facilitate the client’s response to allegations, preparation for third party audits and designing controls and systems to prevent future occurrences.

Development, Implementation and monitoring of Internal Control Systems

SVA professionals offer best practice advice and recommendations on systems that will be most effective in preventing, detecting and deterring breaches of regulatory requirements. In addition to our broad experience in developing processes, process manuals, training, monitoring and whistle-blower systems, we can also advise on existing systems, particularly if clients require a workable solution specific to Asia Pacific.

Investigations

• Fact-finding investigations to obtain critical evidence and to identify relevant individuals, including witness interviews
• Reviews of company books, accounting records and other financial data to determine the extent and financial implications of suspicious activities
• Research and advisory services to support preliminary accounting and reporting positions
• Assist in responding to subpoenas and requests for information from authorities
• Supporting the electronic discovery of deleted and corrupted data, as well as data reconstruction
• Document production support
• Preparation of formal reports to regulators and law enforcement
• Assistance with settlement negotiations

Internal Controls

• Design and implementation of internal controls to prevent breaches of legislation
• Independent Internal Controls reviews relevant to specific standards e.g. FCPA
• Monitoring and internal reviews, testing of policies and procedures pursuant to settlement agreements

Risk Assessments

• Analysis and identification of key risks for each foreign operating division, sales region or defined entity
• Testing of gaps in the compliance program and the design of appropriate internal controls to mitigate these risks
• Recommendations as to solutions, including restructuring and other policy changes