James Norden is an Associate Director in FRA’s Forensic Accounting team in London, with more than 12 years of experience in forensic accounting and external audit. He has built expertise in investigations, compliance reviews and monitorships, particularly relating to anti-bribery and corruption.

James has been heavily involved in various multi-year, cross-border matters at FRA. Notably, he was part of the FRA team supporting Airbus with its multi-year, multinational investigation, culminating in its landmark €3.6billion global settlement with four investigative authorities: the UK SFO, the US DOJ, the US DOS and French PNF. James led teams performing forensic accounting analysis of large volumes of financial data and liaised regularly with legal teams across multiple jurisdictions over many years.

James’ representative experience spans several key industries on a global scale:

• In financial services, supporting a multi-year corporate compliance monitorship of an international bank for the US DOJ, with review touchpoints in North America, EMEA and APAC.
• Conducting red-flag testing to support a proactive anti-bribery and corruption review of another international bank’s APAC operations.
• Providing in-country document management and review support during an internal investigation into alleged past misconduct at a Swiss-based global financial services institution.
• In pharma, leading an investigation and a compliance review of two separate multinational companies in the medical devices sector, including in-country reviews and interviews in India and Eastern Europe.
• In real estate, leading an independent due diligence review of a European property company’s German portfolio for a strategic investor to help inform its investment activities.
• Assisting two separate energy companies with internal investigations into alleged misconduct in Germany and Austria, involving financial analysis, document review and interviews in German.
• Supporting a global supplier of security services with an internal investigation into alleged misconduct in the Middle East, including co-ordinating an email review and attending interviews.

Prior to joining FRA in 2016, James spent four years at BDO LLP in their financial services external audit practice, working primarily on audits of asset managers and banks. James was also seconded to BDO USA where he led audits of venture capital funds in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

James qualified as an ACA chartered accountant (ICAEW) in 2014. He holds a Bachelors degree in History and German from Durham University, England, which included a study abroad semester at the University of Cologne, Germany.