Q. What’s your most memorable career achievement?
One for the investigators out there. Assembling the most complete evidential case file I have ever worked on during an investigation into bribery and corruption involving the rogue CEO of a European subsidiary of a pharmaceutical organisation.

While analysing accounts payable and receivable, I identified a series of suspicious “back to back” transactions involving sales staff purchasing from and selling drugs to offshore companies. The patterns raised immediate concerns about fabricated trading activity. We secured disk images of the CEO and CFO computers and carried out detailed forensic analysis alongside the financial records.

Piece by piece, I reconstructed the scheme and matched the digital evidence with a paper trail of fabricated sales invoices, purchase invoices and correspondence. The documentation ultimately demonstrated control of offshore bank accounts and the movement of funds tied to the fraudulent transactions.

By the end we had assembled a comprehensive evidential file showing clear C-suite level corruption. It remains my favourite investigation. The combination of financial analysis, digital forensics and traditional evidence building made it a fascinating case.

Q. What has been the most valuable piece of advice you’ve received?
“Inside every small fraud is a larger one trying to bust out.”

It is a simple line, but it captures an important reality. Small fraud events are often indicators of deeper control weaknesses or vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Over more than 30 years working in this field, I have seen too many cases where early red flags were overlooked or dismissed as minor issues.

Those small indicators often turn out to be symptoms of much bigger problems that lead to significant financial losses and legal or regulatory exposure. The lesson is straightforward. Treat every anomaly seriously and understand what it may be signalling about the wider control environment.

Q. What has been the key positive and or negative impact of change in your area of the market?
It is difficult to look beyond the impact of AI.

We already know that bad actors are using AI tools at scale, including increasing use of agentic automation. These tools can research targets, test vulnerabilities across large datasets, automate feedback loops and execute attacks with speed and precision.

At the same time, AI presents enormous opportunities in counter fraud. The same technologies that enable more sophisticated attacks can also help organisations detect patterns faster, identify anomalies earlier and automate preventative controls.

The real strategic challenge for organisations is deciding how they respond. Do we simply accept the new face of fraud? Do we try to keep up, knowing we may always be behind? Or do we invest in the capability and mindset required to stay ahead?

Q. If you were not in your current position, what would you like to be doing, and why?
With a strong family connection to Sweden, I would probably be tending a pine forest in the Swedish highlands and doing my best to risk manage my use of petrol driven cutting tools.

We are fortunate enough to have access to a small farm and forest area in southern Sweden, close to one of the country’s largest lakes. Spending time there, particularly working in the forest, is an incredibly pure way to switch off from the digital world and reconnect with something simpler.

Q. What three items would you put on display in a museum of your life, and why?
First would be the clasp of a Roman penknife that my father discovered when we were metal detecting together when I was a child. He spent hours creating a perspex display case for it, so it still sits proudly on display.

Second would be something from the farm in Sweden. The property has been in my wife’s family for more than 250 years and there are countless objects, large and small, that reflect that history and the time we have spent there.

Finally, a press cutting from Finanstidningen, the Swedish Financial Times. In the mid 1990s I worked with colleagues on an investigation into a financial scandal that later became known as the Trustor Affair. When the story broke I somehow ended up on the front page.

Even more amusingly, one of my colleagues from that investigation has recently been interviewed for a Netflix documentary on the Trustor case which is expected to be released later this year.