What Types Of Professional Services Does Blair Chartered Offer?

Because Blair Chartered has been called in as forensic expert witness in dozens of civil and criminal court cases spanning many different industries, we bring a much different perspective to our clients and their asset protection and forensic accounting needs.  Our expertise comes not from textbooks and boilerplate legal forms or programs, but from highly-specialized training and in-the-trenches experience with dozens of clients nationwide.

Our asset protection services are modeled after years of the best practices and deciding factors we have found that have sustained protection for our clients when attacked, and helped successfully pursue and prosecute dishonest individuals and companies who would do our clients harm.  Some of these services include:

Business and personal entity structuring: This may include C Corporations, S Corporations, LLCs (Limited Liability Companies), FLPs (Family Limited Partnerships) and many other options.  Usually it is the careful combination of these, based on our clients’ individual business and personal needs and circumstances, that creates the most bulletproof option available.

Entity documentation: Off-the-shelf and boilerplate forms — whether from the local office supply store, an online website, some asset protection seminar that came to town, or even a professional legal software program — can never provide you with the precise documentation that fits your needs, your assets and your particular tax and financial circumstances. When these are created uniquely and properly for you, you have a much better defense when the vultures start circling and the lawsuits or tax challenges come.

Compliance Maintenance. Compliance means so much more than filing corporate minutes and quarterly reports.  By some estimates fewer than 10% of the entity structures in America are in compliance — not just financial and tax wise, but from legal standpoints judges look for.  If a court decides you are out of compliance, your business and personal asset protection structures — no matter how complex or expensive — can be thrown out in the blink of an eye, leaving ALL your assets up for grabs.  Blair Chartered is one of the few organizations designed to establish compliance and keep you in compliance — both legally, financially, taxes and in such a way that your tax liability is the lowest legally possible year after year.

How We Know What We Know

Founder Landen R. Blair is recognized by the Library of Congress, which keeps his manual in their collection for legal, accounting and other libraries nationwide and has copyrighted 79 of his forms for use nationwide.  However, knowing what works and what doesn’t cannot be learned from textbooks alone.  We have earned the practical and in-depth understanding we provide our clients that comes from extensive training AND by successfully defending dozens of oftentimes vicious assaults by people suing clients, attacks from various government agencies, and court against our clients over the years.

Below are just some of the dozens of examples where we have been called upon as their Expert Witness, provided Expert Witness preparation or provided Expert Testimony in depositions for state and Federal Courts.

Criminal Investigations

Blair Chartered has provided Expert Defense for our clients in cases of:

• Alleged promoting of illegal lotteries, illegal pyramids, investment fraud, and money laundering, and racketeering;

• Alleged income tax fraud, money laundering, and illegal sales of narcotic prescriptions;

• Preparation of financial profiles relating to brokerage accounts, analysis of net worth increases (decreases), sources of known and unknown funds, and use of known and unknown funds covering the years being investigated in order to protect the client(s) from allegations of income tax fraud, money laundering, and related charges;

• Alleged income tax fraud, altered documents, keeping double set of books, reconstruction of accounting records, and recasted income tax returns;

• Alleged fraud in maintenance and remodeling of apartments;

• Alleged mismanagement of motel and misappropriation of funds;

• Alleged breach of duties of a trustee or other fiduciary, lack of due diligence, negligence and gross negligence, and lack of due care in making substantial loans to a closely held corporation where sole shareholder and corporate officer received indictments of nine counts of grand theft of the second degree.

Blair Chartered has served as Prosecution Expert for our clients regarding:

• Alleged bank wire fraud, and fraudulent conveyance of assets in violation of restitution agreement with United States Attorney’s Office;

• Alleged bank kiting schemes; and bank poor internal controls, policies and procedures in a Federal Chartered Bank;

• Alleged fraud and misrepresentation in a major shopping centers administrative and management fees, private placement memorandums financial data and projections, and non-disclosure of material items in financial statements and to limited partners;

• Alleged fraudulent claims for disability by a policyholder;

• Alleged misappropriation of funds, conflicts of interest, substitution of poor quality products, overstatements of inventory, and theft of records, products, supplies, equipment, furniture, fixtures.

Civil Matters

Shareholders’ and Partnership Disputes:

• These assignments often involve a detailed analysis of numerous years accounting records to quantify the issues in dispute.  For example, a common issue that often arises is the compensation and benefits received by each of the disputing shareholders or partners;
• These assignments also involve compilation of financial statements in alleged violation of Statements for Accounting and Review Services Issued by AICPA and respective state Board of Accountancy;
• Allegations of cooking company’s books to financially benefit majority stockholder to the detriment of minority stockholder;
• Refusal to share financial information with minority stockholder;
• Identifying various sources of income and gaining access to accountant’s working papers where accountant is a hostile witness;
• Economic damages resulting from a violation of covenant not to compete.
• Starting a competing company—and then siphoning business secretly to new business to avoid sharing profits;

Personal Injury Claims / Motor Vehicle Accidents

Blair Chartered has provided Expert Services including:

• Personal injury due to alleged truck driver’s negligence, violations of Interstate Commerce Commission Statutes, and locating documentation pertaining thereto.

Business Interruption / Other Types of Insurance Claims

Since insurance policies differ significantly as to their terms and conditions, these assignments involve a detailed review of the policy to investigate coverage issues and the appropriate method of calculating the loss. Business investigations can involve funds tracing, asset identification and recovery, forensic intelligence gathering and due diligence reviews.

Employee fraud investigations often involve procedures to determine the existence, nature and extent of fraud and may concern the identification of a perpetrator.  These investigations often entail interviews of personnel who had access to the funds and a detailed review of the documentary evidence.

As Forensic Accountants, we are often asked to assist from either an insured or insurer’s perspective in the settlement of a case. Examples of these types of assignments include; business interruptions, property losses and employee dishonesty (fidelity) claims, and personal injury claims due to accidents.

Blair Chartered has provided Expert Services including:

• Business interruption losses on numerous hotels and other businesses, issues of policy language, and calculation of lost profits and continued expenses;
• Allegations of irregularities in the billing and collection of accounts receivable, improper bank reconciliations, and violations of internal control;
• Quantification of the economic losses resulting from motor vehicle accidents.

Matrimonial Disputes & Divorce

Matrimonial disputes from a Forensic Accounting point-of-view often involve the tracing, locating and evaluation of assets.  The assets to be evaluated and valued may be businesses, property or other assets.

Blair Chartered has provided Expert Services including:

• Valuation of Certified Public Accountants Partnership, interest of husband, including lack of personal goodwill, non-Solicitation\non-piracy agreement, and no assistance to buyer for Buyer to assist for any length of time;
• Discovering sources and uses of funds; marital assets, liabilities, and net worth; cash flows of corporations and partnerships; all types and phases of real estate transactions;  and analysis of individual, corporate, and partnership tax returns;
• Providing tax and financial planning for the client.

Business Economic Losses

Examples of assignments involving business economic losses include; contract disputes, construction claims, expropriations, product liability claims, trademark and patent infringements and losses stemming from a breach of a non-competition agreement.

Blair Chartered has provided Expert Services including:

• Calculation of lost pay mobility, lost division manager incentive pay stock, lost division manager incentive pay stock dividends, lost defined benefit retirement pay, and other related issues;
• Economic damages resulting from a violation of covenant not to compete;
• Identifying retirement plans qualified under Internal Revenue Code Sections and obtaining exemption of those assets from claims of creditors.

Professional Negligence

These investigations are often approached from two different but complementary perspectives, these being:

• Technical –  determining if a breach of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP )or Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) or other standards of practice has occurred; and

• Loss Quantification.

If the professional in question is an accountant then a Forensic Accountant could be involved with both perspectives.  If the matter involves some other profession a Forensic Accountant will normally be retained to perform only loss quantification.

Blair Chartered has provided Expert Services including:

• Actions to recover damages resulting from a catastrophic and irreversible loss of data on a Doctor’s computer network caused by defective software.

• Alleged breach of fiduciary duty\undisclosed compensation arrangements, violation of custody requirements, misleading advertisement, inadequate footnote disclosures in audited financial statements.

• Alleged embezzlement, effects of embezzlement on lawyer trust account, and CPA’s violation of professional standards and negligence.

• Suitability of investments, diversification of portfolio, alternative investment strategies, negligence, and breach of fiduciary duty, excessive margin interest and other related issues.

These examples represent only a cross-section of the dozens of cases where Blair Chartered has been called upon to expertly defend their clients or prosecute those who would do their clients harm.  It is through these experiences, armed with our extensive specialized training that equips Blair Chartered to help you establish the protections you need to safeguard the assets you work so hard to accumulate.