While some cases can be brought on strong suspicion of wrongdoing, others require an investigation to see whether or not there is a case to answer. On such occasions, a matter is investigated and the evidence found is put before the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which will weigh up the chances of a successful prosecution. […]
Soccer superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, has been accused by the Spanish authorities of using what they believe to be a shell company in the Virgin Islands to “create a screen” in order to hide his total income, which amounts to almost £13m, from Spain’s Tax Office. Ronaldo has been accused by Madrid’s regional state prosecutor […]
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has closed its criminal investigation into the conduct of the Bank of England saying that, after a thorough investigation, there is “no evidence of criminality in relation to this matter”. The SFO had been looking into whether banks and building societies had been told by the Bank to bid for […]
A Surrey man and his wife, brother, sister and mother have all been found guilty of fraud after what local police described as “a very complex case, which took substantial time and effort to unravel”. The ‘lynchpin’, Jason Huggett, worked for an international firm, where he negotiated contracts, arranged for work to be carried out […]
A case that started in Glasgow’s High Court in September 2015 has just ended with the jailing of a married couple for large-scale property fraud in what is believed to be longest criminal trial in UK legal history. The case has been described by police as “one of the largest, most complicated property fraud investigations […]
Any investigation in the British courts involves an opportunity for individuals or entities accused of a crime to put their arguments forward. This means that a forensic accountant’s investigation can be used to prove innocence as well as guilt, and key to any investigation is the analysis of evidence. A current example which demonstrates the […]
According to The Financial Times, the amount of ‘dirty money’ washing around in the UK financial system has reached a record high. The newspaper’s research found that requests for information from foreign governments, regarding money laundering activity, have jumped by a massive 12 per cent in the last year, making the crime top of the […]
‘Follow the money’ is a key exhortation in most investigations, as cash is a used as a motivator even in crimes that appear to have nothing to do with it. One recent example of this is the alleged involvement of Donald Trump’s presidency with Russia. According to some sources, independent forensic accounts, legislators and the […]
‘Follow the money’ is a key exhortation in most investigations, as cash is a used as a motivator even in crimes that appear to have nothing to do with it. One recent example of this is the alleged involvement of Donald Trump’s presidency with Russia. According to some sources, independent forensic accounts, legislators and the […]
Investigations have been ongoing for some years in the case of a South Wales man who was found to have hidden assets by a judge earlier this month. The man owns a skip hire business and had already been jailed for eight months for breaching conditions of his waste permit. He was originally investigated following […]
A financial investigation by Yorkshire Police into a martial arts charity has prompted the Charity Commission to freeze the charity’s bank accounts. The force has begun a financial investigation into the Jack Raine Community Foundation, which works with children and families and runs coaching sessions in contact and non-contact martial arts and education. The police […]
Type ‘money laundering UK’ into a Google search and you get over 200,000 results. Many may not be relevant but there is no doubt that money laundering features more commonly in the commercial world than ever before. In a nutshell, money laundering is the process of seeking to give apparent legitimacy to the proceeds of […]
A new study has proved that business owners and individuals are recognising the benefits of bringing in a forensic accountant early in cases such as professional negligence or a shareholder dispute, as their use shot up by over 20 per cent in the year to December 2016. The Network of Independent Forensic Accountants (NIFA) found […]
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has this week raided two football clubs and arrested a number of people in a bid to recover evidence that will be used in a forensic investigation. 180 officers were deployed across the UK and France and have collected business records, computers, mobile phones and financial documentation that will be […]
British Cycling has been asked to open its financial records to forensic examination after allegations of impropriety over several years. In essence, the governing body has been accused of misusing public money intended for its World Class Performance programme (WCP). There have been claims that bikes and equipment bought with public money were sold privately […]
Forensic financial investigations appear to be flavour of the month on television at the moment, as, hard on the heels of Follow the Money, another series, Vera, has been talking about “getting the forensic boys in”. However, where Follow the Money is all about the shenanigans of a shady bank chief, in the latest episode […]
Former head of the notorious Adams family, Terry Adams, has just had his appeal against a compensation order of almost £700,000 quashed. Mr Adams said he had insufficient funds to pay a debt to the Government of £651,611 but a judge in the Court of Appeal said there was a strong case that the former […]
One of the problems criminals have is ‘cleaning’ the money they get for their nefarious activities. Therefore, they have to come up with increasingly inventive ways to launder it and there is currently a case involving Russia that suggests UK banks were involved in the clean-up activity. Dubbed the “Laundromat” case, it involves allegations that […]
BBC 4’s series Follow the Money is back on our screens for a second series. The crime thriller sheds light on the individuals trying to uncover economic crime, and in the latest instalment the forensic investigators were asked to unravel dirty dealings at a bank. One of the team was alerted to the potential scam […]
Recent research has found that there was a 32 per cent increase in the total value of reported fraud and a 35 per cent increase in the average value of reported fraud in 2016. However, the report comes with the caveat that reported fraud is the tip of the iceberg, with many firms preferring to […]
Dubbed “Africa’s youngest billionaire”, Ashish Thakkar has recently lost a ruling over the ownership of family assets in his divorce case. Mr Thakkar, who claims to have assets of just £445,532, says he has no control over Mara Group Holdings Ltd and Inspire Group Holdings and that the shares are held by his family. However, […]
Former Charlton Athletic footballer Richard Rufus is being investigated by City of London Police after a Charity Commission report found “mismanagement” at Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC). Mr Rufus had already been branded a “fraudster” by a specialist civil court judge in 2015 after running a Ponzi-style scheme between 2007 and 2011 and losing or […]
A spokeswoman for the Insolvency Service has told MPs that the “fast-tracked” investigation into the collapse of BHS may last until April 2019 because of the sheer amount of data compiled. According to Sarah Albon, the authority has now gathered all the evidence together and is working with forensic accountants to analyse it. In total, […]
An investigation described as the “longest and most complex case in the history of Thames Valley Police” has resulted in six people being convicted of a multi-million pound fraud. The five men, one of whom was a senior banker, and one woman were found guilty of corruption, fraudulent trading and money-laundering offences having profited from […]
Following news that Rolls-Royce has paid £671m this week to UK and US authorities to settle allegations of corruption, the Financial Times came up with a classic headline – ‘Fear the secret agent less than the accountant’. This may seem a slightly odd thing to say about the world of business espionage. However Rolls-Royce found […]