Andrew Daniel is a Bates Testifying Expert and an accomplished financial expert with deep expertise in forensic accounting, investment related disputes, and commercial damages analysis who has testified in arbitration forums and state court matters on over 100 occasions. Leveraging more than three decades of experience across accounting, finance, and the securities industry, Mr. Daniel has managed complex dispute engagements and served as a testifying expert in investment, commercial, and regulatory matters including investor dispute damages, and lost income/lost profit disputes.
Mr. Daniel’s experience in investment disputes includes preparing financial and damages analyses; accounting for and analyzing the performance of investments; analyzing the performance shares granted under ESOPs; analyzing the financial impact of noncompliance with investment policy statements; analyzing the financial impact of satisfying collateral calls related to margin and non-purpose loans; and providing market-based research. Mr. Daniel has also assessed and critiqued the opposing party’s damages calculation and expert report numerous times, both at trial and in his preparation of rebuttal expert opinions.
Mr. Daniel has led engagements involving a wide variety of investment products and investment vehicles including structured products, financial and agency preferred securities, annuities, mutual funds, options, equities, exchange traded funds, REITs, private placements, limited partnerships, municipal bonds, and stock-based compensation. Mr. Daniel has also led engagements involving Charitable Remainder Trusts, qualified and non-qualified accounts, and fixed and variable annuities
Mr. Daniel’s experience in commercial litigation includes analyzing claims for lost income and/or lost profits associated with financial advisors, including allegations of breach of restrictive covenant, defamation and wrongful termination, analyzing claims for lost profits in the mortgage broker industry; analyzing books and records to demonstrate a lack of foundation for a mining company cancelling contracts (alter ego); assessing damages claims in the construction industry; and analyzing pension plan investment options and relative costs. Mr. Daniel was also retained to testify on issues within multi-million-dollar property, business interruption, and lost profit cases arising from both financial assurance and contract disputes.
Mr. Daniel’s experience in forensic engagements includes assessing firm compliance with investment guidelines imposed under investment prospectuses, by the firm, and by states’ securities divisions; analyzing firm compliance with state regulatory reporting requirements related to annuity exchanges; and investigating historical stock option granting practices and assessing the impact on financial disclosures.
Mr. Daniel spent 22 with Bates Group and its predecessor firms where he provided litigation consulting, financial analysis, market trend research, and expert witness testimony for securities and other financial-related matters. He began his financial career as a senior accountant with Coopers & Lybrand in Melbourne, Australia, where he performed financial audits and related tax work for insurance, investment, retirement benefits and manufacturing companies, state based tertiary institutions, and local government organizations. He has also worked as an audit supervisor, management accountant and financial controller with several companies in Australia utilizing his finance, accounting, and management skills in the operational aspects of national initiatives and strategic business ventures, the development of reporting models, and change management projects.
Andrew is a consultant and subject matter expert in these Practice Areas and Services:
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Data, Analyses & Analytics
- Damage Assessment & Evaluation
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AML & Financial Crimes
- Economic And Other Damages
- Forensic Accounting and Economic Damages
Credentials
SELECT INVESTMENT INDUSTRY DISPUTE & LITIGATION ENGAGEMENTS
Retained by counsel for a national broker dealer to reverse engineer the financial impact associated with alternative options the client had to satisfying collateral calls associated with a non-purpose loan.
Retained by counsel for a Registered Investment Advisor to examine the financial impact of alternative options available to claimant in receiving the death benefit distribution of an annuity.
Retained by counsel for claimants to calculate and testify on damanages associated with unsuitable investments made by an independent broker dealer. The claimant was awarded $6 million.
Reatined by counsel for claimants to calculate damages for a series of individual claims filed by professional athletes alleging the defendant independent broker dealer recommended unsuitable and high commission investments.
Retained by counsel for national and independent broker dealers to provide the accounting for, and analyze the performance of, trust investments in accordance with relevant trust documents, investment policy statements and the Revised Uniform Principal and Income Act.
Retained by counsel of a national broker dealer firm to critique claimant’s damages calculation and prepare an alternative calculation of damages for matters involving claims of wrongful and/or constructive termination and defamation associated with FINRA Form U5 language.
Retained by counsel of a registered investment advisory and independent broker dealer firms to review and evaluate the damages model and calculations proffered by plaintiff’s damages expert for a matter involving claims of wrongful termination and defamation associated with FINRA Form U5 language.
Retained by counsel representing a multi-national broker-dealer firm to prepare and testify regarding a portfolio’s asset and sector allocations, the relative risk of alternative hypothetical investments, hypothetical profit and loss analyses, and a critique of plaintiff’s expert’s damages calculations.
Retained by counsel representing a multi-national insurance provider to testify on the profit and loss associated with investment decisions made by a retail investor with respect to retirement-based investment products and other alternative investments.
Retained by counsel representing a multi-national broker-dealer firm to testify on claimant’s trading activity in specific equities and corporate debentures in light of research reports issued by Wall Street firms and other reporting agencies.
Retained by counsel to provide advice and prepare various market-timing and late-trading analyses in a criminal case involving alleged market timing and late trading of various institutional investors.
Retained by counsel representing several Fortune 500 companies (retail & consumer staples) to analyze allegations, arising under ERISA, of excessive management fees and expenses associated with the management of the plan and the retail mutual funds offered; the retention of imprudent investment options; failure to implement and maintain adequate procedures for evaluating, selecting and monitoring fund options; breach of fiduciary duty, and holding excessive levels of cash in company stock funds.
SELECT FORENSIC INVESTIGATIONS
Retained by counsel for an independent broker dealer to respond to an inquiry from various state regulators (NASAA) related to the sale of REITs. Undertook an analysis of over 5,000 sale transactions to determine if the transactions met the guideline requirements as provided by the prospectus, firm, and states’ guidelines.
Retained by counsel for a national insurance company to respond to a state regulator’s inquiry related to the exchange of annuities and to assess whether the registered representatives of the firm complied with state regulatory reporting requirements.
Retained by special counsel to the special committee of the board of directors of a number of public companies (semiconductor, wireless devices, and broadband devices) to perform a forensic investigation of the company’s historical stock option granting practices to determine if backdating of stock options had occurred and to opine on the correct accounting treatment of stock option grants with regard to the company’s restatement of its financial reports.
Retained by a Fortune 500 company (software) to analyze contract management, purchase order, and creditor systems to identify duplicate or incorrect payments for follow up and collection by the client.
SELECT COMMERCIAL LITIGATION ENGAGEMENTS
Retained by counsel as a work product consultant to provide analysis and advice regarding a contractual dispute which included an analysis of inventory and shipment records, unit costs, foreign exchange fluctuations, required disclosures under Australian accounting standards (AAS) and a comparison of internal documents to external communications made to customers.
Retained by counsel representing a multi-national broker-dealer firm to testify on asset and sector allocations, relative risk of alternative hypothetical investments, hypothetical profit and loss analyses critiquing plaintiff’s expert’s damages calculations.
Retained by counsel as a work product consultant to provide analysis and advice regarding various accounting issues with regard to stock option accounting in a criminal case involving alleged backdating of stock options by the CEO of a public company.
Retained by counsel representing a multi-national insurance provider to testify on the profit and loss associated with investment decisions made by a retail investor with respect to retirement based investment products and other alternative investments.
Retained by counsel to provide advice and prepare various statistical analyses related to a derivative lawsuits against various directors and officers of a public company (semi-conductor) related to its historical stock option accounting practices.
Retained by counsel representing a multi-national broker-dealer firm to testify on claimant’s trading activity in specific stocks and corporate debentures securities in light of research reports issued by Wall Street firms and other reporting agencies.
Retained by counsel to provide advice and prepare various market-timing and late-trading analyses in a criminal case involving alleged market timing and late trading of various institutional investors.
Retained by counsel representing a Fortune 500 company (retail) to analyze ERISA related allegations addressing excessive management fees and expenses associated with the management of the plan and the retail mutual funds offered; the retention of imprudent investment options; failure to implement and have adequate procedure for evaluation, selecting and monitoring fund options.
Retained by counsel representing a Fortune 500 company (consumer staples) to analyze ERISA related allegations addressing: breach of fiduciary duty, maintaining and holding excessive cash in company stock funds, charging excessive fees and expenses, inherent costs associated with a unitized stock fund.
Retained by special counsel of an insurance company to perform a detailed review of over 100,000 documents relating to a construction company's performance on multiple projects. The review resulted in the reconstruction of events leading up to the claim and graphical presentations of data to assist in determining if a payout by the insurance company was valid.
EXPERIENCE
Bates Group LLC, Director, 2013 – 2024; Principal, 2011 – 2013
LECG, Principal, 2005 – 2011
Bates Private Capital Incorporated, Senior Manager, Lake Oswego, Oregon, 2002 - 2005
Nike Inc., Senior Financial Analyst, Contract Position, Beaverton, Oregon, 2002
Jossco USA Inc., Financial Controller, Portland, Oregon, 1999 - 2001
Bankers Trust Australia, Management Accountant, Sydney, Australia, 1998 - 1999
Broken Hill Proprietary Company, Management Accountant, Wollongong, Australia, 1996 - 1998
Grant Thornton LLP, Audit Supervisor, Melbourne, Australia and Vancouver, Canada, 1994 - 1996
Coopers & Lybrand, Senior Accountant, Melbourne, Australia, 1990 - 1993
EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
- Certified Income Specialist, Institute of Business & Finance
- Certified Estate Specialist, Institute of Business & Finance
- Forensic Accounting Specialist, Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand
- Certified Annuity Specialist, Institute of Business & Finance
- Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA), National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts
- Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
- Master’s in Business and Technology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ACA), Australia
- Bachelor of Economics, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia