Luke S. Vreeken

Experience

Luke S. Vreeken is the managing shareholder over the business valuation practice area at Sage Forensic Accounting. He has primarily been engaged by attorneys and law firms to assist them and their clients with financial and accounting-oriented issues, ranging from complex damage analyses to business valuation.  

Mr. Vreeken has also been engaged to provide professional expertise to individuals, businesses, insurance companies, financial institutions, and not-for-profit organizations.

The following sections summarize Mr. Vreeken’s experience in different professional areas:

Business Valuation

Mr. Vreeken has extensive experience conducting appraisals across diverse environments, ranging from cooperative to contentious settings. He specializes in valuing closely held companies across various industries, catering to a multitude of needs such as buy-sell agreements, ESOP plans, divorce settlements, stockholder disputes, bankruptcy adversarial proceedings, governmental regulatory agencies, and estate tax planning. Additionally, Mr. Vreeken offers his expertise in business planning and litigation scenarios. His valuation approach incorporates forensic accounting, economic analysis, and other financial competencies. He frequently engages in intricate valuation assignments, addressing complexities such as distinguishing between enterprise and personal goodwill, allocating goodwill value, and assessing the worth of horizontally and vertically integrated entities. Below are some of the diverse businesses he has assisted in valuing:

• New and used car dealerships for tax planning purposes
• Assisted living facilities for consulting & buy-out purposes
• Real estate holding companies for tax planning purposes
• A multi-level-marketing downline business for litigation purposes
• Fast-food franchise restaurants for litigation purposes
• A vending machine restocking business for marital dispute purposes
• A heating and air conditioning company for consulting purposes
• A software technology company for exit planning purposes
• An engineering company specializing in highway and road construction for consulting purposes
• Several day care centers for litigation purposes
• A veterinary clinic for marital dispute purposes
• A hardware store after various employees alleged mismanagement and misappropriation of company funds

Forensic Accounting

Mr. Vreeken’s assignments largely involve using forensic accounting expertise across various aspects of the assignment, such as analyzing and interpreting financial trends in a business, or investigating fraud allegations. Following are some of the diverse matters in which Mr. Vreeken has applied his forensic accounting expertise to provide assistance:

• Reconstructed accounting records lost or destroyed as a result of theft, flood, fire, and other situations causing lost documents or data.
• Investigated misappropriation of assets for a real estate investment company and developed additional internal control suggestions to prevent future misappropriations.
• Investigated alleged embezzlement of funds from a restaurant.
• Investigated alleged embezzlement of funds from a hardware store.
• Investigated alleged embezzlement of funds from a construction company.
• Investigated alleged embezzlement of funds from a massage school.
• Investigated and identified assets of estates and businesses for use in probate, marital dissolution, and corporate matters. Regularly conducts these analyses for purposes of preparing a schedule detailing a marital estate for use in determining an equitable division.
• Supervised and performed investigative accounting work for criminal fraud trials and claims.
• Supervised and performed investigative accounting services on the assets of marital estates in divorce cases.
• Performed forensic accounting investigation of the use of funds invested in a business by a passive investor, including tracing siphoned funds through personal accounts of the individuals, and identifying misstatements in financial statements provided by the company as compared to business results demonstrated from the forensic reconstruction.
• Engaged by the Securities and Exchange Commission to provide a forensic accounting investigation of an alleged Ponzi scheme and provided findings in an expert report for use in a court of law for a matter involving claims of fraud in the offer and sale of securities, Violations of Section 17(a)(2) [15 U.S.C. § 77q(a)(2)], fraud in connection with the purchase and sale of securities, violations of Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act [15 U.S.C. § 78j(b)] and Rule 10b-5(b) thereunder [17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5(b)], and offer and sale of unregistered securities, violation of Sections 5(a) and (c) of the Securities Act [15 U.S.C. § 77e(a) and (c)].

Evaluation of Economic Damages and Related Assessment of Economic Causation

Mr. Vreeken has computed economic losses, or economic damages, in a wide variety of cases. He has assisted in calculating and evaluating the analyses of others for losses due to business interruptions, destructions, dissolutions, and a diversity of business disputes. He has prepared consulting reports and comprehensive expert reports for legal consulting, settlement negotiations, and trial testimony. Below are some of the varied matters in which Mr. Vreeken has analyzed and computed economic damages:

• A matter involving claims of breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, lost business opportunity, failure to comply with contractual obligation, civil conspiracy, intentional interference with economic relations, and intentional misrepresentations or fraudulent concealment, related to a business that operated several cellular telephone retail locations in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah
• A matter involving patent infringement claims related to businesses manufacturing irrigation and watering products
• Analyzed economic damages in a matter involving claims of misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of fiduciary duty, intentional interference with prospective economic relations, and civil conspiracy, in a lawsuit between a company and its former employee and the company formed by that employee
• Personal injury, wrongful death, and wrongful termination cases
• Intellectual property cases
• Losses associated with construction contracts

Critique and Review of Other Financial Experts

Mr. Vreeken is frequently involved in reviewing reports prepared by other financial experts. His work in this context includes offering consulting advice to counsel, preparing rebuttal expert reports, and providing testimony. Below are some of the reports Mr. Vreeken has evaluated and critiqued and for which he prepared an expert rebuttal analysis:

• Economic damage claims in matters involving wrongful termination claims, personal injury claims, and wrongful death claims, including identifying and demonstrating the impact of flawed and speculative uses of generic data sources and vocational analyses
• Economic damage claims in a matter involving real estate development, management, and option agreements involving real estate with an estimated value of over several hundred million dollars
• Economic damage claims in a matter involving a loss of a distributorship and related down-line organization in a multi-level marketing business
• An analysis of gross income and expenses presented for use in determination of alimony and support

Educational Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Utah
• Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Utah
• Master of Accounting degree from the University of Utah

Professional Certifications

• Certified Public Accountant (CPA), licensed in Utah
• Accredited Member of the American Society of Appraisers (AM)
• Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
• Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

Professional Affiliations/Activities

• Member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
• Member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
• Member of the American Society of Appraisers
• Officer, Utah Chapter of Certified Fraud Examiners, 2017 to present
• Member of the And Justice for All, Law Day Run Committee, 2016 to present
• Sergeant, United States Army National Guard, 300th Military Intelligence BCT, 141st BN, 2009 to 2017

Articles and Presentations

Drilling into Anomalies of Fraud, presented as follows:

• Utah ACFE Chapter, May 7, 2019
• Utah State University, October 15,2019
• Utah State University, June 15,2020
• Utah State University, October 20,2020
• Dallas ACFE Chapter, February 11,2021
• Texas A&M University, April 5,2021
• Utah Valley University, January 27,2022
• Brigham Young University Hawaii, June 20, 2022
• Utah State University, March 15, 2023

Publications

• Leaky Accounts, ISSN: 0020-5745, The Internal Auditor:Journal of the Institute of Internal Auditors, 2022, Vol.79(5), p. 29.

Types of Matters

Mr. Vreeken has provided expert services across a diverse array of purposes and contexts, as the foundational principles of forensic accounting, valuation, and economic damages are versatile and can be effectively applied to many different scenarios. The various types of matters Mr. Vreeken has worked on include: