Richard Holstrom is a managing director with Baker Tilly’s forensic, litigation and valuation services practice. He is a veteran at solving the unique economic puzzles inherent in forensic accounting engagements. Working with law firms and insurance companies on both the defense and plaintiff sides, Rich approaches the challenge of each case or claim with a 360 degree view - looking at the full picture of the engagement before venturing into the details.
With more than 40 years of experience in forensic accounting, Rich has served as an expert in hundreds of disputes involving the quantification of business and personal damages resulting from fraud schemes; personal injury or wrongful death; intellectual property infringement, including patent, trademark, copyright and trade secrets; breach of contract; business valuation; funds tracing.
Rich assists clients in unraveling the data and making it easier for non-financial clients to understand the finer points of the financial analysis. He has measured financial losses for business interruption claims in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, retail and professional services, and has conducted business valuations in the context of family law, buy/sell and litigation matters.
- Analyzing a patent infringement claim of over U.S. $34 million where the plaintiff alleged that the defendant had been using its electronic technology in U.S. and foreign markets and was demanding royalties on past sales. Working for the defense, Rich calculated reasonable royalty rates, the total amount of relevant losses, issued multiple Rule 26 reports, and testified at deposition and trial. The plaintiff was awarded U.S. $1.5 million in damages. Rich also assisted with defending post-trial motions for a permanent injunction against the defendant
- Calculating damages in a breach of contract litigation over the sale of a business. Rich’s calculations included past and future lost profits based on multiple scenarios. The case was appealed on damages to the California Court of Appeals who issued an unpublished opinion validating the calculation theory used and remanded the case back to the lower court
- Recalculated a lost profits claim filed by an insured in which good faith payments had already been made by the insurer. A deeper analysis of the facts revealed that the claim had been grossly overstated by improperly comingling the restoration and the extended periods of indemnity. Settlement of the claim required developing a new approach to the calculation of loss during the restoration period and the extended period of indemnity, a clarification accepted by the Court that has become an industry standard
- Assisting the San Diego Public Defender’s Office in the quantification of damages and documentation of financial evidence in numerous white collar criminal defense cases, including several mortgage fraud cases.
- Quantifying losses in multiple employee dishonesty and fraud cases involving the theft of employer assets, including measuring damages and tracing assets for potential recovery. Some of the assets stolen include cash from casinos, computer parts, and some sophisticated schemes involving manipulations of accounts receivable and customer credits
- Multiple cases of personal injury and wrongful death calculations including lost wages, household services, consumption, determining the present value of complex life-care plans, and lost pension benefits from defined benefit plans such as CalPERS and SDCERA
- Assisting a public entity union in its contract negotiations with the County of San Diego. The assignment included an analysis of the County’s recent budgets and a determination of the affordability of the union’s wage demands
- Provided rebuttal testimony on a multi-million dollar claim for the lost business value to a potential investor in a waste recycling venture in northern Florida. This case involved multiple claimed future scenarios that were revised and corrected continuously based on Rich’s rebuttal analysis. The case settled before trial on favorable terms to the client
- California Society of Certified Public Accountants, member
- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, member
- National Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, member
- Rich has been designated as an accounting expert in State Courts of California and Nevada and Federal Courts in California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii. He has provided expert testimony in both depositions and at trial in excess of 100 times in the past 10 years on the quantification of business and personal economic damages related to business interruption losses, intellectual property infringement, fraud and personal injury
- Rich has participated in seminars and presentations to clients, colleagues and members of the insurance and legal industries at private seminars and industry association events on topic including Calculating Damages in Litigation, Understanding Business Income Losses, Cross Examining an Expert Witness, Understanding Business Valuations, Reading and Understanding Financial Statements, Accounting Concepts for Attorneys, and Intellectual Property Damage Calculations – Patents, Trade Marks and Copyrights