Who Else Made Off With the Money? – 22 October 2013
22 Oct 2013When Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in jail for perpetrating one of the biggest frauds in history, he shocked the financial world even more when he claimed that he had acted completely alone. However, US investigators are finally about to start a trial in the case of five former employees who are accused […]
What A Fine Messi – 4 October 2013
04 Oct 2013The first appearances of football legend Lionel Messi and his father, Jorge, outside court last week in Barcelona looked more like a political rally than a tax evasion trial, with fans crowding outside the court shouting their support for the Argentine superstar. Messi Junior and Senior are jointly charged with defrauding the Spanish state of […]
Britain Losing Billions Through Fraud – 1 October 2013
01 Oct 2013According to a recent survey, the UK is losing billions of pounds to fraud every year and since the start of the recession the level of fraud has risen by 20 per cent. The survey, which studied fraud data from around the world over the last 15 years, has estimated around £85 billion of the […]
SFO’s First Prosecution Under UK Bribery Act – 27 September 2013
27 Sep 2013The first defendants to be prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) under the UK?Bribery Act appeared before Westminster Magistrates Court yesterday (September 23). The SFO had charged the four men connected to Sustainable AgroEnergy with conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and conspiracy to furnish false information in relation to the sale of […]
Evidence For The Defence Required – 9 September 2013
09 Sep 2013News that the serious Fraud Office (SFO) has this week charged Olympus with making misleading statements to an auditor means that the camera and medical equipment firm will have to find evidence in its defence. This means that both sides will almost certainly engage the services of a team of forensic accountants as part of […]
Found Out! – 6 September 2013
03 Sep 2013A judge in the High Court has ordered a divorce settlement to be renegotiated after a London businessman was found to have lied about his wealth when the settlement was originally made. In a landmark ruling, Sir Paul Coleridge ordered the settlement to be ripped up after the man, dubbed a “master of the half […]
Finding the Money – 3 September 2013
28 Aug 2013The National Audit Office has recently announced that it will be publishing a report later this year on the management and enforcement of confiscation orders, which usually requires the services of a forensic accountant to evaluate how much they should be, although they also follow the money trail in many other matters. Confiscation orders, which are […]
Time Serving – 28 August 2013
28 Aug 2013Simon Cowell’s pregnant lover, Lauren Silverman, has just been granted a ‘quickie’ divorce in the States from her husband of 10 years and it is alleged that she waited until their tenth wedding anniversary before telling him that she wanted to split, in the hopes of a larger financial settlement from their prenuptial agreement. As […]
Forensic Audits For Private Security Firms – 12 August 2013
12 Aug 2013News that private security company G4S has this week withdrawn its bid for a £150m electronic tagging contract with the Government will come as little surprise, as the firm has been accused of overcharging on a previous contract by tens of millions of pounds. Justice Minister Chris Grayling decided to instigate a forensic audit of […]
On The Defensive – 22 July 2013
22 Jul 2013Bribery allegations have been in the news this week, with GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) finance chief in China being refused permission to leave the country while an investigation is being carried out into the firm’s Chinese operation, and Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone being charged with bribery in Germany over the sale of a stake in F1 […]
Investigators Find Bugs That May Have Cost People’s Freedom – 16 July 2013
16 Jul 2013The Post Office has this week revealed the results of an independent investigation, which proved there were software defects in its Horizon computer system, potentially leading to false claims against sub-postmasters, who, in some cases, went to jail for fraud, theft or false accounting. More than a 100 sub-postmasters claim to have been wrongly prosecuted […]
Mandate Fraud Increasing – 10 July 2013
10 Jul 2013A foiled attempt to defraud a borough council in Wales out of over £2 million, has highlighted the need for businesses to not only be vigilant when it comes to financial transactions with customers and contractors; but to also employ the services of forensic accountants when they believe something may be amiss. The attempted fraud, […]
Getting To The Bottom Of God’s Bank – 12 July 2013
10 Jul 2013News on June 26 that Pope Francis has set up a commission of inquiry to review the activities of the Vatican bank means that an army of investigators are set to pore over details of its 19,000 accounts, 114 employees and £4.6bn worth of assets. It was the second time in as many weeks that […]
The End Of A Partnership – 27 June 2013
27 Jun 2013The High Court ruled earlier this month that the intellectual property rights for software created within a now-defunct partnership had belonged to the partnership rather than the partner who created it, who was the ex-wife of the other partner. As with the divorce itself, no doubt, a lot of the arguments will have centred around […]
The Fraud Facts – 6 June 2013
06 Jun 2013The National Forensic Authority has recently published its Annual Fraud Indicator, which reveals that the estimated loss to the UK economy on an annual basis through fraud is £52bn, although the report also points out that the fraud reported is “a fraction of the fraud that remains out of sight”. However, while the report discusses […]
Hiring A Forensic Accountant In A Divorce Will Pay For Itself – 31 May 2013
31 May 2013Considering that divorce is up there with bereavement and moving home as one of the most traumatic things a person can expect to endure in his or her lifetime, not to mention an expensive exercise, it is no wonder that people wonder whether employing a forensic accountant is worth the money, but in almost every […]
Experts instructed by Unrepresented Parties (Previously known as litigants in person) – 30 May 2013
30 May 2013What difference does an unrepresented party make to the way an expert witness would wish to be instructed and paid? Legal aid cuts introduced in April 2013 will to a great extent remove public funding for civil proceedings i.e. that part of our legal system that involves relationships between individuals – the law of contracts. […]
What’s It Worth? – 29 May 2013
29 May 2013The BBC recently reported that campaigners opposed to the high-speed rail line through the Midlands are seeking legal advice on taking the Government to court; a move which acts as a reminder that forensic accountants can not only be used in high-profile divorces but also to provide expert accountancy evidence in compulsory compensation disputes. Many forensic […]
The Lifestyle To Which One Has Become Accustomed – 20 May 2013
20 May 2013Although the Office for National Statistics says that the divorce rate is the lowest it has been since 1977, in 2011, which is the most recent year it has statistics on, 10.8 marriages in 1,000 still ended in divorce and the landmark White v White case means that women need a champion when it comes […]
Give Me The Bad News First – 26 April 2013
26 Apr 2013There are daily accounts in the news of people who have been found guilty of embezzlement, fiddling their tax, hiding assets in divorce cases or perpetrating fraud on a grand scale, but little or nothing is heard about those who are accused of such crimes but then found not guilty because they employed a good […]
Forensic accounting methods save taxpayers over £1bn – 22 April 2013
22 Apr 2013The National Audit Office announced last month that its National Fraud Initiative (NFI) has saved the taxpayer over £1bn through employing forensic accounting methods and tracking cash lost through fraud, overpayment or error. As forensic accountants do, the NFI’s investigators cross-matched information from over 1,300 organisations in the public and private sectors and flagged up inconsistencies […]
Forensic Accountants Could Check Financial Applications – 12 April 2013
12 Apr 2013As credit rating agency Experian reveals that mortgage fraud jumped by nearly 10 per cent last year, mortgage companies may have to ask forensic accountants to verify applications. According to Experian, 38 in every 10,000 mortgage applications was fraudulent in 2012 compared with 35 in 2011 and the rise is being blamed on the economic […]
Fears over benefit fraud – 5 April 2013
05 Apr 2013With the introduction of Universal Credit giving rise to fears of mass benefit fraud, officials suspicious of people would do well to follow the methods of forensic accountants in tracking down offenders. Universal Credit will replace benefits including income support and housing benefit with a single payment and millions of existing benefit claimants will be […]
Finding The Fiddle – 15 March 2013
15 Mar 2013As two former Crown Prosecution Service employees are convicted of making more than £1m worth of bogus claims for taxi fares, suspicious employers could put their minds at rest – or find out if their concerns are valid – by getting a forensic accountant to go over their accounts. There are usually tell-tale signs that […]
Following the Money Trail – 11 March 2013
11 Mar 2013Finding the assets of criminals can be very difficult when people are determined to hide them but the case is made even more difficult when the perpetrators know exactly what they are doing, as in the recent case of two professionals who laundered more than £1.8m of criminal cash from VAT fraud. However, forensic accountants, […]