Serious Economic Crime and the Use of Forensic Accounting

Toby Duthie, Partner, FRA (Forensic Risk Alliance), USA

The growth in demand for specialist forensic accounting skills is a direct reflection of both an increased awareness of the importance of good corporate governance and ethics globally, and increased levels of economic crime - and therefore regulation and enforcement - internationally. Society is becoming far less tolerant of unethical behaviour and, increasingly, the financial markets are seeing robust corporate governance as a “must have” rather than a “nice to have”. At the same time, economic crime is growing exponentially, with cybercrime - thanks to our increasing dependence on technology - raising its ugly head as the latest threat, alongside asset misappropriation, accounting and procurement fraud, investor and market fraud, bribery and corruption, anti-trust violations, and money laundering.

Toby Duthie is one of FRA's co-founders and heads its London office. With experience in cases involving government enforcement in the UK and the US, his expertise lies in internal and regulatory investigations, data protection and complex financial modelling, with particular experience in global, multi-jurisdictional cases. Toby was instrumental in the development of FRA's service in the anti-corruption and white-collar defence arena across Europe. He spent more than five years in the US, gaining extensive experience advising on damages amounts in a number of complex civil and criminal litigations and in connection with a number of high-profile FCPA enforcement actions (e.g. Panalpina, Bonny Island LNG and Oil-for-Food). He has also worked on matters involving the UK, Swiss and French regulators. His experience spans a number of areas. He has worked on pre- and post-acquisition due diligence for a number of multinational corporations. He has provided damages modelling and prepared expert reports relating to a dispute involving the acquisition of a major financial institution. He has advised on trust fund and restitution work for the International Criminal Court, involving all aspects of document and evidence management, reparation processes, asset identification and seizure. After graduating with honours from University College London, Toby worked for two years as a steel trader in Hong Kong and China. He then moved to the investment banking division of Deutsche Bank/Morgan Grenfell for seven years, where he focused on infrastructure finance and structured trade finance. This has provided Toby with a strong understanding of financial modelling, financial risk assessment and mitigation as well as deal structuring in both Europe and the Emerging Markets.

Forensic Risk Alliance (FRA) is a full service consulting firm specializing in Forensic Accounting, Financial Investigation, Litigation Support, and Electronic Discovery. FRA is comprised of forensic accountants, financial analysts, database & IT experts, and litigation support specialists. We have fluency in German, Chinese, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and English. FRA assists businesses and institutions to resolve complex and high risk financial, legal and regulatory challenges. We offer a variety of solutions that encompasses the complete e-discovery life cycle. We offer collection services, data culling, a custom review platform, jurisdictional processing and hosting, data privacy, and dedicated project management. From our offices in the United States and Europe we have serviced and supported clients in nearly every major jurisdiction across the globe. Recent projects have taken us to Canada, Israel, Germany, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, the UK, the US, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, the PRC, Nigeria, Iraq, the UAE, Jordan, Brazil and Australia.