Edward J. Westerman

Edward Westerman is the Leader - Global Investigations in the Forensic & Litigation practice of FTI Consulting. He has more than 25 years of experience providing consulting and expert services regarding forensic accounting investigations, acquisition disputes and financial damages.

Mr. Westerman is often engaged by counsel representing companies and board of director committees to conduct internal investigations in connection with subpoenas, government inquiries, and whistleblower allegations concerning accounting and financial reporting fraud and misappropriation of assets. These projects have been in the US as well as foreign jurisdictions and have pertained to revenue recognition, reserves, stock option granting practices, embezzlement, insider trading, registration issues, bribery, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and financial reporting disclosures. He has assisted with materiality assessments, financial restatements, and internal control and remediation measures.

In addition, Mr. Westerman is regularly retained in various securities litigation and white-collar defense matters surrounding auditing, technical accounting issues and alleged fraud. Throughout his career, Mr. Westerman has also provided assistance to counsel, buyers and sellers regarding working capital adjustments, post-closing balance sheet adjustments, earn out calculations, and breach of reps and warranties of all sizes, including disputed amounts in excess of a billion dollars. In addition, he has often served as the neutral accounting arbiter adjudicating these disputes. Mr. Westerman also has significant experience quantifying financial damages in large class action, breach of contract and other commercial disputes.

Mr. Westerman has testified at deposition, arbitration, and court and has served as an arbiter, special master and third-party neutral in various engagements. During his career, he has participated in numerous speaking panels and other presentations regarding forensic accounting topics.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Westerman was a Managing Director, Leader of the Forensic Accounting practice, and Executive Director of the Litigation, Forensics & Finance business segment of a global consulting company. He was also a Partner in the Forensic Accounting practice of Deloitte.