Carmen Leal

Associate Director
Senior Manager
London
email
+44 7738 732533
email

Biography

Carmen is an Associate Director in FRA’s forensic accounting team in London, with over 16 years of experience in forensic accounting and external audit. She has worked on cases involving monitorships, compliance reviews, investigations and disgorgement and penalty calculations. 

Carmen has been involved in several global compliance monitorships and anti-bribery and corruption reviews across various industries, including oil and gas, technology, financial services, aeronautical, medical devices, among others. The reviews involved entities based in Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Key monitorship projects she has worked on include: 

  • Supporting the FRA partner appointed by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to serve as independent compliance monitor for a German automotive engineering firm, as a result of its involvement in the Dieselgate scandal. This monitorship included the assessment of the company’s compliance program. Carmen reviewed several compliance components, including corporate culture and tone at the top and the training and employee’s incentives and disincentives programs.
  • Providing accounting support to independent Co-Monitors related to an enforcement action by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) for a member firm of a global accounting firm, including the review and assessment of the audit firm’s design and execution of its system of quality control. Carmen’s role involved the review of corporate culture and tone at the top, ethics and compliance reporting channels and investigation protocols. 

Carmen also assisted with the preparation of project profitability analyses used in disgorgement and penalty calculations negotiated with the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the DOJ. 

Prior to joining FRA, Carmen worked at two big four accounting firms (KPMG and EY) in their audit practices in the UK and Portugal. Carmen’s client portfolio included large multinational companies mainly in the media, entertainment and technology sectors. 

Carmen is a qualified accountant and a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). She earned a degree in Economics from the University of Porto in Portugal. In addition to her native Portuguese language, Carmen speaks English fluently and Spanish to an intermediate level. 

Authority experience

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
US Department of Justice (DOJ)
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)
Serious Fraud Office (SFO)
Ministerio Publico Federal (MPF)
Parquet National Financier (PNF)
New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS)
Financial Reporting Council (FRC)

Awards & Recognition

Accreditations

Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
Certified Fraud Examiner

Languages

English
Portuguese
Spanish

News and insights

News

Get To Know - Carmen Leal