Griffins Speeds Up Fraud Investigations with IBM Big Data Intelligence Analysis

LONDON - 20 Mar 2013: Griffins, an insolvency and forensic services firm with operations in London and Dubai is using IBM (NYSE: IBM) Big Data analytics software to significantly reduce the cost, time and complexity associated with fraud investigations.

Griffins has one of the largest teams of dedicated investigators, covering both insolvency and financial investigation in the UK. In addition to handling forensic investigation and litigation, Griffins provides support services for creditors, debtors and professional advisers.

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, organisations lose five percent in revenue annually due to fraud. The IBM technology has moved Griffins from struggling with huge amounts of information stored in spreadsheets (in excess of 10 Terabytes) to a faster, more accurate, intelligence-led approach that helps solve cases related to money laundering, missing trader fraud and theft of company assets. Many of the cases Griffins handle are tracing the proceeds of crime which involves analysing structured and unstructured data sources such as bank statements, pdf files, emails, invoices and spreadsheets, establishing patterns and relationships, and making non-obvious connections between disparate sources of data.

The IBM technology has given us a significant edge over our competitors in our ability to perform investigative analysis faster and with greater accuracy than other firms involved in the same investigations, said Stephen Hunt, Insolvency Practitioner at Griffins. For example, an international bank's computer was seized during a criminal investigation. From the partial data available to us for civil claims, we were able to extract highly accurate patterns and make connections during our investigative analysis which led the tax authorities to query how we had obtained our information. The speed by which we were able to accurately present and demonstrate the results of the investigation was remarkable in terms of impact.

Hunt continues We think the IBM technology has a lot of future potential for our business as a critical support tool because of its ability to do the thinking for us. We plan to create a problem solving package by developing algorithms that will answer the top five questions that often get missed in investigations. This will free up our professionals to do the rest elevating us above our competitors in our ability to perform more accurate and faster investigative analyses.

Many liquidators have a long checklist of accounting data in insolvency cases. The IBM technology can capture that information and create algorithms to produce an instant roadmap into an investigation, which reduces budget spend for the creditors as they do not have to continue paying professional fees to discover the same information.

Providing stronger visibility of a fraud investigation can greatly assist investigation efficiency, and improve fraud awareness across an enterprise. Our clients are able to make use of IBM technology as a valuable tool in the fight against fraud, said Julian Midwinter, Intelligence Analysis Executive, IBM.

Griffins uses IBM i2 Intelligence Analysis software to provide critical insights in investigating complex incidents, producing actionable visualisation of critical people and events and documenting results for potential litigation. Key fraud indicators combine information from watch lists, known fraudsters and other relevant sources in a risk scorecard that provides visibility of risk to help enable proactive remedial action.

Part of a broad portfolio of anti-fraud solutions, the IBM software provides a dedicated environment for information fusion, collaboration and information sharing.It helps facilitate and support operational analysis, improve situational awareness and provides faster, more informed decision making across and inside organizations.

For more information about Griffins, visit: http://www.griffins.net/

For more information about IBM intelligence analysis technology, visit:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/industry/i2software/

Missing trader fraud (also called Missing Trader Intra-Community, MTIC, or carousel fraud) is the theft of Value Added Tax (VAT) from a government by organised crime gangs who exploit the way VAT is treated within multi-jurisdictional trading where the movement of goods between jurisdictions is VAT-free. This allows the fraudster (person who commits fraud) to charge VAT on the sale of goods, and then instead of paying this over to the governments collection authority, to simply abscond, taking the VAT with him. The term "missing trader" refers to the fact that the trader goes missing with the VAT. "Carousel" refers to a more complex type of fraud in which VAT and goods are passed around between companies and jurisdictions, similar to how a carousel goes round and round. In the UK the fraud is investigated by HM Revenue & Customs and prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service.

LINK:	http://www-03.ibm.com/press/uk/en/pressrelease/40663.wss...
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