Fuoco Group acquires forensic accounting firm

Fuoco Group, the Hauppauge-based accounting and financial consulting firm, on Wednesday announced the acquisition of AIB Forensics.

The purchase will allow the company to form a new forensic accounting unit called Fuoco Fraud and Forensics. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

AIB Forensics is owned by Alan Blass, a former deputy auditor for New York City's Department of Investigations. It is based in Lawrence, with an office in South Florida. The dual locations of AIB allowed the merger with Fuoco, which also has offices in Florida, to have great synergy, Blass said.

The three employees at AIB's Lawrence office will join Fuoco, and Blass will become director of Fuoco's new forensics unit.

Fuoco will also soon be hiring new employees with accounting and litigation backgrounds as part of its efforts to expand its new unit, said Krysta Lyons, Fuoco's marketing director.

The acquisition of AIB is not Fuoco's first purchase this year. In January, the company bought information technology firm XT Group to form a new company, Fuoco Technology.

Photo: Alan Blass, owner of AIB Forensics, which has been acquired by Hauppauge-based Fuoco Group.