ACCOUNTANTS TURN SLEUTHS : WHEN THE NUMBERS DON'T ADD UP.

Byline: Deborah Adamson Daily News Staff Writer

The name is Bond. James Bond, CPA.

Far-fetched? Not so in a world of rising white-collar crimes where complex financial transactions can baffle real-world Colombos.

Forensic accountants, as they're known, specialize in investigating white-collar crimes. Unlike traditional bean counters, who take at face value figures given to them by companies, forensic accountants are trained to look behind the numbers.

The profession is in such demand recently that accounting and financial services firms are significantly adding to their investigative staff.

``It's a very active business,'' said Craig Jacobsen, Coopers & Lybrand's national director of litigation services. His company's forensic accounting staff has risen fivefold to 400 people since 1992.

To handle increased business, Deloitte & Touche's Los Angeles office expanded its litigation staff from six to 21 last year. KPMG Peat Marwick has more than doubled its forensic staff to 175 people since 1995.

Kessler & Associates of New York plans to open its fourth office by 1998 in Los Angeles. The forensic services firm more than doubled its revenues last year. The company is so busy, it's turning down cases.

Membership at the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners has tripled in five years to 16,000, a third of them forensic accountants.

There's so much business because white-collar crime is on the rise, said Michael Kessler, president of Kessler & Associates.

``You can steal with a pencil,'' he said. ``It's much easier than robbing a bank.''

Business fraud and abuse cost U.S. organizations more than $400 billion a year, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in Austin, Texas.

The typical perpetrator is a college-educated white male, the group said. Men commit 75 percent of the offenses.

Companies turn to forensic accountants as law enforcement agencies become overburdened by cases and resources shrink, said Tony Adamski, managing director of litigation and forensic services at KPMG Peat Marwick.

Businesses also turn to them since most traditional investigators aren't trained to understand complex financial deals, said Peter McLaughlin, national director of fraud and forensic accounting at Deloitte & Touche.

Coopers & Lybrand handled the Sumitomo Corp. copper trading scandal involving fallen star trader Yasuo Hamanaka. Over the period of 10 years, Hamanaka made risky, unauthorized trades that cost the company $2.6 billion.

As primary investigators for the case, its forensic accountants had to reconstruct trades and piece together a decade of dizzying misconduct.

The work of forensic accountants also contributed to the conviction of Joseph Waldholtz, estranged husband of former Utah Congresswoman Enid Greene. He was convicted of writing worthless checks and of misusing election funds.

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Photo: (Color) Scenes from Kessler & Associates Web site introduce potential clients to some of its areas of expertise.