Judicial expert Paris Court of Appeal

Mediator

Chartered accountant – Master degrees in Private Law and in Management

Thierry Ballot has an extensive experience of more than 25 years in the areas of financial audit, fraud risk management, as well as compliance,  M & A and business integration in France and in many emerging countries, especially in Africa, the CIS and Central and Eastern Europe.

 Professional background

• After an initial career in the banking business, he joined KPMG in 1994 as a financial auditor.

• Between 1999 and 2002, he worked in Bucharest for KPMG Romania.

• Coming back in Paris, he joined the KPMG Forensic Department in 2003 in which he led Forensic investigations and litigation support assignments.

• In 2006, he moved to Moscow working for KPMG Russia in the fields of audit and forensics. Along with leading fraud investigations and audit engagements, he was in charge of the development of litigation support services in the CIS countries.

• He joined PwC in Bucharest in 2010, leading the Forensic services business in the South East of Europe region. He led fraud investigation and litigation support assignments in the different countries of the region.

• Back in France in September 2012, he joined FIP Paris office. FIP (Financial Intelligence & Processing) was established in 2005 by combining the skills of experts in the areas of financial engineering, fraud examination, business intelligence computer forensic and investigation.

Thierry is a judicial expert in the jurisdictions of the Paris Court of Appeal and a mediator with the first French law organisation for Arbitration and Mediation for commercial disputes (IEAM).

Thierry is also a trainer in the fields of anticorruption, fraud risks, internal audit and risk mapping.

Fraud investigations and litigation support credentials

 Fraud investigations

• Numerous fraud investigation engagements in France on behalf of industrial groups, investment funds or lawyers;
• Review of management practices of a joint venture (mining sector) in West Africa;
• Investigation of corruption in West Africa on behalf of a Western oil company;
• Review of the operations of a joint venture (extraction – energy sector) in Eastern Siberia;
• Review of the operations of an equipment distribution subsidiary for water distribution in Russia;
• Loan portfolio review and fraud investigation in the Georgian subsidiary of a Russian bank;
• Loan portfolio review and fraud investigation of a microcredit institution in Kosovo (at the request of donors);
• Romania, Slovenia: numerous fraud investigation engagements (local subsidiaries of foreign groups or local companies): misappropriation of assets by employees or by management of the company / contracts with suppliers (retro-commissions), contracts with related companies or associations;
• Luxembourg and France: fraud investigation engagement regarding the management and investment policy of an investment fund.

 Litigation support

 Judicial expertise

• Engagements as an auxiliary of justice (Court of Appeal, Tribunals, Courts of Commerce), mainly on damages quantification issues or financial criminal cases.

Expert witness

France

• Distribution contract breach: justification of the serious reasons given for the breach of the contract (deterioration of the financial position of the distributor);
• Dispute over the closure of a factory: sincerity of the financial information provided to the works council;
• Administrative Court: disputes regarding the determination of energy distribution tariff;
• Contestation of financial losses resulting from alleged anti-competitive practices (medical equipment sector);
• Calculation of financial losses resulting from alleged anti-competitive practices (telecom sector).

South East of Europe

• Litigation between shareholders: assessment of the damages caused by the actions of a minority shareholder (minority abuse consisting of repetitive legal actions);
• Romania: challenging the court’s findings regarding the fraudulent nature of management transactions (energy sector);
• Contract Review in Macedonia: pre-litigation work regarding the application of pricing clauses (Energy Sector);
• Serbia: ICSID litigation: privatization in the chemical sector: justification of the real and serious causes that led to the cancellation of a privatization contract  (expert on behalf of the State);
• Bosnia: quantification of damages related to industrial defect.

 Russia

• Dispute between shareholders: assessment of the damages caused by an investment decision taken by the main shareholder (telecom sector);

• Breach of a distribution contract: equipment sector for the distribution of water: assessment of the damages.