What is forensic accounting
Forensic accounting is the application of accounting and investigative skills to address questions that may end up before a court or a regulator. In an insolvency or fraud context, it typically involves:
Following the money.
Tracing funds and assets through accounts, entities, and transactions, including where they have been moved to obscure their origin.
Reconstructing the records.
Rebuilding a reliable financial picture where the company’s own records are incomplete, missing, or manipulated.
Testing the transactions.
Examining dealings for the hallmarks of value being stripped out improperly.
Building the evidence.
Setting out findings clearly enough to support a claim, a creditor report, or a referral to a regulator.
Connecting forensic findings to recovery
Forensic work earns its keep when it leads to recovery. The avoidance regime gives clear targets for a forensic review:
Transactions at an undervalue and unfair preferences, which can be unwound where the statutory timing and conditions are met.
Extortionate credit transactions and certain floating charges, which may also be challenged.
Fraudulent trading, where the business was carried on to defraud creditors.
A forensic investigation identifies which of these are present and gathers the evidence to pursue them. Where the estate cannot fund the action, that evidence is also what persuades a funder to back it, connecting forensic accounting to litigation funding.
Evidence that stands up
There is a difference between knowing what happened and proving it. Forensic accounting is conducted with the end in mind: findings documented to a standard that withstands challenge, methods that are transparent, and conclusions that follow from the evidence rather than running ahead of it. That rigour is what makes the work useful to courts, creditors, and regulators.
How DHA+ pac approaches forensic accounting
DHA+ pac has investigated company failures and conduct in Singapore since 1994. Our Licensed Insolvency Practitioners carry out forensic work in-house, and where a matter calls for specialist input, such as complex digital evidence or particular industry expertise, we bring in specialist forensic accountants and work alongside them. The approach is matched to what the investigation actually requires. Findings are documented methodically and reported objectively, so they carry weight and connect directly to recovery.
FAQ
Ordinary accounting records and reports on a company’s finances. Forensic accounting investigates them with a view to answering disputed questions, often for use in court or with a regulator, including tracing assets and detecting fraud.
Indirectly, yes. It identifies and evidences transactions that can be unwound under the avoidance regime, or conduct such as fraudulent trading, which then forms the basis of a recovery claim.
Reconstructing the financial picture from available evidence, including bank records, third-party documents, and transaction trails, is a core part of the work. Incomplete or manipulated records are common in a failure and do not, by themselves, defeat an investigation.
Not sure where to start?
If a company’s failure does not add up, or money and assets are unaccounted for, a forensic review will establish the facts and the routes to recovery.
Contact us for a confidential review.