investigation, everyone is making certain their accounting is in order. These businesses are lucky. The trial ensured they had advance warning.”
“Trial?”
“One of the firm’s employees was assaulted by a partner, and she sued for damages. She won.”
“Good for her. I hope she took the firm for everything it was worth.”
“She didn’t do badly; they called in a good prosecutor from Buffalo, and he definitely did her justice and gave the defense quite the run. The defense played fair ball but not hard ball.”
“The attorney tossed the defense?”
“There wasn’t a lot he could work with. Only an idiot assaults an employee, tries to frame her, and then attempts to assault a second employee in front of the police. The defense tried to drag it out, but the partner lost rather miserably. He went down with a fight, but he only ended up burying himself deeper. I’m of the opinion the jury caught onto his guilt from the moment they met the woman, who required a great deal of surgery to repair her face. The settlement included a fund for reconstructive surgery and cosmetic repairs, too. Actually, the case has been making the rounds here, not because of what he did, but what she did after the case closed.”
I appreciated that Garret treated me like a human, but I questioned why he told me so much that had little bearing on my employment. Well, it mattered none to me; I would rather work for someone who could hold a conversation rather than someone who viewed me as a nameless statistic. “What did she do?”
“She built a relationship with an attorney, and she spent the money to give them a fresh start on a life together. She decided to wear her scars with pride. That takes one hell of a brave woman, especially in our society.”
“That’s amazing.”
“It really is. There is a reason I’m telling you this, of course.”
“What reason, sir?”
“Garret, please. I hear enough sirs from everyone daily.”
“Okay, Garret. What do I have to do with this woman?”
“She works at one of the firms that we’re auditing, and one of our other departments is working on the audit for the firm that her fiancé works at. The auditing will require you to work with another department, as the firm you’d be auditing had a case involving her fiancé. If there are links between her current employer, his current employer, and the originating firm, we need to make certain all relationships are disclosed. It could create an unfortunate ripple.”
“The IRS could investigate them all because of their romantic connections?”
“The IRS would love to use any loophole possible to get a chance to do an investigative audit on most legal firms. If you find anything linking them to the originating firm, we need to be notified immediately. In fact, we’re essentially asking you to pretend you’re an IRS auditor who will be seeking to expand an embezzlement case to extend to multiple firms. It’s unusual, but that’s what they’ve requested. They want to drill their accountants on handling an IRS audit; apparently, they’ve kept their accounting so clean neither firm has been officially audited before.”
My brows shot up at that. “The IRS loves to audit companies.”
“We’re aware. So, both companies are freaking out. But they didn’t trigger any red flags with the IRS, so they were never selected for auditing.”
“Their accountants could just be that good.” I grimaced at the doubt in my voice. “I’m not sure I’m qualified to pretend I’m an IRS auditor about to rampage through the entire company’s accounting. I’m willing to learn on the job and take supplementary courses if needed, but I’m not sure what the job requirements for an IRS auditor are, and I’ve never worked for the IRS.”
“I’ve looked over your resumé; you’re qualified, and you have licensing in several states, so that benefits us. There is crossover at the firm you’ll be auditing with Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland.”
That explained a lot. The accounting would require special work for handling employees in multiple states, and one accountant who was familiar with the rules of all states involved would make the audit a little easier rather than needing to coordinate extra bodies with the right qualifications. “Will we be required to audit employee taxes for this?”
“Employees were offered a chance to have their taxes audited at the same time. Within the firm you will be working on, seven employees accepted.”
“Let me guess: this woman was one of the ones who accepted?”
“Yes, she is. She is, understandably,