Ben Solomon is a forensic accountant who specializes in economic damages analysis. Mr. Solomon has more than 15 years of experience consulting on complex business insurance claims, merger and acquisition (M&A) disputes, and technical accounting issues involving the application of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). His industry expertise includes agriculture, consumer products, energy, financial services, healthcare, industrial manufacturing, technology, and telecommunications.
As an expert witness, Mr. Solomon has submitted expert reports, testified in deposition, and provided testimony as part of arbitration panels. He has also been retained as an independent appraiser in a dispute related to business interruption.
Mr. Solomon works with public and private sector clients and supports experts through all phases of the litigation process, including discovery, deposition, and trial. He is a certified public accountant (CPA) and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Economic damages
Mr. Solomon has quantified and analyzed economic damages and business interruption claims in various contexts, including natural and manmade disasters, product liability matters, data and cyber breaches, breach of contract claims, alleged intellectual property infringement, and the COVID-19 pandemic. His representative experience includes:
- Evaluating over $1.25 billion in economic damages for a healthcare organization affected by a natural disaster, including property damage, hypothetical building repair and replacement costs, and lost patient revenue, research revenue, investment income, and rental income
- Calculating insurance claims resulting from natural disasters across an international consumer goods company’s global footprint, including lost gross profit, manufacturing cost, and property damages claims
- Assessing economic losses in an arbitration matter arising from power loss in a livestock processing facility, including valuing damaged inventory and other assets, lost production, and lost profits
- Supported a university health system in quantifying over $350 million in eligible COVID-19–related economic losses to seek reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
- Leading analysis and loss quantification arising from a data breach at a telecommunications company
- Analyzing over $140 million of total combined business insurance claims resulting from flooding and fire losses for a consumer products manufacturer
- Quantifying lost profits and incremental expenses associated with a cyber breach of a consumer packaging company’s finance and operating systems
M&A
Mr. Solomon has extensive experience with high-stakes M&A disputes, including a variety of matters involving GAAP principles and internal controls. His expertise includes:
- Testifying at arbitration for a life sciences company in a post-closing M&A dispute, analyzing purchase agreement provisions in the context of accounting principles and GAAP
- Supporting numerous clients in dispute resolution proceedings in M&A matters related to net working capital and earn-outs
- Consulting to a real estate investment partnership about alleged improper cash distributions and compliance issues
- Preparing an insurance claim and providing litigation support to a private equity buyer stemming from a seller’s alleged breach of representations and warranties
- Supporting a global industrial manufacturer in a net working capital dispute with a U.S.-based conglomerate, applying GAAP and purchase agreement terms to disputed transactions
- Consulting to a real estate investment trust (REIT) in a post-closing dispute with a joint venture partner, analyzing EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) calculations under GAAP and purchase agreement terms
- Providing analyses to a buyer in a purchase price arbitration matter with disputed amounts of approximately $25 million
- Conducting anti-bribery and anti-corruption M&A due diligence for clients in the consumer products and agricultural industries, which included identifying anomalous transactions, performing transaction testing, and interviewing personnel from the target entity
Forensic accounting
Mr. Solomon has consulted on corporate compliance matters, as well as numerous investigations alleging fraud, bribery, and corruption, including:
- Serving as an expert and fact witness in an investigation into the accounting practices of a higher education institution, including assessing payroll transactions, employee expense reimbursements, corporate governance matters, and financial statement disclosures under GAAP
- Conducting forensic accounting and asset tracing for an international agriculture company, analyzing U.S.-subsidiary transactions and distributor compliance with distribution terms
- Supporting a multiyear, global investigation into accounting irregularities and alleged Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations for a large manufacturer, analyzing costs, payments, and expense reports in multiple countries
- Evaluating alleged payroll fraud at a Fortune 500 technology company, applying data analytics tools to assess payroll data and detect anomalous transactions
- Analyzing the fraud risk management program for an industrial products company, assessing risk, governance, and compliance processes
Before joining Cornerstone Research, Mr. Solomon held senior positions at an international professional services firm.