Prior to joining Borrelli Walsh (now Kroll), Katy was a Partner and Head of Forensic at KPMG Hong Kong. She regularly speaks on forensic related topics at business events such as Directors’ training, Chief Financial Officer and Independent Non-Executive Directors forums.
Katy speaks English, Mandarin and Cantonese.
Professional Experience
Financial investigations
- Led a significant number of investigations into allegations related to financial misreporting, earnings manipulation, asset misappropriation, employee fraud for listed multinational and conglomerates, government bodies, and corporates in private sector.
- Assisted one of the sizable local asset management companies in investigating into allegations relating to its portfolio manager entering into investments that were not in line with the fund’s stated objectives, investment restrictions and guidelines;
- Performed an internal fact-finding exercise for a quasi-public institution funded by the government in response to various allegations of management misconduct such as bypassing vendor selection and procurement policies and procedures and unauthorised setting up and usage of promotion funds;
- Assisted a global manufacturer of luggage and travel accessories to investigate into allegations of the existence of a number of contracts its local subsidiaries had entered into with various questionable distributors and quantify the potential financial impact to the group;
Anti-bribery and corruption
- Lead forensic partner in a cross-border ABC investigation for a world-leading protective coatings global company headquartered in Denmark into alleged briberies being provided by its subsidiaries to customers and agents in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore;
- Local forensic partner leading an assessment of the anti-bribery and corruption programme of the mainland operations of a global supermarket chain;
- Lead forensic partner working with the external counsel of a NASDAQ listed global company engaged in manufacturing and selling home technology products in a FCPA investigation on improper payments made by the employees of its Chinese subsidiaries;
- Lead forensic partner in a cross-border FCPA investigation on alleged improper payments by the China operations of a New York Exchange listed manufacturer of filtration products;
- Lead forensic partner of a FCPA investigation into the Chinese offices and manufacturing facilities for a renowned listed food processing group;
- Assisted various major multi-national companies and private equity firms in conducting FCPA due diligence on their acquisition targets across different industries in Southern China and Hong Kong. Examples of target companies include data centre, satellite telecommunication provider, water purification and waste management company, beverages manufacturer, property developers, distributors of healthcare products, printing and publishing agency, etc
- Assisted one of the largest banking and financial services organisations to carry out a high-level ABC risk assessment in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Indonesia;
- Assisted a large Asian insurance group headquartered in HK to conduct a review of its ABC framework and provide recommendations for improvement;
- Delivered ABC training to the local management in mainland, Hong Kong and Taipei for a large number of multinational clients.
Litigation support
- Providing assistance to legal advisors in shareholder dispute cases involving various prominent businessmen/companies, scope of work includes reviewing vast amount of financial documents in relation to the group/family assets and assessing their completeness and truthfulness, identifying indicators of misappropriation of funds or mismanagement.
Fraud risk management
- Conducting independent assessment of the fraud risk management framework for two virtual banks in Hong Kong, areas of assessment included governance and oversight, general controls the banks have in place to mitigate various types of fraud risks;
- Assisting a number of prominent charitable organisations / funds to review processes including grants selection and approval, conflict of interest declaration, payments to grantees and monitoring of projects carried out by the grantees, and identify irregularities and control deficiencies for improvement.
Professional Affiliations and Academic Qualifications
- Member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants
- Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
- Certified Fraud Examiner
- Bachelor of Economics and Social Studies, University of Manchester
