Mark Porter

He combines deep financial expertise and credentials with advanced blockchain and data analytics. His work regularly supports litigation teams, asset recovery professionals, and multinational companies on investigations and enforcement matters involving regulators and enforcement agencies, including the U.S. DOJ and SEC.

Mark is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Fraud Examiner, and a CFA charterholder. Mark’s representative engagements include:

• Receivership Investigation and Expert Testimony – Cryptocurrency Hedge Fund Fraud (Asia, Australia): Testified in support of the receiver in a cryptocurrency hedge fund fraud in which limited partners’ investments were misappropriated and diverted to hedge fund employees. Identified and traced funds from initial investment through various OTC desks, blockchains, and smart contracts.
• Consulting and Asset Tracing Services – Tracing Stolen Funds from Crypto Exchange Hack (Global): Served as a consultant to a global cryptocurrency exchange, supporting the exchange in restitution proceedings involving a large seizure of Bitcoin stolen from the exchange, valued at several billion dollars at the time of seizure. Traced the stolen Bitcoin across thousands of transactions from the government seizure back to the theft. Leveraged blockchain analytics tools to attribute Bitcoin seized by the government back to the hack, even after the stolen Bitcoin moved through dark web marketplaces, Bitcoin mixer services, and other pools used for transaction obfuscation.
• Consulting and Asset Tracing Services – Securities Enforcement Actions (U.S.): Assisted multiple blockchain technology companies in responding to state and federal securities enforcement actions. Performed various on-chain analytics related to verifying the stated tokenomics of the native cryptocurrency, analyzing all mining and staking distributions, assessing smart contract functionality, and tracing activity associated with bridges and Decentralized Exchanges.
• Consulting and Asset Tracing Services – Digital Asset and Decentralized Finance Reviews (Global): Supported the U.S. DOJ and SEC in various engagements involving the review of digital assets and decentralized finance protocols for evidence of Ponzi schemes and unregistered securities offerings, as well as to assist relevant parties with the tracing of those digital assets through various blockchains, smart contracts, and platforms.
• Forensic Investigation – International Automobile Distributor (Middle East): Provided forensic accounting services to a minority shareholder of a wholesale and retail trader and distributor of automobiles in the Middle East with several billion dollars of annual revenue. Forensic services performed included the review of several hundred financial statements in order to track, locate, and quantify undistributed profits from offshore entities located in the Channel Islands and Liechtenstein with extremely limited transparency and visibility into operations.
• Corporate Monitorship – Engineering and Construction Company (South America): Mark was a member of the Corporate Monitorship Team for an international construction company headquartered in Brazil, while working at the direction of the U.S. DOJ and Brazilian MPF. This company admitted to paying bribes to government officials in order to secure public infrastructure contracts in Latin America and Africa. Work on this multi-year engagement included investigating potential ongoing misconduct and bribery payments, identifying internal-control gaps, and recommending improvements to the compliance function and other departments.
• Forensic Investigation – Mortgage Lender and Structured Finance Fraud (U.S.): Assisted a private equity fund in the forensic investigation of a portfolio company suspected of committing bank and wire fraud related to suspected organized crime. The investigation determined that the company had been misappropriating company funds and falsifying financial records related to borrower payments in order to ensure the continued receipt of cash flow streams associated with various mortgage-backed securities backed by the company’s loans.
• Consulting Services – Operational Due Diligence of Various Small to Mid-Sized Asset Management Firms (Africa, Asia, Europe): Revitalized the operations, internal control structures, and compliance programs of numerous mid-sized asset managers in emerging markets to ensure that they are fit for purpose, operationalized with best practices in mind, and effectively and properly managing investor funds.
• Forensic Investigation – Asset Manager (Africa): Provided forensic accounting services in connection with an investigation into the operations of an asset manager located in Kenya with approximately $125 million in assets under management on behalf of all fund LPs, including several development financial institutions. The investigation identified the misappropriation of investor funds via payments to consultants and related parties of the Manager as well as improper reporting to the LPs. Work performed ultimately led to the replacement of the fund’s manager.
• Consulting Services – Asset Tracing and Flow of Funds Analyses (Various): Supported the U.S. DOJ, SEC, and other clients in a wide variety of engagements in a forensic accounting and consulting capacity, including providing them with asset tracing and flow of funds analyses outlining the movement of cash and the ultimate use of funds believed to be involved in illicit conduct. This work involved the tracing of funds through circular and opaque financial instruments and accounting entries that were used to obfuscate the true source and use of funds. One such engagement included the tracing of $500 million in funds to their ultimate destinations as part of a joint venture investment that was in dispute in the London Court of International Arbitration.
• Forensic Investigation – Currency Derivatives Tax Fraud (Europe and U.S.): Investigated allegations that an individual committed tax fraud through improper FBAR filings and operated a hawala network in Southeast Asia. The investigation involved the evaluation and quantification of taxable events associated with several hundred individual currency derivative contracts carried out over five years.