Peter McFarlane is a managing director in the Forensic Investigations and Intelligence practice of Kroll, based in the Toronto office. He is the leader of the Financial Investigations team in Toronto. With more than 30 years of forensic accounting and investigative experience, Peter manages a wide range of complex financial investigations, litigation consulting, asset recovery, monitorships and due diligence assignments for corporate and government clients around the world.
Peter has investigated a broad range of fraud and misconduct cases, including management and employee fraud, procurement fraud and misappropriation of funds, intellectual property and confidential information. His commercial and civil litigation matters involved breach of fiduciary duty, breach of trust and breach of contract, and shareholder disputes. He has also led numerous pre-acquisition due diligence engagements on behalf of corporations and financial institutions.
Before returning to Kroll’s Toronto office in 2011, Peter spent six years with an international consulting firm. He previously spent seven years with Kroll in Toronto. Earlier in his career, he worked with a Big Four accounting firm in the U.K. and Canada for eight years before leaving with other colleagues to establish and grow a boutique firm specializing in investigative and forensic accounting; Kroll later acquired this firm in 1998.
Throughout his career, Peter has led numerous financial investigations on a wide variety of issues. He investigated anonymous allegations that a company’s employees were operating fraudulent billing and kickback schemes. The fraud extended over 20 years, exceeding $6 million. Peter acted as an expert witness in the criminal proceedings, which resulted in several convictions. In another matter, Peter led a team retained by the Government of Jamaica to investigate the failure of several financial institutions. He assisted local law enforcement to identify criminal conduct and aided the Solicitor General in successfully pursuing recoveries through civil litigation proceedings. In another international assignment, he investigated the misappropriation of funds from a bank based in the Middle East, including tracing funds through multiple jurisdictions such as Switzerland, Lichtenstein, the U.K. and the U.S.
Peter has also provided numerous corporate clients with critical intelligence to support financial transactions. In one matter, he assisted a publicly listed Canadian conglomerate with global investments seeking to acquire $1.5 billion in additional assets by auction. The information uncovered enabled the client to evaluate the opportunity and ultimately decline to bid. Peter also led the financial due diligence team for an investment fund in the acquisition of a public company, which was subsequently taken private. The transaction value was $300 million.
Peter has been involved in many large, complex litigation matters. One matter was a breach of contract dispute relating to a distribution agreement and the calculation of damages suffered by the client. The matter was ultimately settled during the arbitration proceedings with a favorable settlement for our client in excess of $100 million.
Peter led a team retained as Monitor of a global electronic payment processor after the seizure of its funds held in U.S.-based financial institutions due to alleged breaches of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act and other infractions. Peter was also part of a team monitoring the financial crime compliance (FCC) of a major financial institution pursuant to various agreements with, and orders issued by, governmental and regulatory authorities in the U.S. and the UK. He was one of the workstream leaders and led a country testing team; he was responsible for the overall FCC assessment and reporting of the country testing team’s findings.
Peter has spoken in numerous forums on fraud awareness, funds tracing and due diligence. He has been a seminar leader for the York University Osgoode Hall Law School Intensive Trial Advocacy Workshop and has provided expert testimony in a variety of courts throughout Canada.
Peter received a B.A. (Honors) in accounting and computing science from Stirling University, Scotland. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, a Certified Fraud Examiner and Certified in Financial Forensics by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He is additionally Certified in Financial Forensics by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.