Kelly Rigby

Partner – Forensic Consulting
Financial Advisory

Kelly works closely with senior executives, boards and their legal counsel to navigate complexities of fraud, corruption, employee misconduct and regulatory enquiry.

A forensic expert, Kelly specialises in complex financial investigations and asset tracing, having led a number of high profile civil and criminal investigations across a broad range of industries and the public and private sectors. She has led large teams on complex forensic accounting matters involving the analysis of large volumes of electronic data, reconstruction of accounting records and the quantification of loss. She has extensive experience in high profile restructures and insolvency appointments, particularly identifying and tracing assets and the flow of funds.

Kelly previously worked at a ‘Big 4’ firm, CBA and for the NSW Crime Commission pursuing confiscation and investigation of the proceeds of organised crime. Kelly’s experience in the financial services sector involved roles in financial crime investigations, conduct risk and internal audit where she worked closely with compliance, legal, audit and risk committees.

Expertise

• Fraud Investigations
• Asset Tracing
• Forensic Accounting
• Fraud Risk Management

Significant engagements include:

• Tracing over $500 million in funds provided by multiple financial institutions to an equipment leasing finance company following a longstanding and significant fraud, to assist with the recovery of funds from assets and related parties. The tracing exercise analysed over 100,000 transactions and over $1 billion in funds across almost 200 bank accounts.
• Tracing over $44 million in Government funding provided to a not for profit, children’s home care charity following allegations of the misappropriation of funds received from the NSW Government. The investigation involved working closely with the client and its legal advisors and assisting with the public examinations of relevant parties in the Federal Court of Australia.
• Appointed as Receivers and Managers of a group of entities in the financial services sectors, conducted an investigation into the use and application of over $80 million in funds provided by a Chinese state-owned insurance company. A substantial tracing exercise and document review identified who benefited from the funds, including any payments towards property, shares and entities, and assisted with public examinations of directors in the Federal Court of Australia.
• As Joint Managers, conducted an investigation into the misappropriation of over $4 million in real estate trust funds, including the reconstruction of financial records and transactions and managing the wind down of the agency.
• Led a high profile criminal investigation and forensic accounting reconstruction involving allegations of corruption against a senior executive of a major financial institution and a key supplier. The investigation identified significant and long standing issues of fraud, corruption, misconduct and accounting irregularities in relation to a $120 million contract with an external event planning business. The investigation resulted in the quantification of the alleged misappropriation and has resulted in significant fraud and corruption charges being laid against the individuals.
• Engaged by a large Australian University to assess and benchmark their existing fraud and corruption control framework against better practice and conduct a high-level fraud and corruption risk assessment. As part of the report we provided a number of recommendations to further enhance their existing fraud control framework.