On 7 March 2023, 21-year-old New Zealand man Aiden Sagala died after drinking from a beer can laced with concentrated liquid methamphetamine. He had been given the drink by his employer, Himatjit ‘Jimmy’ Kahlon, and his tragic death initiated a New Zealand Police investigation known as Operation Lavender.

The investigation led to the largest single seizure of methamphetamine in the country, as well as the arrest of Kahlon, who was sentenced to 21 years’ imprisonment for manslaughter and possession for supply of methamphetamine.

But first, police needed to gather evidence. Who supplied the contaminated beer? Who paid for it? Who was it sold to? How was the associated money laundered? What assets were purchased with the illicit funds?

Forensic accountant Ashna Achari CA was part of the team who followed the money trail, gathering vital evidence that helped lead to the seizure of 747 kilograms of methamphetamine and justice for Aiden Sagala’s death.

“You have to be very patient in this role, and you have to have strong attention to detail,” says Achari, who joined New Zealand Police in 2017 after starting her career as a graduate at the Inland Revenue (IR) department, where she investigated tax evasion and avoidance. She has also worked at New Zealand’s Serious Fraud Office investigating bribery and corruption.

“In the case of Operation Lavender, I was looking at the financial data of about 300 people and companies. Sometimes, something that seems very small can lead to something big.”

Crime by numbers

Achari is among many chartered accountants working in law enforcement organisations across New Zealand and Australia. Forensic accounting is just one of their roles. These organisations also have CFOs, as well as accountants working in areas such as payroll, procurement and audit.

For Achari, however, it was an interest in financial crime investigation that drew her to New Zealand Police.

“My job involves working out where the money came from, where it’s been and where it ends up,” says Achari, who works in the Financial Crime Group which houses the Asset Recovery teams, Money Laundering teams, the Financial Intelligence Unit and a Virtual Assets team.

Achari’s fellow New Zealand Police employee, Elliot Rolston CA, is a forensic accountant in the organisation’s National Organised Crime Group (NOCG), where he helps disrupt and dismantle criminal business entities, such as large-scale drug trafficking rings, outlaw motorcycle gangs, illicit firearms and tobacco traders, human traffickers and money launderers.

Rolston also began his accounting career at IR, where he worked for more than a decade before moving into an investigator role in New Zealand Police’s Financial Intelligence Unit. After a secondment to NOCG, he was offered a permanent role.

“Criminal business entities are focused on profit, power and influence,” he says. “My role is to follow the money to dismantle these groups.”

Criminal enterprises generally share the same goal as any business: to make a profit. They also require the same components as legitimate businesses, such as resources, infrastructure, revenue-generating products or services, markets, financial facilitators, assets and working capital.

Accountants like Rolston work on disrupting these elements by targeting the operating network, quantifying the illicit revenue and identifying the incidental crimes, such as tax evasion, that often go hand-in-hand with organised crime.

“We can help to identify exploited or complicit professional facilitators and then identify assets and trace proceeds of crime into those asset purchases,” says Rolston. “Money always leaves a trail.”

Following the numbers

There are many pathways to an accounting role with law enforcement. For Joella Gould FCA, a forensic accountant with Victoria Police, working with detectives presented an opportunity to reinvigorate her career.

“I was a partner in a mid-tier accounting firm, and I’d sort of hit that midpoint in my career where you look back and go, ‘Well, that’s 21 years and I’ve achieved a lot; what am I going to do for the next 20 years?’. At the same time, we restructured the firm and that provided an exit opportunity from the partnership.”

Gould had gained experience working with police on a fraud investigation and says she was impressed by “their passion, their community mindedness and their commitment to their service.”

“They were an absolute joy to work with,” she says. “I enjoyed doing the fraud investigation work and the feedback they gave me was that this is something I should look into doing on a permanent basis.”

Gould has worked for Victoria Police for nine years and her role includes providing expert witness evidence in cases involving fraud-related crimes such as Ponzi schemes. She says her audit background provided a solid foundation for forensic accounting.

“I also had to gain some understanding of what the courts require of experts presenting evidence and the framework around forensic accounting,” she says. “APES 215 [Forensic Accounting Services] directly addresses forensic accounting, so there was some study that I needed to do, plus some on-the-job training to get started.”

For Kazi Hoque CA, a childhood love of detective novels sparked an early interest in investigative work. He began his accounting career in 2009 in corporate investigation, insolvency and administration and joined NSW Police in 2018 as a forensic accountant in the Financial Crimes Squad. He works on cases ranging from fraud and theft to money laundering and homicide cases involving a financial motive.

“It can be anything and everything, as long as there’s a financial motive,” says Hoque. “It’s very diverse and that’s why it never gets boring. Our job is to untangle a financial web, trace transactions through various structures and provide expert evidence in court about how it is all connected to the crime that was committed or to the accused individual or criminal groups.”

Hoque’s colleague at NSW Police, Joshua Iacono CA, joined the organisation in February last year, after working in tax and business advisory.

“While I was at university, I connected with a mentor who was a forensic accountant with law enforcement and she provided insights on investigations she’d worked on over the years,” he says. “After I started my accounting career, I kept monitoring government websites, especially law enforcement websites, for future roles in forensic accounting.”

Iacono’s background in tax and advisory provided a solid foundation for interpreting financial information from bank statements, group structures and trust deeds.

“I also had skills in presenting financial information to a wide range of clients and that’s really important in this role, as you need to communicate to a range of stakeholders,” he says. “I think my previous experience transferred well to this role.”

“Police officers will go in first and clean the scene to ensure there are no firearms or anything of danger and then I’ll go through.”

All in a day’s work

A typical day in financial crime investigation is not as glamorous as Hollywood portrays.

“You have to love Excel,” says Iacono. “Excel is your bread and butter.”

Gould says many days are spent on data analysis.

“And I’m talking about big data, because a lot of people don’t have just one bank account these days,” she says. “Our data analysis of the bank statements involved in an investigation, which are often those of the victim and the offender, can include 40,000 to 60,000 rows of transactions, so analysis of big data takes up a lot of our time.”

Gould says other days can include writing expert statements or appearing as an expert witness in court.

“I’m currently preparing for a court appearance,” she says. “Next week, we might be talking to investigators, answering their queries, suggesting some avenues of inquiry where information might be available or where they might find some evidence explaining what a bank analysis is telling us. Or we might be providing some financial training for police and for the other staff. It’s a big ask for somebody joining the police force to have a financial background, yet a lot of the work they do is fraud investigation these days.”

Hoque says his role at NSW Police involves “a lot of spreadsheeting”.

“When we get a request for assistance in an investigation, that gets the ball rolling and we have meetings with investigators to get an understanding of the information that they have obtained and begin analysing it,” he says.

“There are also ongoing meetings with other stakeholders, such as the prosecutor or the even defence solicitor.

“Our expert witness work in court is independent and based on the records that have been collected, which we have analysed and presented to the court.”

Aside from court appearances, a typical day is generally office based, although accountants like Achari often attend police raids during the covert phase of investigations to collect evidence, such as financial documents, cryptocurrency artefacts and other information that may be needed when conducting a full financial analysis.

“Police officers will go in first and clear the scene to ensure there are no firearms or anything of danger and then I’ll go through and examine all the rooms for [financial-related evidence],” she says.

“Sometimes I come across bank statements that I had no idea about. Sometimes I see things that I wouldn’t see in a bank statement, like a $50,000 bracelet or a fancy art piece, and then we have to work out where they purchased it from and how it was funded.”

While following a money trail can help identify the perpetrators of crime, it can also help to identify victims.

In 2024, Achari worked on an investigation called Operation Parade that was formed to identify the body of a woman found in a rubbish bag in Auckland’s Gulf Harbour on 12 March that year.

“For months, no one knew who she was,” says Achari. “We looked at the various bank statements of potential suspects to try to figure out if it would lead to a name that could have belonged to the lady.”

The victim was identified as 70-year-old Shulai Wang. Following an eight-month investigation, three people were arrested and charged in relation to her death. Six months later, a fourth person was charged.

Making a difference

For accountants with the right skills and experience, law enforcement can be a rewarding area of work.

“Every day, I get to use my skills to contribute to a country that’s safer and more resilient,” says Rolston.

“Working with a range of internal and external stakeholders and targeting the most sophisticated of offenders means that I identify, investigate and disrupt criminal activity and inform strategic approaches to rapidly changing trends,” he says. “As a result, there’s opportunities to inform legislative change that makes the environment more difficult for criminal business enterprises to exploit.”

For Achari, following a money trail helps to paint a more detailed picture of a crime.

“When law enforcement [officers] follow a drug trail, they get to the drug dealers, but when you’re following the money, you get a picture of who else is involved,” she says. “You’ll often see that there are family members, other third parties, a trust, and maybe local and overseas companies involved. You get to see how these criminals are purchasing assets, who’s putting money in, how they’re funding their lavish lifestyle.

“Crime usually has a financial motive,” adds Achari. “And that’s why our role is so important, because so much of the evidence is in the money trail.”

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CA skills for law enforcement

Working as a forensic accountant in law enforcement requires deep data analysis skills, an inquisitive mind and the tenacity to follow a money trail.

Attention to detail is also a vital skill, says Ashna Achari CA. “And you always have to be mindful that sometimes it’s what’s not in the financial data that can give you the insights you need. If bank statements have no financial activity, for example, it could mean that they’re living outside of the banking system.”

The role also requires a willingness to keep learning. “At the moment, we are learning more about cryptocurrency, because that’s where the offending is going,” says Joella Gould FCA. “We need to research different payment types or how cryptocurrency operates.”

Clear communication skills are essential, says Joshua Iacono CA.

“This role involves independently looking at the facts and relaying that information to jury members who come from different backgrounds and have different levels of financial literacy, so you need to communicate the facts in a way that anyone can clearly understand.”

Kazi Hoque CA says the job also requires an ability to work autonomously.

“The role is fairly autonomous and independent, and you are guided by the principles of APES 215 [Forensic Accounting],” he says.

A professional designation is also vital to the role, says Elliot Rolston CA.

“A forensic accountant role at [New Zealand Police’s] NOCG [National Organised Crime Group] requires a CA qualification and practical experience in accounting from either public or private practice,” he says.

“Practically, the most valuable experience comes from dealing with a wide range of entity types across industries and different sizes of businesses, as well as an understanding of how money flows within those businesses and being able to identify anything that appears unusual.”