A History of Success

One of FRA’s first major assignments, which spanned two years, was to build an anti-money laundering legislation and typologies database for the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APGML). The engagement included providing technical and anti-money laundering assistance to nine South East Asian and South Pacific countries. For this project, FRA worked alongside Dewey Ballatine’s Washington DC office.

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (or Claims Conference) administers compensation funds, recovers unclaimed Jewish property, and allocates funds to institutions that provide social welfare services to Holocaust survivors. FRA was retained by the Claims Conference to build a claims evaluation and payment system for the German DEM 10 billion Slave and Forced Labor settlement. FRA evaluated over 500,000 claims.

FRA was appointed by Unison, the largest public sector trade union in the UK, to manage employment-related litigation on behalf of thousands of their members in connection with their part-time pensions claims. FRA developed a system which was able to assess, value, and present to tribunals over 26,000 claims in one of the UK’s largest mass actions.

FRA was engaged to build a claims management system for the Claims Resolution Tribunal (CRT) in Zurich in connection with a $1.25 billion Swiss Banks Settlement and the publication of some 34,000 dormant Holocaust era accounts. FRA’s system was able to streamline the evaluation of claims by the CRT’s team of lawyers and thus significantly improve the rate of approval.

In April 2004 the United Nations assigned Paul Volcker to research possible corruption in the Iraqi Oil-for-Food program. In his report, Volcker criticized Kojo Annan - son of then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan - and his employer Cotecna Inspection, SA, for trying to conceal their relationship. FRA was instructed to carry out an assignment which involved a review of the performance of the inspection agent under the OFF program, as well as a forensic accounting analysis of all payments to key individuals. Frances McLeod reported to six congressional investigations as well as Swiss federal and cantonal investigations and to the Independent Inquiry Committee established by the UN.

At the end of 2005 and during 2006, FRA was retained by the US counsel to a major European engineering company in connection with defending a US securities class action. FRA’s eDiscovery involvement was to collect, process, and host email and other company data for review by the legal team in a manner compliant with French data protection laws and the French Blocking Statute. FRA's expertise in data protection, cultural sensitivity, and IT meant that we were able to recover potentially responsive data from a division that had been sold, including reconstituting critical data from archaic back-up tapes. Supporting the client with forensic accounting, FRA reviewed the revenue recognition on contracts and the loss occasioned on them, focusing in particular on asset-based financing structures, collateral arrangements, and net exposure to investors. FRA produced reports to the legal team and assisted at the deposition of witnesses. The case was settled in 2010 with the damages, initially claimed in the billions, cut by 95%.

FRA was appointed by a UK-based chemical company which was under investigation for alleged bribery of Iraqi officials during the UN Oil-for-Food program. The assignment involved both forensic accounting and eDiscovery work in the UK, the US, and Switzerland. The case was the first case to be settled jointly by the DOJ and the SFO, ending with a Deferred Prosecution Agreement in the US and a civil settlement of alleged offenses in the UK.

In early 2007, the counsel defending Frederic Bourke, the Dooney & Bourke co-founder, engaged FRA in a high-profile FCPA investigation and subsequent prosecution. Bourke had invested in a scheme run by Victor Kozeny seeking to benefit from the future privatization of the Azeri state oil company, as had a number of institutional investors. FRA’s work involved the tracing of fund flows through a number of off-shore vehicles and eDiscovery support. The case established that while it was Kozeny who orchestrated the scheme to bribe senior Azeri government officials in order to encourage the privatization, Bourke had been “willfully blind” to the knowledge of the bribery.

FRA was engaged by a major US drilling company which had been caught up in the ‘Panalpina’ freight forwarding case. The DOJ and SEC were alleging that the client utilized Panalpina as a freight forwarder to import items into sub-saharan Africa, and that it knowingly reimbursed Panalpina for bribes and facilitation payments made. FRA performed an extensive exercise involving a detailed review of all the client’s invoices from Panalpina and an assessment of the extent to which un-receipted disbursements and other charges might have been in contravention of the FCPA. FRA also carried out an assessment of the gain that our client might have made from the practice.

FRA acted for a global tobacco manufacturer which was involved with a number of damages claims by assisting in an exercise to scan, digitize, host, and review documents. The data resided in Europe and it was vital that the entire exercise, including the location of the servers, was performed in-country and in conformity with strict data protection regimes.

FRA acted for one of the parties involved with the ‘Bonny Island’ bribery scheme, which remains the largest global settlement to date for bribery-related offenses. The client retained us to consider the profitability of the contracts tainted by bribery and our analysis formed the basis of the US prosecutor’s penalty. Based on FRA’s careful consideration of the cost base of the client, the penalty levied was tens of millions of dollars less than had first been suggested.

In 2009, Dewey & LeBoeuf appointed FRA to carry out pre-acquisition due diligence on a privately held US-based components manufacturer on behalf of the acquirer, a publicly-traded global power and engineering company.

FRA was instructed by counsel for a European multinational to respond to an investigation by the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office into allegations of millions of dollars of corrupt payments made via Switzerland to agents over a span of 10 years. The assignment involved the collection, processing, and hosting of over 200,000 documents seized by the Swiss prosecutors, as well as the reconciliation of payments to bank accounts, contracts, and correspondence. The eventual settlement was Switzerland’s largest corruption settlement to date.

FRA acted for US hedge fund Highland Capital in a case related to a Collateralized Debt Obligation backed by RBS and issued by Highland in 2008. The CDO failed to close because of the economic crash and RBS called in its loan. FRA acted as experts and gave evidence on the way loans and CDOs were accounted for by RBS, who were ultimately accused of holding a “sham” auction for loans that it never planned to sell.

FRA was engaged to provide an expert report and testimony in a terror financing claim. This involved reconstruction of the transactions in question, assessing money flows, and evaluating the client relationship over a number of years and in an anti-money laundering and terror financing compliance context.

Instructed by a UK-listed mining company with interests in Africa, the CIS, and Latin America, FRA was initially instructed to carry out a review for UK Bribery Act compliance. When the company found itself under investigation by the SFO, the assignment expanded into a detailed review of transactions in a number of jurisdictions together with an extensive eDiscovery exercise.

FRA was utilized by a North American Oil Major to carry out an investigation into allegations surrounding procurement fraud in the Middle East. FRA collected relevant emails and electronic documents, performed the document review, obtained a copy of the data from the vendor accounting system, reconstructed and interrogated the accounting database, and identified relevant entries using complex data queries which included searching in Arabic.

FRA was engaged to provide a report setting out the scope and activities of the London Sharia Sukuk finance market, together with the impact of credit rating downgrades on financial reputation. This report was put together in a short timeframe and assisted the Court with its assessment of whether a credit rating downgrade in a company’s key financing market created a nexus to the UK. Derek Patterson and Toby Duthie were key contributors in this matter.

FRA assisted with ABC compliance visits to a number of high-risk jurisdictions, including India, Russia and the CIS. Together with key compliance personnel and a major UK law firm, FRA visited these jurisdictions, reviewed financial transactions and systems, and interviewed local management to assess ABC control risks. In addition, FRA assisted the client in developing a data-driven method to identify and control third-party vendors across its key business organizations.

FRA aided a review of the procedures and controls employed at a global insurance broker to evaluate the quality and appropriateness of intermediaries used to generate international insurance business. The review focused on the due diligence undertaken by the company on its international partners. An expansion of this exercise to include historical payments made to international agents formed part of the review strategy, which was undertaken in response to the UK FSA’s review of the London insurance brokerage industry and FSA financial sanctions against Aon Ltd and Willis Ltd.

In the context of a DOJ and SEC investigation, FRA was instructed by counsel for a large American IT company to calculate the ‘gain’ or ‘profit’ which might have been generated on some contracts entered into via intermediaries or agents that were tainted by alleged compliance violations i.e., bribery. The matter included highly complex contracts between German and Russian distributors, as well as numerous reviews in Latin America and Europe.

Frances McLeod, one of FRA's Founding Partners, and her team won Consulting Team Of The Year at the prestigious 2014 'Women in Compliance awards'. The award was open to all providers of consulting services, where the team is led by a woman or can demonstrate that the women on the team contribute significantly to the team's overall success. Entries were judged by a panel of prominent compliance specialists from across the corporate, legal, and professional services world and highlight the exceptional level of diligence, vision, and commitment necessary to keep compliance at the very top of its game.

FRA was engaged in support of two monitors appointed by the US DOJ and SEC as part of FCPA related settlements. FRA engaged in compliance related reviews in several countries of operations as well as conducted extensive transactional testing to assess the efficaciousness of the companies’ compliance programs.

FRA was retained as forensic consultants to a New York Department of Financial Services monitor of an international bank in connection with its Swiss Bank Program related settlement. The engagement involved a review of compliance programs and underlying policies and procedures and related transactional testing to assess compliance with all applicable Federal and State laws.

FRA teamed up with Karina Litvack and Norton Rose Fulbright in a corporate collective action to address the issue of Tainted Assets. Such assets may be associated with a legacy of bribery and corruption in, for example, its chain of ownership or in the way the asset is operated. In the context of increasingly aggressive anti-bribery and corruption enforcement environment today, tainted assets represent significant legal, reputational and value erosion risks to the investor. The Tainted Assets Working Group has received overwhelming support from the financial, corporate and civil society organizations, and continues to collaborate in its search for innovative remediation solutions.
For more information visit www.forensicrisk.com/taintedassets

FRA entered into a strategic alliance with global risk consultancy The Risk Advisory Group (TRAG), enabling both to offer a complete international investigations and compliance due diligence service. The combination of FRA's permanent data centres and its fully transportable e-discovery platform allows the partners to comply with increasingly stringent data control requirements, which often require data to be handled and stored in the country where the work is being undertaken.

To learn more about The Risk Advisory Group, visit www.riskadvisory.net

Since FRA has been supporting the internal GE eDiscovery team and legal teams across GE divisions with international eDiscovery services and consulting advice for internal investigations, regulatory compliance and litigation.

FRA has been included in Leaders League DECIDEURS Litigation & Arbitration guide 2016 under litigation support, fraud and eDiscovery. Every year, Leaders League provides the compilation of industry benchmarks, top company rankings and directories.

FRA received the ‘Highly Commended’ recognition in the Supplier Innovation – Technology category. The accolade was for FRA's Mobile Solution, a comprehensive, end-to-end eDiscovery processing and review platform that can be installed on-site independently or integrated into the client’s infrastructure anywhere in the world, and can scale to handle even the most complex projects.

FRA was retained as forensic consultants to a US Department of Justice-appointed monitor of the City of Ferguson in connection with the findings of unlawful conduct by the Ferguson Police Department and the Ferguson Municipal Court. FRA will assist Squire Patton Boggs; the team will oversee the implementation of reforms to bring about constitutional and effective policing, promote officer and public safety, ensure fundamental fairness and equal treatment regardless of race in the municipal court and foster greater trust between police officers and the communities they serve.

FRA won Investigations Consultancy of the Year award at the coveted 2016 GIR Awards. The awards were only open to client and practitioner nominations. GIR commented, “FRA scooped the Investigations Consultancy of the Year Award after dozens of law firms and companies came forward to sing FRA’s praises for its willingness to go the extra mile during high-stakes investigations and bet-the-company litigations.”

Who's Who Legal: Consulting Experts 2016 guide have hailed two of FRA’s co-founders and partners, Greg Mason and Toby Duthie, as offering "unique perspectives on complex problems", "first-rate" in multi-jurisdictional investigations and lauding their experience as "unsurpassed" in this year's guide. Since 1996 Who’s Who Legal has identified the foremost legal practitioners in business law based upon comprehensive, independent research. It is impossible to buy entry into this publication.

Following months of research by GIR, we are delighted to announce that FRA has been included in this year’s GIR 100 under Investigations Consultancies. FRA is one of only five investigation consultancies to be included this year and is mentioned alongside AlixPartner, BDO, EY and KPMG. The GIR 100 is an annual guide to the world’s leading cross-border investigations practices for corporate investigations and aims to give in-house counsel a list of the best firms to turn to in times of crisis.

FRA is proud to sponsor JUSTICE who, for the last 50 years, have been at the forefront of discourse around the legal issues that have defined our legal landscape. “Without organizations like JUSTICE, working hard to make changes for the benefit of others, our legal system would arguably not be as highly respected as it is today,” Toby Duthie, FRA co-founder and partner. JUSTICE is an all-party law reform and human rights organisation working to strengthen the justice system – administrative, civil and criminal – in the United Kingdom. www.justice.org.uk

FRA is proud to sponsor the Fraud Women’s Network (“FWN”) who, for the last 10 years, have been changing the fraud industry for women for the better. “FWN are constantly challenging industry stereotypes and asking the challenging questions most choose to ignore. With networks like this bringing women in industry together – to share insights, mentor one another and to network – positive change is possible. Congratulations ladies of the FWN on the past 10 years of hard work. Here is to the next 10 years that FRA wish you every success for and look forward to continuing to support you in.” Toby Duthie, FRA co-founder and partner. www.fraudwomensnetwork.com

FRA co-founder and managing director, Frances McLeod, and her team have been shortlisted for Compliance Consulting Team of the Year at the Women in Compliance Awards 2017. The Annual Women in Compliance Awards are the ultimate celebration of the achievements female compliance professionals make every day in the world of compliance and business. Entries are judged by a panel of prominent compliance specialists from across the corporate, legal, and professional services world and highlight the exceptional level of diligence, vision, and commitment necessary to keep compliance at the very top of its game.

Rolls-Royce has agreed to pay £671m in penalties after coming to an agreement with the DOJ and SFO after their recent fraud investigation. The result comes after a long-running investigation into claims that Rolls-Royce bribed agents to win export contracts. Rolls-Royce instructed FRA to analyze underlying financial material and to prepare submissions on gross profit figures for the SFO.

Who's Who Legal: Investigations 2017 guide has recognized two of FRA’s co-founders and partners, Greg Mason and Toby Duthie and FRA’s Principal and Head of its Nordic business, Derek Patterson, as leading professionals in their respective fields of practice. FRA’s leadership are described as “responsive, well-prepared and experienced”, who have “an excellent demeanor with both clients and regulators” as well as being “pragmatic, commercial and technically strong and able to communicate ideas easily”.

The Olympus corporate corruption scandal that concealed more than 117.7 billion yen ($1.5 billion) was one of the biggest loss-concealing financial scandals in the history of corporate Japan. It wiped 75-80% off the company’s stock market valuation; led to investigations across Japan, the UK and the US and saw the arrest of 11 past of present directors, senior managers, auditors bankers of Olympus for alleged criminal activities or cover-up. FRA’s part in this settlement was acting as the economic adviser to clients of Deminor Recovery Services in their legal action against Olympus Corporation.

FRA Partner, Stacy Fresch, was appointed to act as co-monitor of an international accounting firm following a multi-million USD settlement for issuing materially false audit reports and attempting to cover up audit violations by improperly altering documents and providing false testimony.

FRA entered into a strategic alliance with WhistleB – a global whistleblowing service expert which helps organizations to set up their whistleblowing systems and procedures in a correct and pragmatic manner. The new partnership will enable both FRA and WhistleB to offer a complete whistle-blowing service to their clients and prospective clients. The combination of FRA’s whistleblowing investigation support model - that can be tailored to suit client requirements - and WhistleB’s secure third-party solution allows both to support clients through whistleblowing reporting, investigation and follow up all in an efficient manner which is becoming increasingly important with the evolution of new tougher anti-corruption laws. To learn more about WhistleB, visit www.whistleb.com.

Shortlisted at the Legal Week Innovation Awards 2017 in the Supplier Innovation – Technology category. The shortlist is for FRA’s Mobile Solution, a comprehensive, end-to-end eDiscovery processing and review platform that can be installed on-site independently or integrated into the client’s infrastructure anywhere in the world, and can scale to handle even the most complex projects. www.thelegalinnovationawards.com

FRA are sponsoring the Defence Extradition Lawyers’ Forum (DELF) this year, who since June 2016, have been providing a coherent and unified voice to represent the interests of requested persons and of the lawyers that defend them. DELF aims to represent defence lawyers practising in extradition by creating best working practices; proactively pursuing improvements in procedure; responding to government consultations on legislation and practice and responding to court consultations on extradition procedure. www.delf.org.uk

FRA was retained to provide forensic accounting support to a DOJ-appointed monitor to a large conglomerate throughout all phases of the monitorship, delivering particular expertise in respect of the books and records of the company and its internal controls environment. Over the course of the monitorship, FRA will work closely with the company’s internal audit and compliance functions, performing FCPA compliance testing and reviews across Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

FRA was retained to support a NASDAQ-listed medical devices company that entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with regulators over compliance failures related to FCPA violations. FRA is reviewing and testing the company’s FCPA compliance program, and reporting on remediation.

Who's Who Legal: Consulting Experts 2017 guide has recognized three of FRA’s co-founders and partners, Greg Mason, Frances McLeod and Toby Duthie and FRA’s Principal and Head of its Nordic business, Derek Patterson, as leading professionals in their respective fields of practice. Since 1996 Who’s Who Legal has identified the foremost legal practitioners in business law based upon comprehensive, independent research. It is impossible to buy entry into this publication. Who’s Who Legal Investigations 2017 is a comprehensive guide to the leading professionals across the globe specializing in economic, forensic and litigation consulting and transactional services. www.whoswholegal.com

FRA’s Mobile Solution has been shortlisted for Queens Awards for Enterprise in the Innovation category. FRA’s Mobile Solution a comprehensive, end-to-end eDiscovery processing and review platform that can be installed on-site independently or integrated into the client’s infrastructure anywhere in the world, and can scale to handle even the most complex projects.The Awards recognize UK businesses for outstanding achievement in different categories and industries.

FRA’s Paris team have been featured again this year in the renowned Leaders League Decideurs ‘Litigation and Arbitration’ 2017 Guide with Yousr Khalil, Toby Duthie and Weng Yee Ng being mentioned as experts. Every year, Leaders League provides the compilation of industry benchmarks, top company rankings and directories.

Caroline Fagard has been included in the Who's Who Legal France 2017. This the first time the Paris team have been recognized in the publication. Caroline has been included as the go-to-contact for the FRA Paris team and Yousr Khalil as the FA expert. The guide is circulated to over 25,000 subscribers worldwide. It is impossible to buy entry into this publication – all entries are based on client referees. Who’s Who Legal is a comprehensive guide to the leading professionals across the globe specializing in economic, forensic and litigation consulting and transactional services.

Emma Hodges, FRA partner, is the only non-lawyer who has been included in this year’s GIR 40 under 40 list. GIR has created a list of accomplished young investigations practitioners, 17 women and 23 men from 11 countries, who will help shape the future of this fast-evolving area of law.

FRA has been shortlisted in the category Investigations Consultancy of the Year at the GIR Awards 2017. GIR commented "the consultancy has played a hand in some of the years' most high-profile cases including UK engineering company Rolls-Royce's landmark trilateral settlement in January and Swedish company Telia's first-of-its-kind settlement with Swedish, Dutch and US authorities in September."

FRA has been shortlisted at the Legal Week British Legal Awards 2017 in the category Supplier of the Year (Technology). The British Legal Awards celebrates achievement, excellence and innovation in the legal profession. The awards will be held on 30 November in London.

FRA has beaten steep competition to take home Investigations Consultancy of the Year at the 2017 GIR Awards! This is the second year in a row FRA has won the coveted award. GIR commented, “For the second year in a row, Forensic Risk Alliance (FRA) won the Investigations Consultancy 2017 award. Although BDO and K2 have had impressive years, FRA stood out for the hand it played in the year’s most high-profile cases, including UK engineering company Rolls-Royce’s landmark trilateral settlement in January and Swedish company Telia’s first-of-its-kind settlement with Swedish, Dutch and US authorities in September.”

We are delighted to be included again in this year’s selection. GIR said “Forensic Risk Alliance has made a name for itself as a go-to consultant on high-profile investigations, and was most recently instructed by Rolls-Royce in the SFO’s fraud probe.” The GIR 100 is an annual guide to the world’s leading cross-border investigations practices.

FRA has been included in the very first edition of the French Decideurs Guide ‘Compliance, Fraud and Investigations’ under Compliance Advisory where is has been ranked as “excellent”, Financial Fraud where it has been ranked as “strong reputation” and eDiscovery, where it has been ranked as ‘key player’. The guide aims to list the top French-rated law-firms, forensic accounting and eDiscovery players in the market.

Five of FRA’s leadership, Frances McLeod, Toby Duthie, Greg Mason, Derek Patterson and Weng Yee Ng, have been included in the Who’s Who Legal Investigations Forensic Accountants 2018. FRA’s leadership team have been described as ‘outstanding’, ‘excellent with clients’, ‘a pleasure to work with’, ‘fantastic’, ‘highly recommended by commentators’, ‘superb delivery of expert witness testimony’, ‘highly articulate financial experts’, who are able to ‘communicate complex issues clearly’.

FRA opened an office in Dallas, Texas with Partner, Jerry Hansen, heading up the office. Jerry will lead the team in expanding into new markets and growing the firm’s mergers and acquisitions expertise.

The Certificate certifies that FRA meets the Cyber Essentials implementation profile published in April 2014 and that FRA’s ICT defenses are assessed as satisfactory against commodity based cyber-attack. Cyber Essentials is a Government-backed, industry-supported scheme. This helps organizations to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data stored on devices which connect to the Internet.

FRA's Toby Duthie and Derek Patterson are listed as Thought Leaders identified by Who's Who Legal Investigations 2018: Forensic Accountants. They were two of the highest rated forensic accountants identified by WWL's research. WWL described Toby Duthie as “a highly articulate financial expert” according to sources, who praise his “ability to communicate complex issues clearly and come up with creative solutions”. Derek Patterson is a prominent name in the market who is recommended for his “excellent analysis and superb delivery of expert witness testimony”. One commentator effuses: “He is always completely reliable, even in difficult situations.” One commentator effuses: “He is always completely reliable, even in difficult situations.” FRA's Frances McLeod was also mentioned as a highly respected expert who sources describe as “a pleasure to work with”, adding that she is “excellent with clients”.

Toby Duthie, one of FRA’s Founding Partner’s and head of the firm’s European offices, won the Who’s Who Legal Investigations Forensic Accountant of the Year Award. Who’s Who Legal said of Toby Duthie’s win, “Following thousands of interviews conducted and nominations received, our research has decisively identified you as the leader in this practice area. This accolade is therefore richly deserved. Toby Duthie is ‘a highly articulate financial expert’ according to sources, who praise his ‘ability to communicate complex issues clearly and come up with creative solutions’.”

FRA continues to grow its presence in the US with the addition of Drew Costello, Partner, based in Philadelphia, and Jenna Voss, Director, based in New York. Frances McLeod, FRA Founding Partner, said of the appointments, "We are delighted to have Drew and Jenna join our growing team. Both will have a crucial role in expanding our US global footprint and US presence within the forensic accounting industry." Costello said that he will work with Voss to build the team in New York and regionally in both Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

FRA Founding Partner, Frances McLeod and Washington DC based Partner, Jen Baskin are listed in this year’s GIR Women in Investigations survey. The survey highlights the top 100 talented female practitioners from across the globe.

FRA Partners, Emma Hodges and Yousr Khalil, are one of only 34 international experts featured in the Future Leader category in Who’s Who Legal Investigations – Forensic Accountants 2018 publication. The Future Leaders category identifies the leading individuals under the age of 45.

FRA Founding Partner, Toby Duthie and FRA Principal, Derek Patterson, are recognized as Thought Leaders in EMEA Who’s Who Legal Investigations – Forensic Accountants 2018. The Thought Leaders are those individuals who received the highest number of nominations from peers, corporate counsel and other market sources this year. Who’s Who Legal’s research has identified them as being truly outstanding practitioners and the very best in their field.

This year six of FRA’s leadership are featured in the prestigious Who’s Who Legal Investigations – Consulting Experts – Investigations – Forensic Accountants 2018. Since 1996 Who’s Who Legal has identified the foremost legal practitioners in multiple areas of business law. They feature consulting experts from over 150 national jurisdictions and pride themselves on the integrity and authority of their findings.

Partner, Drew Costello, opens a new FRA office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has over 18 years of experience in both professional services and industry roles, specializing in international FCPA assignments, earnings management, anti-competitive practices, conflicts of interest and many other types of white-collar misconduct schemes.

FRA welcomes Tytti Saarinen and Viivi Lajunen as the firm’s newest Directors and newest members of the European forensic accounting leadership team. With their appointments, has also come the expansion into Helsinki with FRA opening an office in the city, as the firm continues its expansion into the Nordic region.