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Franklin D. O'Toole, CPA, is a Partner at Goldstein Golub Kessler LLP. He has specialized in investigative and forensic accounting and litigation support services since the late 1980s. In addition to working with attorneys in private practice, he has assisted in-house counsel in the insurance, brokerage and apparel industries.
Mr. O'Toole has carved out a specialty dealing with investigations that help assess liability in complex claims where he clarifies the issues leading to damages. Where improper financial reporting is alleged, he brings a practical and common-sense view to claims of improper cutoffs, allocations, reserves, contingencies and other contentious issues that are common sources of litigation. By combining his experience in auditing complex automated systems with his knowledge of derivative trading instruments such as index and fixed income derivatives, commodity options and forwards, Mr. O'Toole has established a reputation in cases involving trading fraud and mismanagement of investment portfolios. He has been retained in cases where the perpetrator of the fraud was a third party, as well as the more common case of an internal trader who misused the system to record phantom profits. Dealing with these complexities is an outgrowth of his training and experience as a consultant and auditor spanning close to 20 years with the major accounting firms in addition to his tenure at this firm. Mr. O'Toole's background in computer systems, quality enhancement and statistics has been helpful in analyzing disputes in such diverse areas as failures in the development of information systems and in assessing the statistical validity of remediation demands from audits of claims processing systems. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. O'Toole was a member of Deloitte & Touche's New York Office Litigation Consulting and Support Services Group for three years. Prior to that, over a five-year period, he was the National Director of Computer Audit Services and the New York Office Director of Computer Advisory Services for the predecessor firm of Touche Ross & Co. Other experience includes 11 years of service with Arthur Young & Co., beginning as an information technology consultant, then becoming an auditor and culminating as a regional director of Audit Testing as well as Computer Auditing. Prior to this, he worked for Fortune 1000 corporation Lone Star Industries as a cost accounting project manager and at PepsiCo as a senior systems analyst. He is a member of the AICPA, the AICPA's Management Consulting Services Division, the American College of Forensic Examiners and the New York Society of CPAs. In the latter organization, he is past chair of the Quantitative Method and Statistical Sampling Committee and a recent member and subcommittee chairman of the Litigation Support Committee. He has lectured on forensic accounting, applied statistics, dealing with federal, state and local tax authorities, and computer fraud. He has been a speaker at national meetings of tax professionals on the subjects of record retention and defending against the misuse of statistical procedures by state and federal tax authorities. He published an article dealing with accountants' responsibilities to clients in regard to the federal sentencing guidelines and chaired the 1995 New York State Society of CPA's conference on white-collar crime. His latest presentation is a multifaceted analysis of the contributory factors and defining events in the Barings fraud case.
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