Allegations of Kickbacks from a Vendor

A US-based public company received anonymous allegations of kickbacks against a senior employee in Brazil. The whistleblower claimed that the employee, who had authority to allocate business among vendors, had received a cash bribe from a vendor and, in return, was giving the suspect vendor more of the company’s business. The company retained Axium to investigate the allegation. Axium’s forensic accounting review and analysis of vendor payment records showed that the suspect vendor had been awarded a disproportionate amount of business. Axium conducted a thorough review of the subject’s email and computer hard drive. We interviewed employees involved in the Brazilian operations of the company and performed extensive research of public records in Brazil. We identified that the subject employee had an undisclosed joint investment with the owner of the suspect vendor. We confronted the subject employee at the company’s facility in Brazil and, faced with the evidence, he admitted that he took the kickback payments from the vendor through the joint investment.