The state-backed Citizens Property Insurance has created an internal “forensic unit” to replace the firm’s Office of Corporate Integrity, which President and CEO Barry Gilway disbanded last year.
The disbanding was highly criticized, coming at a time when executive office investigations were underway into travel spending irregularities at Citizens. Gilway would later concede he had made a mistake in the timing of his action. According to a release from Citizens, the new unit is part of a larger effort to “streamline and standardize internal investigations of potential fraud, mismanagement and employee grievances.”
The release also said the prior Office of Corporate Integrity lacked the “financial expertise to proactively ferret out fraud, waste and abuse.” The new team is led by Josh Shilts, an adjunct professor of fraud examination at Florida Atlantic University who formerly led domestic and international investigations into abuse, malfeasance and fraud.
Other team members include a former FBI agent who investigated financial crimes and a certified public accountant with more than 20 years of internal-audit and accounting experience.
Via The News Service of Florida.
