Litigation Consulting

KNBC4 Los Angeles aired the results of an eighteen-month investigation on February 15th into what appears to be a breakdown in LAUSD oversight of an ambitious library renovation program, called Wonder of Reading.  Chris Hamilton, CPA, a Certified Fraud Examiner and partner at Arxis Financial, Inc., was interviewed extensively for the report, which can be seen on-line.

Hamilton, who examined many of the 5,000 internal LAUSD documents used in preparing this broadcast, calls the pattern of management and execution a “perfect storm” of possibly corrupting influences. "When you have every indication," says Hamilton, "that none of the internal controls were in place to prevent fraud, including kickback, that would tell me that LAUSD is not providing adequate oversight." He also commented "Often in a kickback scheme or a fraudulent setting, you see relationships between the person who is giving the contracts and those who actually win those projects." The producers met with Chris several times over the length of the investigation and taped interviews twice.  The first brief news story aired in April, 2008.  Since that time additional evidence was uncovered that answered many of the questions raised in the initial investigation.