Perry Forensic Team

Altier obtained her certified public accountant credential from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She earned certification in financial forensics in 2015. She graduated summa cum laude from Ohio University with a bachelor’s degrees in accounting and psychology. Her distinguished career in public accounting began at PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLC. She has provided litigation support in the areas of fraud and forensic financial reporting to many local governments and attorneys.Altier also serves on the Peer Review Committee of Ohio and performs peer reviews and quality control training and consultation to public accounting firms in Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland. Altier is the President of Perry & Associates, Certified Public Accountants A.C. and has offices in five cities.

Sandy retired as West Virginia’s Governor Jim Justices Cabinet Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. Upon retirement, the Governor honored him with the Distinguished West Virginian Award, the state’s highest award. He is a retired Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Supervisory Special Agent and former Wood County Sheriff. He is a certified fraud examiner and a certified anti-money laundering specialist. He received the Honor Award from the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Treasury, and a Department of Defense Joint Services Achievement Medal for financial investigations in Iraq. He has guest lectured for the Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI Joint Terrorism Task

Forces and for financial institutions. During the last 40 years, he investigated and supervised several of the nation’s largest financial fraud cases. Sandy was admitted as an expert witness in the field of money laundering in five U.S. District Courts. He taught financial investigative techniques to over 145,000 foreign, federal, state, county, and city law enforcement officers, bankers, government officials, and dignitaries. To date, his investigative work has saved financial institutions more than $52 million in fines. His clients have received over $11 million in settlements. His training manual “Trace It” was given free to more than 95,000 federal, state, and local prosecutors, and law enforcement. In June 2016, he wrote the cover story in the Counter Terrorist Magazine International Edition concerning international financial terrorism.Sandy is the recipient of the Albert Gallatin Award which is the United States Department of Treasury’s highest career service award. It is conferred by the Secretary of the United States Treasury after serving 20 or more years and whose record reflects fidelity to duty.

Jeff James and Sandy working in Iraq on Counter Terrorism, International fraud, Embezzlement, and Money Laundering.

Kirk was previously the Deputy Cabinet Secretary for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety while also serving as its Chief General Counsel and Homeland Security Advisor to the Governor. Prior to setting up the West Virginia Intelligence/Fusion Center, Thom was an assistant prosecutor in Putnam County after he left his private law practice and served as a Special United States Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia. Other positions included President and CEO of Audio Intelligence Devices and the National Intelligence Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; corporate manager for Toyota at their Buffalo, West Virginia plant; and attorney for the firm of Pullin Knopf Fowler and Flanagan. Thom also spent over 23 years as a Trooper for the West Virginia State Police and served as the State Police’s first Bureau Commander for the Bureau of Criminal Investigations. In his last four and a half years in the State Police, Thom was appointed Colonel and Superintendent of the State Police. Thom earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence from West Virginia University College of Law, Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Bluefield State College, and Associates of Art in both Police Sciences and Art from Beckley College. Thom attended the FBI Academy National Executive Institute, Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey California, Northwestern School of Police Staff and Command, and the Washington School of Protocol and is a Certified Fraud Examiner. Thom was also an Assistant Professor at the University of Charleston and has taught for the National Intelligence Academy. He teaches private courses in Deception Detection and Interviewing and Interrogation for the military, police officers, and private corporations and is a US Navy veteran.

James is a retired Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Special Agent. As a special agent, he conducted complex financial investigations relating to income tax evasion, money laundering, fraud, and violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. He was assigned to various US Attorney Task Forces including Crimes Against the Elderly, Health Care Fraud, Joint Terrorism, and multiple Organized Crimes Drug Enforcement (OCDETF) and High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) task forces. On multiple occasions his investigations led him to foreign countries where he was able to trace the transfer of illegal funds. He appeared before judges in foreign countries to swear to affidavits on multiple occasions and testified in federal court in a foreign country twice. After retirement, James worked as a contract financial investigator for the DEA supporting agents and drug task force officers in drug investigations throughout the northern 32 counties of West Virginia. Although his primary focus was on supporting Tactical Diversion Investigations (the diversion of prescription drugs from the “closed loop” prescription drug program), he also supported drug task force investigations relating to illicit “street” drugs. More specifically, his worked involved conducting financial investigations relating to the proceeds from drug distribution for the purposes of quantification and to track funds for the purpose of demonstrating concealment and assets which were subject to forfeiture or recovery through a court-ordered money judgement. He is a graduate of Glenville State College, Hocking Technical College, the West Virginia State Police Academy, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. James has conducted high profile income tax evasion, healthcare fraud, domestic terrorism, and narcotics investigations throughout the United States. He has guest lectured for the federal government on domestic and international terrorism. James was detailed to the United States Department of Defense during Operation Iraqi Freedom to conduct a financial investigation and recover assets from the diversion of funds from the United Nations Oil-For-Food program. He deployed to the combat zone during the war to conduct the investigation. He received the Honor Award from the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Treasury, and a Department of Defense Joint Services Achievement Medal for financial investigations in Iraq. As a result of the investigation, US Senate testimony revealed the freezing of over $2 billion in international bank accounts which represented “kickback” proceeds from the UN Oil-for-Food program. At the request of the US State Department, he conducted an additional investigation of embezzlement by the Iraqi Ambassador to Russia which resulted in an Iraqi judge ordering the seizure of funds from the Ambassador. Following his deployment, he was detailed to the US Senate-Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to review the United Nations sanctions program relating to the UN Oil-for-Food program. He deployed to Iraq a second time, as a representative of the US Senate, to conduct interviews of the former top Saddam Hussein regime members. He participated in three US Senate hearings as a part of that detail. The US Ambassador to the United Nations recommended changes to the UN sanctions program as a result of the investigation.

Christine Milewsky is a Certified Public Accountant and a Forensic Certified Public Accountant. She has over twenty-five years of work experience in the public accounting sector accumulating tax and accounting experience in a wide variety of business industries. She is the Tax Manager for Perry and Associates, CPA’S, A.C. at their St. Clairsville, Ohio office. Her work experience includes completing federal tax returns for Not-for-Profit Organizations, Individual, Corporate and Partnerships as well as multi-state tax returns. She has experience with payroll, general ledger accounting, analyzing financial documents and owns strong analytical abilities including data analysis and critical thinking. She also is a representative to the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of her clientele. Her passion and dedication are in providing close, personal attention to her client’s needs. She is a member of the American Institute of CPA’S, Ohio Society of CPA’s and the Forensic CPA Society.

Sandy is a certified anti-money laundering specialist and has more than 31 years of financial institution experience. During her career, she held a variety of supervisory positions and managed staffs of up to seventy. She worked on Anti- Money Laundering and Bank Secrecy Act projects at financial institutions in Delaware, Illinois, Nebraska, Louisiana, Ohio, Texas, and West Virginia. Sandy specializes in enhanced due diligence investigations, loan reviews and developing proactive methods to improve the quality and productivity of the Bank Secrecy Act business units. Sandy has implemented procedures that earned accolades from federal bank examiners and were labeled as “best practice” for financial institutions. Sandy has written countless U.S. Treasury Suspicious Activity Reports, filed currency transaction reports, and worked with bank management on all levels.

Cassara is considered an expert in anti-money laundering. He retired after a 26-year career in the federal government intelligence and law enforcement communities. His last position was as a special agent for the Department of Treasury’s Office of Terrorism Finance and Financial Intelligence. While assigned to the Office of the Customs Attaché in Rome, Italy, he directed the first truly international money laundering task force. This innovative operation combated Italian/American organized crime by examining the movement of money between the two countries. It represented an early use of financial intelligence to proactively initiate investigations. He began his career with United States Treasury as a special agent assigned to the Washington Field Office of the U.S. Secret Service.

Dr. Schafer is a retired FBI Special Agent who is currently employed as an assistant professor at Western Illinois University. Dr. Schafer served as behavioral analyst assigned to FBI’s National Security Behavioral Analysis Program. He earned a Ph.D. in psychology from Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, CA. Dr. Schafer regularly lectures and consults in the United States and abroad. He authored the book Psychological Narrative Analysis: A Professional Method to Detect Deception in Written and Oral Communications. And he co-authored the book Advanced Interviewing Techniques: Proven strategies for Law Enforcement, Military, and Security Personnel. He has published numerous articles on a wide range of topics including the psychopathology of hate, ethics in law enforcement, detecting deception and the universal principles of criminal behavior. Dr. Schafer’s latest book is The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over.

Brett Burns is a member of the Perry team with more than a decade of experience in public accounting and governmental accounting sectors. He is the Advisory Manager for Perry and Associates, CPAs, A.C., overseeing the Financial Reporting & Consulting and Information Systems teams in the Marietta, office. His experience includes performing preparations, compilations, and reviews of financial statements for state and local governments, not-for-profit entities, and private businesses. In addition, his consulting experience includes internal control environment and system assessments, financial accounting and reporting software conversions and implementations, and investigative consulting engagements. He sits on the Ohio Society of CPAs Accounting and Auditing Standards Committee. He is a member of the American Institute of CPAs, Ohio Society of CPAs, West Virginia Society of CPAs, and Association of Governmental Accountants.

Burnosky is a certified information systems auditor. He has performed various roles in financial audits and forensic financial investigations. He has helped perform Information Systems infrastructure, process, and documentation evaluations. He has done extensive work with SQL databases including the creation of tables and complex query writing. He graduated from Marietta College with a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems

Martin obtained his master’s degree in accounting. He has hundreds of hours of financial audit experience and thousands of hours of data handling, manipulation, and analytics experience. Martin has been involved in the performance of several Information Systems infrastructure, process, and documentation evaluations as well as being involved in forensic financial investigations. Martin has extensive experience with SQL database query writing, the use of CASEWARE IDEA data analytics software, and advanced process documentation and flowcharting.