Grey Forensic Financial Architecture Donna L. Horne, CPA · Forensic-trained finance leader · NC & SC
For counsel · Confidential
Forensic Financial Strategy · Litigation Support
I read a case the way I once read a building.
Follow the load paths — where the money and the promises actually travel — find the exact place the structure stops holding, and assemble the record no one else will. I take a fragmented, adversarial file and turn it into a single litigation-ready architecture, then hand you the leverage the other side is betting no one will trace.
The good lawyer wants me seated beside them. The bad lawyer never sees me coming.
What I trace.
The financial heavy lifting your matter turns on — done to a standard that survives cross-examination.
01
Forensic reconstruction & fund tracing
Following money from promise to payment across accounting platforms, bank, and exchange records — into a clean, source-referenced record.
02
Hidden-asset & income discovery
Reconstructing the true financial picture — lifestyle, net worth, and every deposit against every return — and finding the gap between what's real and what was disclosed.
03
Marital & partnership dissolution analysis
Separate-vs-joint tracing, division modeling, support and income analysis, and valuation of the business interests in play.
04
Business valuation & quality-of-earnings
Normalization, add-backs, SDE and recasting for disputes, buy-sell, and exit — and exposing the version built to mislead.
05
Economic damages
Loss quantified through a defensible, documented model — built to hold up, not just to look big.
06
Case-ready reporting & exhibits
Chronologies, tracing schedules, and clear written analysis — in plain English a judge and jury can follow.
The smell test.
I can usually tell a set of books is lying before I can prove it — and then I prove it. The instinct flags the anomaly; the reconstruction turns it into evidence. I don't guess in a report. I follow the thread until it either resolves cleanly or becomes your leverage.
Income that falls the year of the filing
…while the business is objectively fine. The oldest move there is, and one of the easiest to prove once someone actually looks.
A lifestyle the income can't afford
When the spending outruns the reported number, the gap isn't a mystery — it's undisclosed money with a paper trail.
Deposits that don't reconcile
Total every deposit, set it against the tax return, and the unexplained remainder is the whole story — frozen in records filed before anyone was thinking about divorce.
The spouse who controlled every account
One hand on all the money, the other kept in the dark. That information gap is the entire game — and closing it is my job.
What's your matter?
I don't hand over off-the-shelf reports — I build the instrument to fit the seat. Tap the closest fit and see how I'd come at it.
How I plug in.
Consulting expert
Behind the scenes
Often shielded by work-product privilege. I build your financial case and strategy, and the other side never sees me coming. This is where I do my sharpest work.
Case-prep partner
The organized spine
The chronologies, fact sheets, tracing schedules, and traceable record that turn a chaotic file into a demand — and arm you for depositions and settlement.
Testifying expert
On the record, as the matter calls for it
Qualified analysis and testimony a judge and jury can follow — the numbers made undeniable, delivered with the same rigor I bring off the stand.
The boundary that makes me useful
I own the numbers. You own the law.
I don't give legal advice and I don't practice law — I own the money, the facts, and the financial strategy, and I hand the legal calls to you. That discipline is precisely what lets you put your name next to my work without a second thought. It isn't a limit. It's the moat.
How I work
The instrument fits the seat.
Every matter gets the tool it actually needs — the tracing schedule, the exhibit, the damages model, the dissolution analysis — designed for your file, not pulled off a shelf. The exact mechanics are the craft; what you get is a record built to hold weight in the only room that counts.
Dual-licensed CPA
North Carolina & South Carolina — passed on first attempt.
Forensic-trained · AICPA path
Pursuing Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) & Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF), 2027.
Architect by training
Clemson — a systems-first mind that reads structures for where they fail.
14+ years
Fortune 500 reporting, technical accounting, and forensic / valuation advisory.
When the money is the case.
If the other side is betting no one will trace it — and your client can't see where it went — that's where I do my best work. Let's talk.
How to read this: This describes how I work as a forensic financial consultant and prospective expert — it is not legal advice, and it does not create an engagement. I provide financial analysis, forensic reconstruction, and litigation support under the direction of counsel; the legal strategy and every legal determination remain with the retaining attorney.
Forensic financial architecture — where the money is the case.
Grey Forensic Financial Architecture · Donna L. Horne, CPA (NC & SC) · Pursuing ABV & CFF (2027)