Home
/ Insights
/ Case Studies
/ Uncovering Millions in Music Licensing Vendor Fraud

Uncovering Millions in Music Licensing Vendor Fraud

A Fortune 50 company engaged a third-party vendor to manage the music licensing and synchronization logistics for its marketing and advertising initiatives. However, during an internal review, an employee discovered that the vendor had fraudulently created a shell company to claim ownership rights over several songs used in the company’s advertisements. In response, the company retained FTI Consulting to investigate the extent of the financial misappropriation, identify other potentially fraudulent actions and assess whether any employees were aware of or involved in the scheme.

Our Impact:

FTI Consulting’s forensic investigation enabled the client to isolate the fraudulent transactions — several multimillion-dollar fraudulent payments — and understand how the funds were utilized and what remained to be recovered.
The findings also exposed critical gaps in the company’s vendor management and payment processes, enabling it to implement enhanced internal controls and vendor oversight measures to mitigate future risks.
The investigation also confirmed that no internal employees were complicit, reducing reputational and legal exposure.

Our Role:

FTI Consulting deployed a multidisciplinary team of forensic investigative and technology professionals to conduct a thorough investigation, supporting legal counsel and corporate leadership.
The technology team collected and processed electronic vendor data, including emails, iMessages, locally stored files and deleted documents.
The forensics team analyzed communications and financial records to trace the fraudulent payments, conducted interviews with key personnel and developed a structured investigative work plan.
Despite the challenges posed by the company’s fragmented and non-integrated data systems, the experts amassed a wide range of data and provided recommendations to enhance internal controls and vendor oversight.
FTI Consulting’s technology and digital forensic experts conducted analysis on custodian devices to understand data patterns, habits and actions for each user during specific timeframes identified by the forensics team.