Experts & Advisors
Michael Kallabat
Managing Director
Synergy, East Building, Level 1, Al Malqa
Riyadh 11683, Saudi Arabia
+966 53 480 1134 Direct
Michael Kallabat is a Managing Director at Ankura based in Riyadh, with over 16 years of experience as a risk expert. Michael is a seasoned investigator and has been instrumental in guiding project stakeholders through the complexities of their respective markets and across a range of sectors: sports & entertainment, oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, construction, and retail banking. Michael excels in constructing and evaluating fraud risk programs, both in the public and private sectors. He plays a pivotal role in helping organizations establish third-party anti-bribery and anti-corruption screening initiatives, overseeing multi-jurisdiction eDiscovery collections, and designing anti-fraud training modules. His proficiency also includes developing policies and procedures for crisis management, disaster recovery, enterprise risk management, and business continuity planning.
Experience
Michael’s professional experience includes:
- Conducted and managed forensic and compliance reviews of multiple national associations throughout Africa and the Middle East, for a global sporting body, including risk-based transaction testing and on-site interviews to assess processes and controls, as well as in-depth document reviews and interviews focused on concerns of procurement fraud and conflicts of interest.
- Supported a US National league with developing their risk and compliance policies and procedures for operations in international markets. This included: bid integrity, data retention, duty of care, cyber extortion and travel security and contract scoring.
- Led an investigation in the Middle East, valued at $4 billion for an oil and gas project, encompassing the imaging of laptops, investigative interviews, and verifying whistleblower allegations.
- Led an internal inquiry in the GCC, exposing fraudulent actions by an HR professional who fabricated employment contracts, forged supplier invoices, and conspired to misappropriate company intellectual property.
- Worked with a client to craft a comprehensive anti-corruption partner screening program, specifically tailored for a multinational mining company venturing into the KSA market. This involved in-depth research, flagging potential issues, and conducting asset assessments.
- Led an investigation in Bangladesh concerning a multi-million-dollar fraud relating to per diems and expense misallocation; this encompassed 40 investigative interviews, key document review, and asset tracing.
- Conducted a fraud assessment and security review for a prominent multinational manufacturing firm based in KSA. The assessment comprised of interviews, theft prevention, fraudulent check analysis, and policy and procedure gap analysis.
- Worked on a high-profile investigation in KSA, that included corruption, collusion, bribery, and the laundering of significant funds through banks in the U.S., Europe, and the Cayman Islands. This complex, multi-jurisdictional investigation demanded close collaboration across diverse investigative disciplines.
- Served as a global advisor to a pharmaceutical client, taking the lead on various business intelligence and third-party reputational risk investigations, resulting in substantial mitigation of third-party exposure across Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia.
- Assisting a U.S. based retailer in the development of a robust third-party screening platform, covering vendors, suppliers, sales professionals, and new hires.
- Supported a U.S. based insurance company to develop their business continuity planning and disaster recovery mitigation strategies for cyber, insider threat, political unrest, and weather-related events.
- Education
- BSc, Finance and International Business, Georgetown University
- Languages
- English
- Arabic