James Norden is an Associate Director in FRA’s Forensic Accounting team in London, with more than 11 years of experience in forensic accounting and external audit. He has built expertise in investigations, compliance reviews and monitorships, particularly relating to anti-bribery and corruption.

James has been heavily involved in a number of multi-year, cross-border matters at FRA. Notably, he was part of the FRA team supporting Airbus in a forensic accounting and eDiscovery review within the context of the company’s multi-year, multinational investigation, culminating in its landmark €3.6billion global settlement with four investigative authorities: the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the US Department of State (DOS) and French Parquet National Financier (PNF). As part of this review James led teams performing forensic accounting analysis of large volumes of financial data and liaised regularly with legal teams across multiple jurisdictions.

James’ experience also spans a number of key industries. In financial services, he was part of the FRA team supporting a multi-year corporate compliance monitorship of an international bank for the US DOJ, as well as a proactive anti-bribery and corruption review for another international bank. In each case, James reviewed business activities and transactions on a global scale, with touchpoints mainly in the Asia Pacific region, the US, and the Middle East. James has also worked on an investigation and a compliance review of two separate multinational companies in the medical devices sector, including leading in-country reviews and conducting interviews in India and Eastern Europe.

Prior to joining FRA in 2016, James spent four years at BDO LLP in their financial services external audit practice, working primarily on audits of asset managers and banks. James was also seconded to BDO USA where he led venture capital fund audits in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

James is an ACA chartered accountant (ICAEW). He holds a Bachelors degree in History and German from Durham University, England, which included a study abroad semester at the University of Cologne, Germany.