In February 2026, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York charged former Mobileum CFO Andrew Warner and former Chief of Delivery Kishore Vangipuram with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud.
To inflate deal metrics ahead of the telecom analytics company's 2021 sale from Audax Group to H.I.G. Capital, a transaction that valued Mobileum at $915 million, the two allegedly manipulated percentage-of-completion accounting by moving non-billable hours to billable client accounts and lowering project cost estimates. When diligence teams questioned high unbilled revenue, they generated fictitious internal invoices to clear buy-side checks without ever sending them to clients. Warner received roughly $5.2 million and Vangipuram roughly $5.5 million from the sale. Mobileum declared bankruptcy in 2024 after the new owner discovered the scheme.
This is financial statement fraud aimed squarely at the diligence process itself, manufactured evidence built to clear the checks buyers actually run.
A $915 million private equity transaction collapsed into bankruptcy after C-suite executives manufactured fake revenue to hit a $247 million target.
Federal prosecutors charged former Mobileum CFO Andrew Warner and Chief of Delivery Kishore Vangipuram with wire and securities fraud. To inflate deal metrics ahead of a PE buy-out, they manipulated percentage-of-completion accounting by moving non-billable hours to billable client accounts and lowering project cost estimates. When diligence teams questioned high unbilled revenue, they generated fictitious internal invoices to clear buy-side checks without sending them to clients.
Standard financial due diligence checks revenue quality, margin trends, and customer concentration. However, Quality of Earnings reviews rarely run forensic checks on underlying timesheet logs, percentage-of-completion mechanics, or internal invoice queues. That gap is where pre-close accounting manipulation lives.
As a former law enforcement officer and financial crimes leader, I solve this exact vulnerability for M&A deal teams and portfolio operators.
The Business Health Check is a full-population forensic review of transaction data, vendor files, payroll, and expense records. We search for raw fraud patterns and control gaps that standard diligence misses, delivering a clear Red Flag or Green Light report in 5 to 7 business days at a fixed fee with zero operational disruption.
I've spent 15+ years investigating financial crime in law enforcement, fintech, and the credit bureaus. I write these briefs so the patterns are harder to miss. If this one hits close to home, I'm easy to reach.