Forensic Accountant Staffing for Fraud, Disputes, and Litigation Support
Contract, contract-to-hire, and direct-hire forensic accountants placed on the engagements that won’t wait. Specialized recruiters, defensible work product, and a 92% 12-month retention rate.
Last updated: May 15, 2026
KORE1 places forensic accountants, fraud examiners, and litigation support specialists on contract, contract-to-hire, or direct-hire terms. Our average time-to-hire is 17 days and 12-month retention runs 92% across more than 30 U.S. metros.
An anonymous tip just hit the audit committee. Counsel needs damages quantified before discovery closes. The investigation is two weeks behind and your senior manager is already booked through quarter-end. You don’t have six weeks to run an open req, screen 40 resumes, and sit through five rounds of interviews.
That’s the gap we fill. We’re an accounting and finance staffing agency with recruiters who’ve been placing forensic and investigative accountants since 2005. We know who can drop into a fraud examination on day one, who’s worth waiting three weeks for, and which profile actually fits the matter, the venue, and the deadline.
Why counsel and CFOs call us first
Generalist recruiters send you ten resumes that mention “fraud” in a bullet point. A forensic specialist sends two people who’ve sat across the table from a federal prosecutor and held up under cross. That difference is everything when the discovery cutoff is in 30 days and the audit committee wants a finding.
Most of our forensic placements come from warm networks our team has built over a combined 15 years of finance and investigative recruiting. When an Irvine GC needs a CFE for a vendor kickback investigation, we usually have someone in mind before the engagement letter is countersigned. When a Bellevue private equity portfolio company asks for damages quantification on a post-acquisition dispute, we don’t start from zero either.
The result is faster qualified submittals and fewer interview cycles. Three of our last five forensic searches across the Pacific time zone closed under 12 days because counsel ran two 30-minute interviews in the first 48 hours and the engagement started the following Monday.
Match the engagement to the matter
Three models. Three reasons to pick each one.
Contract works when the matter has a defined runway. Fraud investigation, post-acquisition dispute, regulatory inquiry, restatement support. You get seasoned forensic help for the window you need it, and no conversion pressure. Start here with contract staffing.
Contract-to-hire is the play when an internal forensic function is being stood up but headcount is still in committee, or when you want to see someone work a real file before you commit. Sixty or 90 days, clear conversion math, no surprises. See how contract-to-hire staffing actually works end to end.
Direct-hire is for the seat that’s staying. Forensic managers, investigations leads, internal-audit-with-forensic-overlap roles. We place those as permanent hires with a replacement guarantee. Learn more about direct-hire staffing.
If you don’t know which fits, tell us the matter. We’ll tell you which model we’d pick.
Forensic roles we place most often
Four seats we fill most weeks, plus the specialty searches that come in when the standard pipeline won’t cut it.
Forensic Accountants
Transaction tracing, asset misappropriation analysis, journal-entry testing. Typically CPA-track or CPA-completed with 3 to 7 years of investigative or audit experience.
Certified Fraud Examiners
CFE-credentialed. Interview-trained, evidence-aware, comfortable working under counsel privilege and producing defensible work product the audit committee can stand behind.
Litigation Support Analysts
Damages quantification, lost-profits modeling, exhibit preparation. Strong with discovery datasets, expert-report support, and timelines that move when the docket moves.
Forensic Managers & Directors
Engagement leadership, scope negotiation with counsel, deposition-ready findings. Usually 10+ years and a mix of Big Four, boutique, and in-house investigation experience.
Also placing AML/BSA analysts, anti-corruption and FCPA investigators, internal-audit-with-forensic-overlap roles, and expert witnesses for trial. Need a complementary seat? See accountant staffing, internal and external auditor staffing, CPA staffing, tax accountant staffing, FP&A and financial analyst staffing, or controller staffing.
How we vet forensic accountants
Short on ceremony. Long on relevance. Five steps, usually inside a week.
- 01Intake call. Thirty minutes. We learn the matter type, the venue, counsel’s deadline, the data environment, and what defensible looks like for this engagement.
- 02Sourcing. We pull from our active forensic bench first, then warm networks from Big Four advisory and boutique investigations shops, then targeted outreach. No spray-and-pray job boards.
- 03Skills screen. A finance-specialist recruiter calls every candidate before they hit your inbox. Credentials, prior matter exposure, conflicts check, comp alignment, availability for a phased start.
- 04Reference triangulation. Two references, both direct former managers where possible. We call, we listen, and we flag anything that doesn’t add up before counsel does.
- 05Submittal. Two to four qualified candidates with our scored assessment. You see why we think each one fits the matter, not just the resume.
Common Questions
What does a forensic accountant actually do?
A forensic accountant investigates suspected fraud, quantifies financial damages, and produces work product that holds up under cross-examination. The work spans asset tracing, journal-entry testing, lost-profits modeling, and expert testimony.
Day to day, that means transaction tracing through unfamiliar ERPs, interviewing the people closest to the records, reconstructing periods where the books were cooked, and writing findings counsel can put in front of a judge. According to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, demand for accountants and auditors with investigative and analytics skills is projected to grow 5% through 2033, and forensic specialization sits at the top of that demand curve.
How fast can you place a forensic accountant?
Average time-to-fill across our forensic placements in the past 12 months is 17 days. Junior forensic accountants trend shorter. Manager, director, and expert-witness searches trend longer.
The biggest driver isn’t sourcing speed. It’s interview cadence. Counsel and audit committees that run one 30-minute screen in the first 48 hours close searches the fastest. Teams that book interviews three weeks out watch their best candidate take another matter.
What credentials should a forensic accountant have?
Most engagements call for a CPA, a CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner), or both. CFF (Certified in Financial Forensics) and MAFF (Master Analyst in Financial Forensics) are common add-ons for expert-witness and litigation-support work.
Credentials matter, but matter-relevant experience matters more. A CFE who’s run vendor-kickback investigations is a different hire from a CFF who’s testified on lost-profits damages. We screen for both the letters after the name and the kind of file the candidate has actually closed. The AICPA Forensic and Valuation Services resource library has a good primer on which credential fits which work.
Should I hire a contract forensic accountant or a full-time one?
Hire contract when the matter has a defined finish line. Investigation, dispute, restatement, regulatory inquiry. Hire full-time when the work is becoming an institutional function and the seat needs to build internal knowledge.
Contract-to-hire splits the difference when you’re standing up an in-house investigations function and want to see someone work a real file before you commit. Plenty of internal-audit-plus-forensic seats start that way.
How much does forensic accountant staffing cost?
Contract forensic accountants bill at a loaded hourly rate that varies by seniority, credential mix, and geography. Direct-hire placements run a percentage of first-year base, usually 20% to 25% depending on role seniority and market.
We quote the number upfront. No padded fees, no surprise line items, and every direct-hire placement carries a replacement guarantee. A senior CFE in Irvine looks different from the same role in Dallas, so we work from real market comps rather than a national flat rate. The ACFE Report to the Nations is a useful public anchor for fraud-loss benchmarks while you’re scoping budget.
Can you support privileged engagements run through outside counsel?
Yes. We routinely place forensic accountants directly into engagements led by outside counsel, with the staffing relationship structured to preserve attorney work-product and privilege.
That means the candidate, counsel, and KORE1 align upfront on reporting lines, document handling, and how findings will be scoped, drafted, and produced. We’ll connect the candidate to your engagement letter and any DPA or NDA before day one. Roughly a third of our annual forensic placements run this way.
Where do you source forensic accountants from?
We start with our active bench of vetted forensic accountants who’ve worked with us before. Then we pull from a warm network of Big Four advisory alumni and boutique investigations referrals, and only last do we run targeted outreach.
We don’t blanket the job boards. Most profiles we submit have worked with a KORE1 recruiter previously or came in through a trusted referral. That’s how we keep 12-month retention at 92% across forensic placements.
Your next investigation doesn’t have to be the one that slips its deadline.
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