The term "forensic" might conjure images of Dick Tracy or Sherlock Holmes -- but instead of following blood trails, Ian Colebourne's forensic work is all about tracing money trails.
Colebourne, 37, is a partner in KPMG's financial advisory services group, with responsibility for leading forensic operations in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Large-scale fraud investigations are his specialty -- and somewhat of a passion.
"What is interesting about it is that you are dealing with very intelligent people who for whatever reason have justified taking cash or assets from a company, when they are not entitled to do that, and have gone to considerable lengths to make it difficult to trace that fraud," he said. "You have to work all that out. It's intellectually stimulating. It's challenging, because it's often very clever people who have done that."
Another important component of his job satisfaction comes from the sense of "somewhere between vindication and justice" that comes with helping a client to resolve a terrible situation, showing how they can stop it happening again, and helping them to recover from it.
He landed in the forensic career that he loves so much only after a false start and radical change of direction, however.
Colebourne, from Cambridge, England, graduated from Birmingham University, receiving a bachelor's degree with honors in biological sciences. By his second year at university, however, he had already decided that he did not want to spend his entire working life in a lab.
Some friends studying law told him about the possibility of doing a postgraduate conversion course, and after testing the waters with a short internship, he went on to study law and subsequently qualified as a solicitor.
He joined KPMG in 1996 as an assistant and was immediately put to work on a long-running investigation into the collapse of one of the largest industrial groups in Spain. His role was cash-tracing -- following bank transfers -- in order to recover hundreds of millions of dollars and assist with the prosecution.
"It totally whetted my appetite," he said.
His first project in Russia, in 2000, remains one of the country's largest forensic investigations ever. Based in Britain but commuting to Russia, he spent nine months investigating transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars that had led to the collapse of SBS-Agro, which had been the country's largest private bank before the economic crisis of 1998.
"The interest was significant, and that's not only because of the amount money involved -- obviously it is a bit of a thrill when you are dealing with those numbers -- but also because it was post-crisis Russia and a lot of depositors lost out, and we were trying to help the Agency for Restructuring Credit Organizations find where the best prospects for recovering some of the money were," he said. "Not just for the depositors, but for international credit organizations, who had lost quite a lot of money as well."
After completing his work on this project, Colebourne was once again based in London, working on smaller corporate intelligence assignments relating to Russia -- finding background information on clients' prospective business partners, key business relations they may be entering or individuals with whom they might be doing business. Given the volume of Russia-related work, KPMG sent Colebourne to test the case for opening forensic operations at its Moscow office. He came on secondment, showed there was indeed a case, and moved to Moscow in 2003.
Digging up information that fraudsters want to keep buried might sound dangerous, but Colebourne said he and his colleagues were very careful about which assignments they took on and which clients they worked with.
"I do not necessarily think it requires courage," he said. "It requires attention to detail and willingness to be challenging, cynical."
Other than its investigative nature, Colebourne said his work had little in common with that of Sherlock Holmes or Dick Tracy.
"Forensics can help with criminal prosecutions, but often it is much more about helping a client," he said.
"I often meet with friends from law school days who went to the big magic circle law firms in London. They are successful, but when we talk about what we do, my work always sounds more interesting than the contractual negotiations, drafting and things that corporate lawyers get caught up in."
Eve Heathcoat Amory contributed to this report.
Colebourne, 37, is a partner in KPMG's financial advisory services group, with responsibility for leading forensic operations in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Large-scale fraud investigations are his specialty -- and somewhat of a passion.
"What is interesting about it is that you are dealing with very intelligent people who for whatever reason have justified taking cash or assets from a company, when they are not entitled to do that, and have gone to considerable lengths to make it difficult to trace that fraud," he said. "You have to work all that out. It's intellectually stimulating. It's challenging, because it's often very clever people who have done that."
Another important component of his job satisfaction comes from the sense of "somewhere between vindication and justice" that comes with helping a client to resolve a terrible situation, showing how they can stop it happening again, and helping them to recover from it.
He landed in the forensic career that he loves so much only after a false start and radical change of direction, however.
Colebourne, from Cambridge, England, graduated from Birmingham University, receiving a bachelor's degree with honors in biological sciences. By his second year at university, however, he had already decided that he did not want to spend his entire working life in a lab.
Some friends studying law told him about the possibility of doing a postgraduate conversion course, and after testing the waters with a short internship, he went on to study law and subsequently qualified as a solicitor.
He joined KPMG in 1996 as an assistant and was immediately put to work on a long-running investigation into the collapse of one of the largest industrial groups in Spain. His role was cash-tracing -- following bank transfers -- in order to recover hundreds of millions of dollars and assist with the prosecution.
"It totally whetted my appetite," he said.
His first project in Russia, in 2000, remains one of the country's largest forensic investigations ever. Based in Britain but commuting to Russia, he spent nine months investigating transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars that had led to the collapse of SBS-Agro, which had been the country's largest private bank before the economic crisis of 1998.
"The interest was significant, and that's not only because of the amount money involved -- obviously it is a bit of a thrill when you are dealing with those numbers -- but also because it was post-crisis Russia and a lot of depositors lost out, and we were trying to help the Agency for Restructuring Credit Organizations find where the best prospects for recovering some of the money were," he said. "Not just for the depositors, but for international credit organizations, who had lost quite a lot of money as well."
After completing his work on this project, Colebourne was once again based in London, working on smaller corporate intelligence assignments relating to Russia -- finding background information on clients' prospective business partners, key business relations they may be entering or individuals with whom they might be doing business. Given the volume of Russia-related work, KPMG sent Colebourne to test the case for opening forensic operations at its Moscow office. He came on secondment, showed there was indeed a case, and moved to Moscow in 2003.
Digging up information that fraudsters want to keep buried might sound dangerous, but Colebourne said he and his colleagues were very careful about which assignments they took on and which clients they worked with.
"I do not necessarily think it requires courage," he said. "It requires attention to detail and willingness to be challenging, cynical."
Other than its investigative nature, Colebourne said his work had little in common with that of Sherlock Holmes or Dick Tracy.
"Forensics can help with criminal prosecutions, but often it is much more about helping a client," he said.
"I often meet with friends from law school days who went to the big magic circle law firms in London. They are successful, but when we talk about what we do, my work always sounds more interesting than the contractual negotiations, drafting and things that corporate lawyers get caught up in."
Eve Heathcoat Amory contributed to this report.
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