Claudia O’Brien is a Partner and Head of Africa Operations with HKA, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Claudia has over 25 years of experience in the provision of legal and forensic legal services in the private and public sectors. She holds B Juris and LLB degrees and was admitted as an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa in 1997. Throughout her career, Claudia has specialised in the strategic and operational planning and execution of large, high-profile, complex, multi-disciplinary and multi-agency forensic investigation teams. She has held several management positions at a number of organisations throughout her career, including that of Legal Representative, Programme Manager and Acting Regional Head (Eastern Cape) at the Special Investigating Unit, Senior Audit Manager in the Forensic Investigations Unit of the Office of the Auditor-General and Manager of KMMT Forensic Accounting and Investigations (Pty) Ltd. Over the course of her career, Claudia has led numerous forensic investigations into the affairs of National, Provincial and Local Government Departments and State-Owned Entities. These include the Government Employee Pension Fund, the Coega Industrial Development Zone, the National Departments of Justice, Health, Housing, Transport and Rural Development & Land Reform, the Provincial Departments of Health, Education, Finance and Economic Affairs, numerous municipal entities and Eskom. In addition to referring evidence to the National Prosecuting Authorities for purposes of instituting criminal prosecution against offenders, and to relevant State Entities for the institution of disciplinary proceedings against officials implicated in wrongdoing, her investigations were focused on quantifying losses incurred by state institutions as a result of such wrongdoing and supporting civil litigation processes to recover the losses to the public purse. One of the investigations led by her at the SIU resulted in the highest recovery made by Law Enforcement in South Africa’s history at the time, i.e. a cash repayment of R1.5 billion. Claudia has a strong background in the investigation of organised crime, commercial crime, corruption, fraud, maladministration, statutory transgressions etc., and she is experienced in conducting civil and criminal litigation flowing from such investigations. During the course of her career, Claudia has also worked with international stakeholders and law enforcement agencies such as the United States Department of Justice, the FBI and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
