Olivia Scott

Olivia is a Director in BDO’s Forensic Services team in Brisbane. She is experienced in leading and conducting investigations into allegations of fraud, corruption, and misconduct across the public and private sectors. Her expertise also spans matters of misappropriation, nepotism, conflicts of interest, and inappropriate procurement and recruitment practices.

During her seven years working in BDO’s Forensic Services team, Olivia has coordinated, executed and reviewed numerous investigations in a fair and impartial manner - delivering reports that are robust and capable of withstanding scrutiny.

Beyond investigations, Olivia advises clients on systemic and organisational issues, offering practical recommendations to help prevent or mitigate future instances of fraud, corruption, or misconduct. Olivia also delivers tailored training in investigations, whistleblower protections, and fraud prevention, and assists organisations in strengthening their fraud and corruption frameworks.

Expertise

• Corrupt conduct investigations
• Fraud investigations
• Fraud risk assessments
• Fraud data analytics
• Code of conduct investigations
• Councillor conduct investigations
• Workplace investigations
• Public interest disclosures and whistleblower reports
• Interviewing complainants, witnesses, and subject officers
• Using Nuix Workstation, Discover and Relativity to analyse digital evidence

 Experience

Fraud and corruption investigations

• Managed an investigation into the operations of a large organisation across several company entities, resulting in the identification of fraudulent activities with losses valued at between $2M and $3M over a two-year period.
• Managed an investigation into alleged fraudulent activity committed by a company accountant, resulting in the detection of approximately $850,000 of fraudulent activity.
• Managed an investigation on behalf of a global luxury fashion brand into allegations that a senior staff member within the Australian team had stolen stock and potentially sold it to consumers without authority.
• Supported a client’s investigation into identified fraudulent activity in the waste management sector.
• Managed a fraud investigation using fraud data analytics for a Victorian Government department. This included consulting with the department to understand the nuances of the program, establishing specific statistical fraud tests to identify suspicious activity of applications, conducting the analysis and providing a risk rating for the reviewed applications to inform the department’s decision-making.

Public sector investigations

• Managed a highly technical and sensitive investigation into allegations of disclosable conduct, which were raised by a public interest discloser under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013. The investigation included use of digital forensic tools to review hundreds of thousands of documents and find the key evidence to support or negate the concerns raised. It also included various interviews with the discloser, scientific experts and the subjects of the allegations.
• Investigated a complex and technical performance review which included analysis of extensive documentation in-depth interviews, and reporting the key underlying issues to the decision-maker.
• Managed numerous investigations on behalf of state and local governments into allegations of suspected corrupt conduct in accordance with Crime and Corruption Commission’s (CCC) Corruption in Focus guidelines.
• Conducted numerous investigations into suspected councillor conduct breaches in accordance with the respective council policy and requirements under Local Government Act 2009.

Fraud risk assessments

• Managed multiple fraud and corruption risk assessments for government departments, which included a desktop review of policies and procedures, workshops with various senior stakeholders and uplift of the fraud risk register. The fraud and corruption risks were assessed against the Australian Standard and guidance around best practice in the public sector.

Training

• Facilitated a two-day training package around the investigation of matters of misconduct and/or fraud in line with the CCC guidelines and the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Guide to Managing and Investigating Potential Breaches of the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.
• Facilitated a training session for senior staff of a state government entity, with a focus on fraud and corruption in the public sector, including specific risk factors for the organisation, and the role of staff in managing fraud and corruption risks.
• Facilitated a training session for senior staff members of a medical research company on whistleblower protections and the end-to-end process of a whistleblower complaint, including how to triage and investigate the complaint.

 Qualifications and affiliations

• Bachelor of Justice, Major in Criminology and Policing
• Bachelor of Behavioural Science (Psychology)
• Graduate Certificate of Professional Accounting
• Diploma of Fraud Control
• Certificate IV in Government Investigations
• Certificate III in Investigative Services
• Mental Health First Aid Certificate
• Security Provider (Private Investigations) licence holder