The Financial Markets Authority’s (FMA) former Head of Enforcement, Karen Chang, has been appointed Serious Fraud Office (SFO) Director and Chief Executive.
Chang will begin her four-year term at the SFO on April 26. She will replace Julie Read, who has been at the helm of the SFO since 2013.
Deputy Public Service Commissioner Helene Quilter said Chang is a "proven leader in the field of financial crime law enforcement and has worked closely with the SFO on a number of investigations".
Chang is currently Acting General Counsel at the FMA - a role she has held since November 1. During the four years prior, she was Head of Enforcement.
Quilter said this role saw Chang lead a “range of complex, high-profile criminal, and civil proceedings, several of which were the first of their kind in New Zealand. These included criminal prosecutions involving investor fraud, insider trading, and Ponzi schemes and civil pecuniary proceedings for breach of capital markets trading misconduct.”
As Acting General Counsel at the FMA, Chang leads the policy and governance, corporate legal, investigations and enforcement functions for the FMA.
Prior to joining the FMA, Chang was a Senior Crown Prosecutor at Meredith Connell. She prosecuted a range of trials involving serious criminal offending including fraud, theft and financial reporting offences on behalf of the FMA and the SFO.
Earlier in her career, she was a commercial and regulatory litigation lawyer in private practice in Auckland, Sydney and New York.
Quilter said Chang has a clear vision for the role of the SFO and how to position it for the future.
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