Alison is a Director based in FRA’s Dubai office. She is a Chartered Accountant with 19 years’ experience working in forensic accounting, investigations, disputes, contract compliance, and licensing reviews. Alison is a Certified Fraud Examiner and a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist. She has worked across various industries – financial, communications, shipping and logistics, retail, industrial, manufacturing, among others – in over 20 countries in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.

Alison has worked numerous large-scale fraud investigations, including an investigation into FCPA breaches resulting in a global company being fined almost USD 20m; an investigation into whistleblowing allegations following the collapse of a multinational construction company; and an investigation in the oil and gas industry into an employee who stole over GBP 1m in a tax fraud scheme. She has also performed numerous investigations into whistleblower allegations of fraud, irregularities, and poor governance across the energy, construction, government, school, transport, and council sectors.

Alison provided expert forensic support for the defendant in a complex USD 2b dispute in the oil and gas sector. Working with the expert witness, Alison was responsible for preparing a highly complex model of the damages calculation, which included the facility to adjust assumptions based on legal arguments, and to calculate the adjusted quantum based on various scenarios and combinations of scenarios. Alison’s disputes experience includes leading a review into a multi-million-dollar shareholder dispute for a Middle Eastern family business and providing support for the defense in cases where former CFOs were being investigated by regulators.

Alison has managed supply chain reviews across EMEA for two of the largest global technology companies. This involved performing reviews to assess whether the licensed distributors in the supply chain were adhering to the terms of their contracts and, where applicable, that all royalties due had been accurately calculated and paid. 

In the financial services sector, Alison has worked on a number of projects, including an s166 review into a rogue trader who cost the bank USD 36m in losses and an investigation into disputed assets as part of an administration following the collapse of a global financial services firm. She has also performed financial crime controls reviews at various financial services institutions and an investigation into fraudulent financial reporting in an FTSE 100 company in the insurance sector who were fined EUR 3.5 million for regulatory breaches.

Prior to joining FRA, Alison spent 14 years with PwC’s forensics team, and one year in the Department for International Developments Internal Audit and Investigation Services team. She has a Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree in Maths with French from Heriot-Watt University, which included spending an exchange year at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, and a Master of Science in Operational Research from Strathclyde University. Alison is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists.