Cerebra provided forensic accounting services to a plaintiff in a widely publicized case concerning a bank manager’s misappropriation of funds

SITUATION 

In a high-profile case known to the public as the Seçil Erzan incident, the law firm representing one of the bank customers (client or plaintiff) contacted Cerebra to request a forensic accounting analysis of the plaintiff’s account transactions, including an analysis of transactions in all foreign currencies, and to uncover any potential suspicious activities. 

OUR SOLUTION 

Initially, we obtained all account bank transactions of the client from the defendant bank and other banks, as well as relevant text messages sent by the suspected branch manager to the client via messages. 

a) Summary of account transactions 

The client had numerous accounts in different currencies across various branches of the bank. We first consolidated the account transactions for each currency and conducted our analyses on the combined TL, USD, and EUR account transactions. In agreement with the law firm and the plaintiff, we included the account transactions from the past four years in our scope. 

Next, we classified all transactions from the client’s accounts by type and prepared a movement schedule showing the total amounts for each transaction type, starting from the opening balances on January 1, 2019, and continuing through subsequent years. 

In addition to this detailed table of annual transactions, we created a summary table showing the opening balance at the beginning of 2019, the total transaction amounts over the four years, and the closing balance at April 2023. 

b) Examination of bank account inflows and outflows 

To determine if money was embezzled from a client’s accounts, it’s essential to examine the inflows and outflows. These include cash deposits and withdrawals made at the branch and transfers from and to third parties. When there is a discrepancy between a client’s expected balance and the actual balance, these types of transactions are the first to be reviewed.  

Therefore, after preparing the detailed movement schedules of the bank accounts, we focused on the inflows and outflows. We examined cash deposits and withdrawals made at the branch and money transfers to and from third parties for each currency account. We communicated our observations on suspicious transactions to the client via the law firm. 

C) Comparison of Seçil Erzan’s balance notifications with account balances 

In the final stage of our work, we compared the screenshots of balance notifications sent by Seçil Erzan to the client via text messages with the actual account balances on those dates. Until a certain period, the balance information in the screenshots matched the account balances we observed in the transaction records. However, from a specific date onwards, we identified discrepancies between the balance information in the screenshots sent by Seçil Erzan and the actual account balances. We communicated our findings regarding these discrepancies to the law firm. 

OUR IMPACT 

Our forensic accounting work and analyses clarified the client’s account transactions and revealed the client’s general transaction patterns. By highlighting notable inflows and outflows to the law firm, we enabled them to prepare and refine their strategy for the legal proceedings.