Our Experience Connects the Dots

The founding team at Ascalon Analytics has more than two decades of experience meeting extraordinary investigative challenges using advanced data analytics and public records research. 

The firm's President and Senior Managing Director, Gina Edwards, has provided investigative and consulting work for hedge funds, private equity firms, venture capital groups, public companies, foundations and family offices. She specializes in complex investigations, investment due diligence, shareholder disputes, assessing risk for mergers and acquisitions, securities fraud and public corruption.  She has provided forensics and litigation support to some of the world's top law firms.  Edwards has uncovered evidence of fraud involving hundreds of millions of dollars related to securities fraud, pump-and-dump market manipulation, mortgage fraud, real estate land trust fraud, hedge funds, mortgage-backed securities, PIPEs, Viaticals and Ponzi schemes.

On behalf of clients, she has uncovered multiple material misrepresentations and omissions, undisclosed related party transactions, potential fraudulent transfers, potential bribes and bid rigging, instances of resume and investment misrepresentations, poor corporate governance, and reputational risks related to criminal, financial, regulatory and personal misconduct.

She previously worked as Director of Research for a leading boutique consulting and investigations group founded by the former COO of a multibillion hedge fund where she supervised or conducted investigations in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia. She has assisted both activist investors and public companies with research for proxy contests and conducted investigations to assist clients with assessing risk for mergers and acquisitions.

Edwards has more than 20 years of data analytics experience -- obtaining, joining and analyzing large-scale data sets encompassing millions of records to uncover investigative findings and patterns. She has leading edge skills in Python, Jupyter Labs, R Studio, Alteryx, Microsoft Access, ESRI, and QGIS, and has completed graduate coursework in machine learning. A certified fraud examiner, Edwards holds a Master of Science in Accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the nation's top ranked graduate accounting programs. 

Prior to founding her original consulting firm in 2007, Edwards was a national award-winning investigative reporter. She has won more than three dozen state and national journalism awards, including a prestigious national award from Investigative Reporters & Editors. The leadership of the newspaper chain where she worked nominated her for Pulitzer Prize consideration for her multi-year public corruption and securities fraud investigation.  

For more information about the services we provide, reach out today.