Catherine Wasylenko, CPA & CFE

Experience

Cathy has over 30 years of combined tax, financial investigative, law enforcement and private sector consulting experience.  Cathy provides forensic accounting, litigation and investigative support to clients and their attorneys.

 

Cathy is the managing member of CAW Financial Forensics LLC (CAW).  She has provided criminal defense services for attorneys and their clients under federal, state or local investigation or indicted for criminal violations of federal, state or local law and complaints for forfeiture of assets.  She has also provided expert analysis and reports during civil litigation.

 

Cathy was a Special Agent with the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) in the Chicago Field Office and has more than 20 years of financial investigative experience. Cathy retired from IRS-CI as the Assistant Director of Special Investigative Techniques (SIT), which has national oversight of Undercover Agents, Confidential Informants and Technical Equipment Operations.  She brings extensive financial fraud and forensic accounting investigative expertise to the firm. 

 

Cathy began her IRS career in the Civil Division as a Revenue Agent, auditing individuals, partnership and corporate taxpayers.  She worked numerous Grand Jury investigations and testified as an IRS witness during Federal criminal trials and sentencing hearings.  She also worked with other IRS civil divisions throughout her career and gained valuable experience and insight regarding other civil activities. 

 

Cathy was an investigator for Office of Executive Inspector General for the Agencies of the Illinois Governor (OEIG) an agency which ensures accountability in state government.  She investigated allegations of misconduct within the State of Illinois, including sexual harassment, financial mismanagement and grant fraud.  

 

Cathy was a project employee of Guidehouse, a subcontractor of the Small Business Administration (SBA).  She served as a team leader on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) project overseeing a team reviewing loan and forgiveness documents to identify potential indicia of PPP loan fraud.

 

 

Education

 

University of Illinois at Chicago, Bachelors of Science in Accounting

 

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center

 

 

Professional Certifications

 

Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

 

Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE)