Case Study – Vendor Fraud Investigation at a National Olympic Committee

Kroll was engaged by a national Olympic committee to conduct an investigation into fraud allegations involving contracts with IT vendors.

The client had been warned that the head of its recently restructured IT department had taken advantage of gaps in procurement policies to hire various vendors without the appropriate bidding processes. The allegation also mentioned that some of the vendors were connected to the head of IT department, including a company owned by his former wife.

Kroll’s work included process mapping, interviews, computer forensics, data analytics and a financial investigation.

Kroll identified that conflicts of interest occurred in at least two cases. In one case, the owners of a software development firm hired by the committee had actually been working at the same time as temporary staff. In another case, a company hired by the committee was owned by the subject’s former wife.

Kroll provided the committee with a list of recommendations and guidance to mitigate conflicts of interest and vendor fraud risk. This included the creation of policies, enhancement to the governance of bidding processes as well as an additional review of all IT-related contracts.