Case Studies – Investigations

Case Study 1:
Fraud Investigation – Asset misappropriation

The issue: As a result of the inventory shortage identified internally at a major FMCG company in Poland, PwC was requested to investigate whether this shortage was the result of fraud.
Outcome: Our work confirmed that the shortage was the result of the thefts and collusion between warehouse supervisors and sales representatives, who also had direct access to the inventory. Our work also revealed a lack of appropriate procedures over inventory management which resulted in underestimation of the actual losses.

Case Study 2:
Fraud Investigation – Corruption & bribery investigations

The issue: Board of Directors of one of the companies from medical equipment sector in Poland raised concerns with regard to the activities of local managing director.
Outcome: Our investigation revealed instances of nepotism, bribery, breach of authority and assets misappropriation. Our investigation provided strong evidence for a global board of directors to start preparation to file a charge against managing director in Poland.

Case Study 3:
Fraud Investigation – Financial misrepresentation

The issue: As a result of a whistleblower's letter, FT 500 company, asked PwC for conducting an investigation into alleged misconduct by local management.
Outcome: With a broad utilization of FTS technology we identified instances of sales inflation as well as significant gaps in internal controls and company systems which presented risks for the Company existence in Poland. As a result of our investigation local management board was dismissed and immediate restructuring plan was implemented.

Case Study 4:
Anti-money laundering services

The issue: Following an SEC investigation and a press announcement on poor anti-money laundering procedures in place in a bank in a CEE country, PwC was engaged to perform a limited review of selected anti-money laundering procedures.

Case Study 5:
U.S. regulatory investigations and compliance reviews

The issue: Following an investigation initiated by the American SEC against a global corporation operating in medical sector, PwC was asked to perform forensic investigations in order to assess whether the provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) could have been breached by the subsidiaries worldwide.
Outcome: Our investigations team in Poland was involved in a review of Polish subsidiary where we revealed instances of breaching the Act, which were reported directly to the American SEC. PwC Poland was also requested to conduct compliance review of the control environment existing at Polish subsidiary. Our review identified instances of significant non-compliance.

Case Study 6:
Licensing management

The issue: PwC has been asked to assist a major software producer with a global project related to distributors of its products. The aim of the project was to assess stock levels of the Client’s product at various distributors around the world.
Outcome: Our role was to assist the Client in collecting information about stock levels either through attendance at stock counts or through communication with the distributors, or both.

Case Study 7:
Insurance claims services

The issue: PwC was requested to investigate whether significant increase in the costs of liquidation of a certain category of insurance policies could result from fraud.
Outcome: Our review involved the analysis of the selected number of insurance claims settled by the Client. As a result we identified the overstatement of claimed costs and in some instances claiming of fictitious costs. Based on our findings the Client decided to perform the review of all the insurance claims settled year to date.

See Investigations page for further details.