Publication

Major allegations and significant suspected frauds trigger board-led investigations. Costly, complex, and time consuming, these investigations often involve financial, accounting, internal control, or disclosure aspects. Where stakeholders expect boards to resolve such matters with integrity, audit committee chairs often lead these special investigations to restore stakeholder confidence.

During the second quarter of 2023, Tapestry Networks convened audit committee chairs of nearly 100 large US public companies to discuss oversight of special investigations. Several prominent attorneys and forensic accountants joined the discussions to provide their expertise and perspectives.1 For a full list of meeting participants and attending special investigation subject matter experts.

This ViewPoints summarizes important considerations for audit committee chairs that were discussed during these sessions, organized around the following three stages of investigation:

• The preliminary inquiry
• Overseeing the investigation
• Concluding the investigation