Laurel C. Vant, MAcc, CFE

Retired Special Agent, IRS Criminal Investigation

Laurel C. Vant is a forensic accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner, and retired Special Agent with IRS Criminal Investigation. She brings more than three decades of experience in complex financial investigations, including fraud, money laundering, embezzlement, hidden and disputed assets, tax-related investigations, and litigation support.

Over the course of her career, Laurel has led and developed complex financial investigations, reconstructed financial evidence, traced assets, interviewed thousands of witnesses and subjects, and presented findings to prosecutors, grand juries, and courts. She has testified in more than twenty-five federal grand jury sessions and criminal trials and has served as an expert witness at trial.

FEDERAL INVESTIGATIVE EXPERIENCE

Laurel Vant has decades of forensic accounting experience in leading and developing fraud, money laundering, embezzlement, and missing, disputed, or hidden asset investigations through her service as an Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Special Agent and as a Senior Financial Investigator for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.

She has testified in numerous grand juries and criminal trials and has also served as an expert witness at trial.

Special Agent, U.S. Treasury Department, IRS Criminal Investigation, 1991–2019

  • DEA Task Force Officer, 2010–2014

  • FBI Task Force Officer, 2014–2017

  • SAR Review Team Liaison Officer, 2001–2005 and 2017–2019

  • Co-case agent on investigations with the FBI, DEA, HSI, Secret Service, TIGTA, and state and local law-enforcement agencies

  • Led, developed, planned, and coordinated large-scale investigations across multiple agencies and jurisdictions

  • Investigated money laundering, tax evasion, embezzlement, Ponzi schemes, RICO matters, public corruption, wire and mail fraud, identity theft, cybercrime, Bank Secrecy Act violations, IEEPA violations, employment-tax matters, drug conspiracies, and false statements

  • Conducted thousands of interviews of subjects, victims, and third parties

  • Testified in more than twenty-five federal grand jury sessions and criminal trials

  • Served as affiant on numerous search warrant applications

CURRENT PRACTICE

After retiring from IRS Criminal Investigation, Laurel continued performing advanced forensic work as a Senior Financial Investigator for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Today, through Vant Investigations, LLC, she applies the same investigative discipline and attention to detail to complex civil financial disputes.

Her work includes:

  • Account and transaction reconstruction

  • Asset tracing

  • Hidden, missing, and disputed asset analysis

  • Financial statement analysis

  • Tax-return analysis

  • Business-record analysis

  • Fraud and embezzlement investigations

  • Money laundering and complex fund tracing

  • High-asset divorce financial analysis

  • Litigation support

  • Expert testimony

Laurel’s experience, credibility, and courtroom-tested analysis help attorneys and clients uncover what happened, understand the financial evidence, and protect what matters most.

PUBLICATION “How Do I Get the Feds to Look at My Fraud Issue, and Do I Really Want Them Looking?” Today’s CPA, September/October 2020

EDUCATION & CREDENTIALS

Master of Accountancy

Baylor University, 2020, 4.0 GPA

Certified Fraud Examiner

Certified Instructor / Facilitator

National Criminal Investigation Training Academy

Criminal Investigator & IRS-CI Special Agent

National Criminal Investigation Training Academy

AWARDS

  • Special Agent In Charge Outstanding Performance Award

    Dallas Division, 2023, 2024, 2025

  • Albert Gallatin Award
    U.S. Department of the Treasury, 2019

  • U.S. Attorney’s Award
    United States v. Apostelos, 2017

  • OCDETF Case of the Year
    District of South Carolina, 2007

  • OCDETF Certificate of Appreciation
    Boston Field Office, 1996