Rebekah A. Smith, CPA, CFF, CVA, MAFF

Director of Forensic & Dispute Advisory Services
rsmith@gbq.com
(614) 947-5300

Rebekah is a Director and Member of GBQ Consulting focusing on the areas of litigation consulting, forensic accounting, economic damages, and business valuations. She has experience rendering services in litigation matters and has qualified to testify in court as an expert witness on business valuations, accounting and financial matters, economic damages, asset tracing, as well as many other matters. She has also served as a court appointed expert.

Rebekah has been involved in forensic accounting cases related to misappropriation of assets, tracing of marital assets, and tracing of business assets and funds. Her experience includes an investigation of a public company’s accounting practices for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice. She was also the court appointed expert in a forensic accounting project involving 10 years of business and accounting records and approximately 20 related business entities. Not only has she investigated several embezzlement and fraud cases for government entities, but she has also testified in a criminal proceeding related to embezzlement, bank fraud and wire fraud.

Rebekah has rendered expert and consulting services in litigation matters such as commercial damages related to contract disputes, breach of fiduciary duty, shareholder disputes, intellectual property disputes, violation of non-compete agreements, new business start-ups, and other disputes; business interruption claims due to natural disasters and fire, and personal litigation involving wrongful termination, breach of fiduciary duty, wrongful death, and personal injury. She has testified in court about economic damages, business valuation and other accounting matters.

She is a lecturer and instructor on business economic damages, forensics, and business valuation. She is the lead instructor for the Master Analyst in Financial Forensics (MAFF) training presented by National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (NACVA). She also developed and instructs for NACVA’s Advanced Business and Intellectual Property Damages week-long course. In 2023, Rebekah was named American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) Foundation Forensic & Business – Valuation Division. With fewer than 40 members in the country, Rebekah is the second admitted business valuation professional from Ohio.

Rebekah is the past chair and current Member of NACVA’s Executive Advisory Board which is the oversight board for all of NACVA. She is also a past chair and member of the Litigation Forensics Board which has the responsibility for evaluation the content of NACVA’s litigation and forensics-related curriculum and to oversee credentialing criteria for the MAFF designation. She was also on the Editorial Board of the National Litigation Consultants Review, a national litigation publication.

Education

  • Bowling Green State University – B.S., Accounting

Professional Accreditation

  • CPA – Certified Public Accountant
  • CFF – Certified in Financial Forensics
  • MAFF – Master Analyst in Financial Forensics
  • CVA – Certified Valuation Analyst
  • CEA – BV – Certificate of Education Achievement in Business Valuation

Associations and Memberships

  • American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
  • National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts
  • The Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants
  • American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) Foundation Forensic & Business – Valuation Division