Former Autonomy boss charged with fraud in the US
07 Dec 2018Former Chief Executive of Autonomy, Michael Lynch and his Vice President for Finance, Stephen Chamberlain, have been formally charged with fraud in the USA. The charge, which carries a maximum term of 20 years, relates to the sale of Autonomy in 2011 to computer giant, Hewlett Packard. The sale was worth £8 billion ($10.3 billion) […]
Cleared of financial impropriety
27 Nov 2018A Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) has been cleared of financial impropriety following a forensic investigation, which found no evidence of wrongdoing. Such findings give lie to the belief that a forensic investigation sets out to find the person guilty. However, the work of a forensic accountant is to gather the evidence, examine it […]
More financial investigators needed to cut serious and organised crime
06 Nov 2018It was reported this week that the cost of serious and organised crime to the UK is at least £37 billion a year. According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), the threat posed by this crime is now greater than terrorism. It is therefore not surprising that more financial investigators are needed. Responding to the […]
Deep forensic accountancy
30 Oct 2018Mention of forensic accounting made it onto television again recently when one of the investigating officers in Channel 4’s No Offence realised that the team would need to go into “deep forensic accountancy” in a case. The team had been investigating a politician it knew was up to her eyes in a plot that included […]
Defending against accusations
16 Oct 2018Current newspaper accounts state that the US tax authorities are investigating allegations that Donald Trump participated in “dubious tax schemes”, including “instances of outright fraud” that boosted his wealth by hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the reports, the President is said to have received the equivalent of at least $413m (£318m) from his […]
There’s no getting away with it
16 Oct 2018An annual audit unearthed fraud by a school business manager, but it was only after a six-year investigation that she was finally jailed. The manager and her partner, who lived in Gillingham in Kent, siphoned off money from the school over a period of six months in 2011. They got friends to cash fraudulent cheques […]
Criminals using cryptocurrency to launder fraud money
02 Oct 2018The emergence of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin is beginning to change the face of finance all over the world, but concerns have been raised that the “semi-autonomous and decentralised” nature of these currencies is also attracting the attention of criminals and fraudsters. Earlier this week, Police in Australia arrested a 32-year-old man and a 29-year-old […]
Losses from corporate employee fraud have doubled in the last year
27 Sep 2018Businesses have reported £88 million in losses in the last year due to corporate employee fraud, according to data obtained from ActionFraud. These figures have doubled in the last year, from £40 million reportedly lost in 2016-2017. Corporate employee fraud includes attempts by employees or ex-employees to obtain remuneration through fraud or to steal money […]
Calls for oligarch investigation
20 Sep 2018The former head of one of the Ukraine’s biggest banks is currently in the High Court accused of defrauding the bank through a “complex string of financial transactions”. Gennadiy Bogolyubov is also at the centre of a row over how and why he was given a “golden” visa to live in the UK and buy […]
New UK aid programmes will stop “dirty money”
05 Sep 2018As Prime Minister Theresa May visits Kenya, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt has announced a series of aid programmes that will help to recover millions of pounds of illegal assets. As Ms Mordaunt pointed out, illicit finance sees “dirty money” diverted away from people in poor countries to individuals involved in crime, terrorism and fraud. […]
Documents could hold the key
20 Aug 2018A Russian oligarch has been ordered by a High Court judge to make documents available relating to his finances after it was deemed that he has taken “numerous elaborate steps” to hide his wealth. Farkhad Akhmedov, a former oil and gas trader who made his fortune in the Russian energy sector was found to be […]
A forensic investigation will leave nothing unexamined
16 Aug 2018There has been a lot of news recently about how a forensic linguist helped to convict a murderer by identifying tiny differences in his writing habits to that of his victim. In this case, an experienced forensic linguist revealed how differences in the murderer’s punctuation helped to prove that the texts he sent from his […]
Old-fashioned but effective
06 Aug 2018The case of fraudsters being thwarted by financial investigators using “good, old-fashioned detailed assessment” and interviews illustrates how vital it is for forensic accountants to use traditional methods of enquiry as well as more technologically advanced techniques. Recently, teams of financial investigators have been brought in to prevent fraud in East Anglia by people trying […]
HMRC investigating wealthy taxpayers
06 Aug 2018A Freedom of Information (FoI) request has found that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is using its ‘offshore, corporate and wealthy unit’ to investigate more than 800 UK taxpayers with assets in offshore tax havens. The taxman’s target is to prosecute 100 wealthy individuals and corporates a year until 2020. This series of prosecutions stems […]
California dreaming?
27 Jul 2018If a spouse is caught trying to hide his or her assets in a divorce case in California, the court has the ability to award 100 per cent of the value of the assets to the other party. While the law is not so draconian in the UK, it is never a good idea to […]
Divorcing in England
27 Jul 2018The German wife of a millionaire banker raced to file a divorce petition in England after she discovered that her husband had taken his mistress to the office party. However, although Catja Thum filed a petition in England on 26 October 2015, Mr Thum claims that he knew nothing of his wife’s decision until the […]
The truth will come out
27 Jul 2018A recent case of financial impropriety that was dropped after a thorough investigation shows that a forensic inspection of records can exonerate, as well as convict defendants. The former Chairman of Leeds Ladies FC was arrested in May 2017 over fraud claims but police have now ended the investigation. A police spokesperson said there was […]
Money trail of a ghost
02 Jul 2018The investigation into the financial dealings of a boss of a multi-million-pound drugs trafficking racket has not stopped now he has been jailed for 32 years. If anything, the investigation has stepped up to find out where he hid his profits so that he can pay for his crimes. One of the problems investigators faced […]
New Malaysian government to investigate suspicious money trail
18 Jun 2018The Malaysian government is to investigate a £1.6 billion deal to transfer the ownership of Battersea Power Station between Malaysian investors, amid fears that the funds of ‘ordinary’ Malaysians were used to invest in it. The leader of Malaysia’s newly elected Pakatan Harapan coalition government, Anwar Ibrahim, has called for an investigation into a series […]
Hard to hide
12 Jun 2018The UK’s costliest divorce is currently playing out in the UK courts after a Russian oligarch refused to pay the equivalent of $646 million to his ex-wife following their divorce in England. In December 2016, billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov was ordered by a High Court judge to split his assets down the middle. However, Mr Akhmedov […]
Investigation into spending
06 Jun 2018A convicted fraudster is having his lifestyle investigated after claiming he is too poor to repay the proceeds of his crimes yet has jetted around the world in the past five years. According to prosecutors, Gerald Smith, who was jailed for eight years in 2006, has spent more than £200,000 on flights alone, despite claiming […]
Forensic investigation concluded
01 Jun 2018UK Power Networks has launched a forensic investigation into its own Chief Executive, Basil Scarsella, after a whistleblower raised concerns over contracts awarded to his son’s business. The investigation related to a £75 million IT contract that was awarded by the energy company to a firm called Enzen, where Mr Scarsella’s son is Business Operations […]
Investigation uncovers eight-year fraud
21 May 2018A former Chief Executive at Age Concern has been convicted of stealing more than £700,000 during an eight-year fraud. It was uncovered after a financial manager spotted a supporting document for a fraudulent payment and a forensic investigation was set in motion. John Briers was found guilty at Newcastle Crown Court of paying 60 cheques […]
Forensic accountants hit the small screen
08 May 2018Viewers of new BBC drama The Split will have seen how forensic accountants are used in divorce cases. In the show, a very wealthy businessman decides he wants to divorce his wife of 20-plus years and finds a lawyer with a reputation of being fierce in her negotiations to represent him. Unfortunately for him, his […]
Links found in forensic investigation
03 May 2018Since the so-called ‘Paradise Papers’ leak last Autumn, which produced a flurry of stories, there has been little further news but that changed in April this year with the showing of a BBC Panorama expose. In the programme, entitled Gangsters’ Dirty Money Exposed, researchers claim that a Ukrainian crime gang used offshore firms in British […]