KordaMentha establishes Perth Forensics practice

Sunday, 18 December 2011

This makes KordaMentha a national provider of forensic accounting, investigation and forensic technology services and the first real alternative to the ‘Big 4’ accounting firms for such services in the growing Perth market.

Jarrod Baker and Grant Whiteley have moved to KordaMentha from a ‘Big 4’ firm and joined our Perth office as Director and Associate Director respectively. Jarrod and Grant bring skills which complement and assist our existing senior forensic practitioners throughout Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, including Owain Stone and Rob Cockerell (Melbourne), Richard Bennison and Nigel Carson (Sydney) and Matthew Fleming (Singapore).

Jarrod Baker has specialised in forensic accounting and investigations for the past 12 years in the ‘Big 4’ accounting firm environment and with the UK financial regulator and as the in-house forensic accountant at a Fortune 100 manufacturing company based in Switzerland. Jarrod has experience in investigations of financial statement fraud, market manipulation, employee misconduct and compliance and regulatory violations. Jarrod has also done forensic accounting for quantification of economic loss in areas including business interruption insurance and product recall. More recently, he has focused on international anti-corruption assignments and has investigated violations of and assessed compliance with anti-corruption legislation, including the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), on behalf of some of the world’s largest companies in over 20 countries across the globe.

Grant Whiteley is an experienced investigator specialising in forensic technology with a background in enterprise IT support and law enforcement. Grant held a national role at a ‘Big 4’ accounting firm supporting its forensic technology and e-discovery services as well as working on domestic and international assignments. Grant was with WA Police for eight years and worked on some of the most high profile criminal investigations in the State’s history, most recently as a covert technical officer within Internal Affairs. Grant has been a team leader and training manager at the Computer Crime Squad where he we was frequently called to provide expert witness testimony and was involved in a working group established to develop national computer forensic practitioner competencies.

Owain Stone said: “We are delighted to have two such capable individuals to join the KordaMentha Forensics team. The WA market is one we see as particularly important and Jarrod and Grant bring a wealth of experience of working with blue chip companies in the resource sector.  Jarrod’s corporate investigation experience, including his recent extensive experience helping companies respond to increased focus by regulators around the world on bribery and corruption, is fully complemented by Grant’s expertise in collection and analysis of electronically stored information.”

Mark Mentha said: “KordaMentha is committed to being the best independent provider of forensic services in the Australasia region. The addition of Jarrod and Grant places us at the very forefront of an industry which requires the latest in technology and experienced skills.”