Practice Area
Corporate and white-collar investigations, led by former federal investigators and credentialed fraud examiners.
When corporations, audit committees, counsel, and boards need an independent investigation — into employee misconduct, financial irregularities, fraud, asset diversion, or regulatory exposure — Fortaris delivers the evidentiary, discreet, defensible work product the matter requires. Our team draws from the US Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, US Treasury, and state-level investigative service, paired with ACFE-credentialed fraud examination capacity and forensic accounting depth.
How clients use us
Fortaris is engaged when a matter has to be investigated independently and held to evidentiary standards.
Alleged employee misconduct, conflicts of interest, fraud, theft, harassment, retaliation, or whistleblower-triggered reviews.
Financial-statement fraud, embezzlement, expense-reimbursement schemes, vendor and kickback fraud, payroll fraud, and procurement fraud.
Locating assets, identifying recovery pathways, and supporting judgment enforcement.
Pre-emptive reviews ahead of regulator engagement and post-incident reviews following discovery.
High-risk terminations, succession-planning investigations, and executive misconduct reviews.
Where the matter requires it, and where licensed and legal.
Fraud, exaggerated claims, and suspicious commercial losses.
Each engagement is scoped tightly with counsel, delivered to evidentiary standards, and structured to be defensible if it escalates to regulators, litigation, or board review.
Capabilities
Independent, privileged investigations into employee or executive misconduct, financial irregularities, compliance failures, and whistleblower-triggered matters. Engagements are typically managed under attorney-client privilege through outside or in-house counsel, with deliverables designed to be reportable to audit committees, regulators, or board-level reviewers.
Our Director of Security & Investigations holds the Certified Fraud Examiner credential and leads engagements under the ACFE four-domain framework — financial transactions and fraud schemes, law related to fraud, fraud investigation methodology, and fraud prevention and deterrence. Matters include asset misappropriation, financial-statement fraud, corruption, and bribery schemes.
Where the question is where the money went, Fortaris combines investigative work with forensic accounting depth — bank-record analysis, transaction reconstruction, shell-company unwinding, beneficial-ownership analysis, and judgment-enforcement support. Particularly relevant in bankruptcy and receivership matters and post-fraud asset recovery.
Misappropriation of trade secrets, IP theft, competitive-intelligence violations, executive misconduct, NDA breaches, and undisclosed conflicts of interest. We are commonly engaged after an internal trigger — an HR complaint, anonymous tip, or anomaly detection — when the matter requires independent investigative capacity outside the normal HR or Legal pathway.
Pre-emptive reviews ahead of regulator engagement, post-incident reviews following discovery, and ongoing compliance-program assessments. Useful in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and any regulated industry where program failures carry potential criminal or civil enforcement exposure.
Suspicious claims, exaggerated loss patterns, fraud rings, and complex commercial-loss matters. Engaged by insurers, third-party administrators, and counsel representing both sides of commercial disputes.
Available where licensed and where the matter requires it, conducted to evidentiary standards. Limited to corporate and institutional matters — Fortaris does not accept consumer-grade or domestic surveillance work.
Executive terminations, undisclosed-criminal-history discoveries post-hire, and dispute-driven separations. Engagements include security planning, evidence preservation, and post-termination monitoring where indicated.
Why Fortaris
Built for
When an internal trigger requires an independent investigative arm.
Privileged investigations managed through the legal channel.
Pre-emptive and incident-response investigative support.
Supporting commercial litigation, regulatory defense, and internal investigations practices.
Investigations triggered post-acquisition or pre-exit.
Organizations where regulatory exposure makes independent investigation a baseline expectation.
Fortaris Investigative Services is built for corporations, audit committees, counsel, regulators, and institutional clients. We do not accept consumer divorce or custody matters, low-budget surveillance engagements, or any matter outside a corporate, legal, or regulatory context. Matters involving high-net-worth individuals are accepted where the matter type is corporate-adjacent — asset protection, family-office investigations, or executive-related disputes.
Frequently asked
Yes. The majority of our investigative engagements are structured under privilege through outside or in-house counsel. Engagement letters can be drafted accordingly, and deliverables sequenced to preserve privilege through the matter's lifecycle.
Yes — and most clients do. Counsel-led engagement is standard for matters where privilege, evidentiary chain of custody, or regulatory exposure are present.
Fortaris holds an active Michigan Private Investigator license, with Florida licensure in process. For matters requiring activity in other jurisdictions, Fortaris coordinates with licensed in-state specialists from its 200+ subcontractor network and its Managing Director coverage in Boston, Washington DC, and Florida.
The Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) credential is administered by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and is held by examiners who have demonstrated mastery of fraud-examination methodology across the ACFE's four domains. Our Director of Security & Investigations holds the credential.
After an initial confidential scoping call, Fortaris drafts a scope of work, executes the engagement, and delivers findings to the engaging principal or counsel. Most engagements involve interim updates and a final written deliverable; some are structured around oral findings only, depending on privilege considerations.
Yes — our Managing Directors and forensic accounting partners testify where the matter requires it. See also Litigation Support for expert witness and expert report services.
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Explore practiceFurther reading
Investigations
A practical guide to how white-collar crime is detected, how corporate and internal investigations are run under privilege, and the role of forensic accounting and the Certified Fraud Examiner standard.
ReadDue Diligence
A definitive explainer on what investigative due diligence is, how it differs from a background check and from financial and legal review, and what a defensible work product looks like.
ReadInvestigations that are worth doing are usually investigations that have to be done carefully. Fortaris engagements begin with a confidential conversation about your matter, your privilege posture, and the specific questions you need answered.
For sensitive matters, reach Kevin Cronin directly: (833) 343-2164
