Uncovering Fraud and Mitigating Risk for a Client in the Energy Sector

Business Challenge

One of our long-term clients in the Houston area discovered financial discrepancies within an internal transportation business unit, which was headquartered in a remote Mississippi town. Following the discovery, our client began an extensive review of the business unit’s financials that revealed fraudulent activities within their accounting system. Our client, being a public company, was required to disclose all financial records to its shareholders.

Because the exact nature of the financial issue was not fully discovered, our client contacted LHH Recruitment Solutions to quickly hire a team of auditors and accountants with energy experience to fully audit the financial records of the individual business unit. The business unit’s remote location proved to be a challenge for our recruiters in sourcing the professional level auditing and accounting expertise needed to perform the work.

Our Solution

To ensure we had the caliber of professionals required for this job, our account manager and recruiters hired a team of 14 auditing/accounting professionals from Houston who agreed to travel to the Mississippi town each week for a period of three to four months. Our staff managed all logistical aspects of travel and housing for the team. Each week, hotels and airfare were booked for each team member to travel back and forth from Houston to Mississippi.

Our client wanted to ensure that all business operations at the Mississippi office continued to function smoothly with as little disruption as possible. Our audit team worked diligently to find all aspects of fraud within the financial records and to complete a full audit within the required timeframe. The audit team worked cohesively with the staff in Mississippi and remotely with the company’s Houston-based personnel. Our team ensured that the fraudulent activities were found and documented and that items requiring adjustment were corrected, resulting in compliant financial records.

Outcome

The LHH Recruitment Solutions team received stellar reviews from our client, and all but one of the associates hired saw the project through to the end. As a testament to the quality of our candidates, our client hired 80 percent of the team for fulltime positions in their Houston headquarters. Our client was thrilled with our ability to quickly assemble a team of auditing professionals and successfully complete the project on time. To date, we continue to have a great partnership with this client.

How Can We Help You?

In the last 30 years, we’ve partnered with more than 5,000 finance & accounting clients and worked with more than 300,000 highly skilled candidates, all vetted and ready to make an impact. We are ready to help you, too. Contact an LHH professional staffing expert today.