American Business Group Milan

Speaker for October 2009 Lunch

Larry Gurwin

Larry Gurwin is a consultant with Euro Investigation Srl in Milan. Larry has more than 15 years of experience as an investigative consultant. From 2005 through 2008, he was Head of Investigations in the Milan office of Kroll Associates, the world’s largest investigative firm. Prior to that, he was Director of Investigations in the Washington, DC, office of Control Risks Group.

His specialties include complex fraud investigations, litigation support, international asset searches, and due-diligence. Highlights from his career:

A complex securities fraud involving the sale of $400 million of securitized lease contracts. Larry played a key role in developing evidence on how the fraud was committed, the identities of the perpetrators, and the location of stolen assets.
Hostile takeover defense on behalf of one of the largest public companies in Britain. He found information on past misconduct by the raider, including undisclosed self-dealing and misleading SEC filings. The client used this information in a successful effort to thwart the takeover attempt.
Investigation of several Enron insiders on behalf of one of the major victims of the fraud.

In the late 1990s, Larry was Chief Investigator on the Minority (Democratic) staff of the US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Subjects of Senate investigations included securities fraud and international money laundering.

Larry spent much of his career as a financial journalist and has been based in New York, Hong Kong, London, Rome, Amsterdam, Washington, DC, and Brussels. He has written for several publications, including Institutional Investor Magazine, The Economist, and Time Magazine (as a member of its investigative unit). His journalistic work has been honored with four major awards, including one from the Overseas Press Club of America for the best international business story of the year.

Larry is the author of The Calvi Affair: Death of a Banker, a book on Italy’s Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He is co-author (with Peter Truell), of False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World’s Most Corrupt Financial Empire.

He is an honors graduate (in journalism) of New York University. He is fluent in Italian and has a working knowledge of French and Spanish.

Larry is a Certified Fraud Examiner (“CFE”) and a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (“ACFE”).

He can be contacted by phone +39 340 372 7712 or by email gurwinl [that symbol goes here] euroinvestigation.it

During his presentation, Look Before You Leap – Due Diligence Secrets of an Experienced Investigator Larry discussed the Nine Secrets and a New York Times article on the Obama transition staff's background checking procedures.