Prof Frederick Watkin

Fred is an accomplished traveller, photographer, investigator and instructor. As he and his wife explore the planet, he has found that travelling created a foundation for success: it opens up understanding of culture; understanding culture enables understanding language; and understanding language opens up an ability to communicate effectively with people.

Prior to his departure from public accounting, he founded Quadrant Forensics and has developed an area he terms “forensic tax”. Starting with a BBA from Nipissing University, he went to British Columbia to start Globalcom Solutions, a tiny web development company for small businesses on Vancouver Island before moving to Japan to teach and develop websites. He completed a masters degree in forensic accounting at the University of Toronto and is currently a PhD student at the University of Stirling in the criminology program, researching money laundering and the blind eye culture at casinos. His research interests include the valuation of Indigenous land claims and environmental accounting in an age of climate change.

Previously he also taught taxation at both Nipissing University and Laurentian University.

He has worked with First Nations entities, film producers and not-for-profit organizations.

He wrestles with French, Tagalog, and Japanese.

When not pounding his laptop keyboard (he goes through a lot of laptops!) he can be found at his “other desk” playing a much different keyboard.

Money laundering and organized crime Valuation of Indigenous land claims Fraud and cryptocurrencies (Cryptolaundering) Digital forensics and the future of audit AI and the future of the profession