Ash Klass, an Associate Director at FRA, is a qualified accountant with over nine years of experience in forensic accounting, bribery and corruption, asset tracing, disgorgement and ability-to-pay calculations. Ash has been involved in a wide range of assignments in the aerospace, banking, oil and gas, engineering and manufacturing industries across the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
Ash is currently performing a penalty calculation in the context of a UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) prosecution of parties using illicit payments to win supply contracts in the Middle East. Recently, Ash provided forensic accounting support and financial analysis for a profit disgorgement calculation involving Brazilian authorities: Advogado-Geral da União (AGU), the Controladoria-Geral da União (CGU) and the Ministério Público Federal (MPF), as well as the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in the context of FCPA violations in the oil and gas industry.
Ash was part of the FRA team supporting Airbus in a multi-year forensic accounting and eDiscovery review within the context of the company’s multinational investigation, reporting to investigative authorities including the SFO, DoJ and French regulators. The investigation involved analysis of complex cross-border financial flows and sophisticated accounting schemes. Ash also carried out an ability-to-pay analysis to assess the financial and economic impact that a penalty would have on the company’s ongoing operations.
Ash also has experience in carrying out a multinational DoJ monitorship in the manufacturing industry, tracing assets through North African and European jurisdictions as a result of sanctions imposed by the EU during the Arab Spring, undertaking bribery and corruption reviews of a large European bank and supporting internal investigations for an international engineering firm.
Prior to joining FRA’s forensic accounting team, Ash was with Ernst & Young’s Advisory practice in Perth, Australia. During his time at E&Y, he worked with a number of multinational mining clients primarily focusing on contract management and the bribery and corruption risks associated with the tender award process.
Ash is a qualified Chartered Accountant, a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and received his Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Financial Planning) from Curtin University, Western Australia.