Private investigators and forensic accountants do many things that are similar, yet their roles are often misunderstood. They can both provide litigation support, locate assets, untangle complex fraud cases and Ponzi schemes, identify bad players or fraudsters, and document business and personal interrelationships.

To illustrate how these disciplines can become merged, we had a case about 20 years ago of mortgage fraud/house flipping. Using forensic accounting techniques, we determined the history of a house that’s ‘value’ nearly tripled over a period of about 18 months. We contacted the appraiser, who performed the appraisals on the property each time. It turned out that the appraiser was a victim of identity theft; he had nothing to do with the appraisals in question and his signature was forged on the appraisals. We determined through surveillance that in all of these transactions there were only two human beings involved: the perpetrator and a crooked notary who turned out to be his daughter.