Our Directors
John Lees, Managing Director
E - jrlees@jla-asia.com M - (852) 9466 4140
John came to Hong Kong in 1988 as the Managing Partner of Ferrier Hodgson, an Australian based specialist insolvency management firm, but sold his interest in 2001, and set up JLA Asia Limited, a specialist forensic accounting, insolvency management and transactional services firm, with offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Macau and Singapore. John sold the business operations of JLA to Ernst & Young in 2019, and moved to EY with the rest of the JLA team. His contract as an Executive Director of EY expired in January 2022, and he has rejoined JLA and takes various assignments, assisted by a small team of former JLA personnel. He has a Consultancy Agreement with EY. JLA currently maintains an office in Hong Kong.
John has many years of forensic accounting, litigation support, corporate workout/turnaround and insolvency management experience in the Asia Pacific region.He also has experience in financial due diligence, investment banking and insurance.
John has assisted clients ranging from government agencies including the Securities and Futures Commission, the Hong Kong Police, the Department of Justice and the Official Receiver’s Office to private and listed firms and individuals.
In investigation and litigation support matters, John’s engagements have included areas such as:
asset tracing and recovery
family, partnership and shareholder disputes
insider dealing share valuations and share price manipulation
money laundering
intellectual property and licensing disputes
misappropriation of company assets.
On numerous occasions, John has appeared in Court as an expert witness. He is a qualified professional accountant and hold memberships in professional bodies including the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Academy of Experts and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. He is a former President of INSOL International and is Treasurer and Director of the International Insolvency Institute.
Andrew Kan, Director
E - andrewkan@jla-asia.com
M - (852) 6232 8895 PRC - (86) 195 1877 0695
Andrew specialises in forensic accounting investigation, fraud investigation and litigation support work.
His experience includes false accounting and corporate fraud investigations, assets tracing, anti-money laundering reviews, quantum of loss assessments, monitoring accountant engagements, family law matters, digital discovery administration, US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) reviews and preparation of expert reports for criminal and civil litigation matters. He has been engaged in a number of major fraud investigations of listed companies in the Asian region. Andrew also has extensive experience working with law-enforcement agencies and the Department of Justice providing litigation support services.
Andrew’s works include leading a team of forensic accountants to conduct an extensive investigation on the issues raised by the auditors of a Hong Kong listed company with operations in a number of provinces in the PRC and report the findings to the audit committee and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, assisting a group of Hong Kong and US lawyers in an arbitration proceedings involving an acquisition of a PRC logistic establishment by a US listed corporation, and being appointed as the Interim Chief Financial Officer of a company listed on the NYSE Amex Equities. Before the appointment of Interim CFO, Andrew led a team to conduct an internal investigation of the company and review its internal control system to ensure compliance with the FCPA and to identify any weaknesses in the system.
Other notable assignments that Andrew has been involved in include managing a review of transactions totalling over HK$100 million in an anti-money laundering investigation; assessing the quantum of losses for separate assignments involve claims for breach of contracts in excess of HK$120 million and HK$98 million respectively; investigating the accounting irregularities of a Hong Kong listed watch-making corporation, tracing misappropriated assets valued in excess of HK$2 billion of a listed Taiwanese conglomerate; investigating certain questionable transactions involving the PRC operation of a high profile website-portal service provider; investigating accounting irregularities and alleged trade finance fraud of one of the world’s largest optical manufacturers which involved reviewing transactions totalling approximately HK$2 billion including the auditors’ negligence claims against two big 4 firms; and investigating a whistleblower’s alleged claim about receiving kickbacks that occurred in the PRC operation of a multinational logistic corporation.
Andrew’s extensive experience in the various engagements covers clients involved in diverse industries such as manufacturing, securities broking, logistics, wholesale and retailing, printing, property management, information technologies, telecommunication, oil drilling and catering.
Andrew is fluent in Cantonese, English and Putonghua.
Kok Wing Chong, Director
E - kwchong@jla-asia.com
Kok Wing has experience in forensic accounting, insolvency management, corporate recovery and litigation support.
He has been involved in forensic/investigation assignments for solicitors, audit committees, the Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”), the Department of Justice (“DoJ”), the Commercial Crime Bureau and the Financial Investigations Narcotics Bureau of Hong Kong Police (“the Police”), the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and a number of Trustees.
In relation to the SFC assignments, Kok Wing has extensive experience in investigation of misstatements and fraud conducted by a number of listed companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, dealing with corporate governance issues involving directors, independent non-executive directors and chief financial officer in Market Misconduct Tribunal proceedings, investigation of an unlicensed company conducting commodity futures contracts and the clients transactions conducted, and appointed by the court as independent administrators, to take charge of the distribution of the restoration amount to counterparties/ investors of Tiger Asia and Sun Min.
Kok Wing has been involved in a number of Family Trust matters relating to disputes amongst various parties, including family members who are beneficiaries; investigating transactions where trust assets were allegedly misappropriated, monitor operating companies held by a Trust, selling Trust assets, and tracing and valuing trust assets.
Kok Wing has managed a number of assignments for the DoJ and the Police relating to tracing and analyzing transactions and funds flow, anti-money laundering dealing with proceeds of an indictable offence involving horse racing / soccer betting and preparing Expert Witness Report for use in the Court. He has also been involved in assignments for the ICAC tracing transactions and moneys for alleged bribery, and preparing Expert Report.
Kok Wing is fluent in English, Cantonese and Malay.