Judge rules on the evidence in the Trump trial
20 Nov 2023In the fraud trial that threatens former President Donald Trump’s business empire, the Judge has already ruled that Mr Trump and the other defendants were liable for fraud based on the evidence put before the court. The trial stems from a lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, which accuses Mr Trump and […]
Beware of online fraud
02 Nov 2023A small business that supplies hairbrushes by Royal Warrant was defrauded to the tune of £1.6 million, a mere 20 minutes after the Financial Controller was tricked into giving criminals access to the company bank account. Steve Wright, CEO of Kent Brushes, was horrified to hear of the scam and even more astounded to find […]
‘Extravagant, lavish lifestyle’ funded through fraud
30 Oct 2023A company director has been jailed for six years after being part of a fraud scheme, where invoices worth £1 million were submitted to suppliers in respect of work not undertaken. Paul Fitzsimmons had been a Facilities and Services Manager for almost 20 years at a US law firm where, as part of his role, […]
Call for HMRC to clamp down on tax evaders
13 Oct 2023A report from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and TaxWatch has led to calls for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to clamp down on wealthy tax offenders. The bodies’ investigation found that HMRC has only prosecuted 11 wealthy individuals in the last year, despite the Revenue’s staffing budget for this type of investigation rising […]
Accounting concerns sparked investigation into massive employee fraud
12 Oct 2023The Office Manager of a property firm stole more than £900,000 from her employers over almost three years and was eventually caught after concerns emerged over company accounting activity. Emma Hunt lied to friends about the source of her ‘income’ and, in an attempt to buy their affection, treated them to parties, hospitality at sporting […]
Long and complex investigation results in charges
03 Oct 2023The former Chief Financial Officer of Patisserie Valerie, Christopher Marsh and three other former employees have been charged with conspiracy to defraud. Mr Marsh, his wife, accountant Louise Marsh, Financial Controller Pritesh Mistry and financial consultant, Nileshkumar Lad, have been charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) with conspiring to inflate the cash in Patisserie […]
Accounting concerns sparked investigation into massive employee fraud
15 Sep 2023The Office Manager of a property firm stole more than £900,000 from her employers over almost three years and was eventually caught after concerns emerged over company accounting activity. Emma Hunt lied to friends about the source of her ‘income’ and, in an attempt to buy their affection, treated them to parties, hospitality at sporting […]
Lifestyle changes provide clues to fraud
12 Sep 2023A grandmother from Aberdeen is facing a custodial sentence for stealing more than £1.5 million from her employer by putting fake payments through to a bogus supplier but paying herself. Coleen Muirhead started work at scrap metal merchants Panda Rosa Metals in 2014 and has admitted to carrying out the thefts between 2015 and 2021. […]
Singer Shakira faces second tax fraud investigation in Spain
04 Sep 2023Award-winning Colombian singer Shakira is facing a new investigation into alleged tax fraud in Spain after a court agreed with the Barcelona Economic Crimes Prosecutors to look into two more possible cases. The singer is already set to face trial for allegedly failing to pay £12.6 million in taxes on income earned between 2012 and […]
Property seized in bid to control ‘dirty money’
25 Aug 2023Convicted fraudster, Gulnara Karimova, once dubbed the Uzbek princess’, has had three luxury properties confiscated by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). According to the SFO, Karimova received hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes from telecommunications companies between 2004 and 2012 in return for helping them gain access to the market in Uzbekistan. An investigation […]
£20 million Ponzi scheme closed down
18 Aug 2023A fraudster who ran a £20 million Ponzi scheme has been found guilty of fraud, false accounting and forgery after abusing millions of pounds of investors’ money to buy racehorses and fund other businesses. He was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment and remains disqualified as a Director. Liam Wainwright, a director of Rawdon Asset Finance […]
Solar farm investment bankrupts Thurrock Council
14 Aug 2023Thurrock Council has been effectively bankrupted after a local businessman convinced the local authority to invest tens of millions of pounds before going on a spending spree with the cash. Liam Kavanagh persuaded Thurrock council to hand over the equivalent of almost its entire annual budget in an investment in his group of solar farms. […]
COVID-support abuse accounts for half of all Director bans
07 Aug 2023According to figures from the Insolvency Service, more than half of all company Directors struck off in the past 15 months were involved in alleged fraud or abuse of COVID-19 financial support schemes. The Government is clamping down on such fraudsters, and the figures also show that Directors guilty of coronavirus-related misconduct are facing lengthy […]
Post Office compensation scheme a “patchwork quilt with holes in it”
01 Aug 2023A report on the Post Office scandal, which led to hundreds of sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses being wrongly accused of crimes, has described compensation schemes set up to support those impacted as a “patchwork quilt with some holes in it”. Between 2000 and 2014, 736 managers of local Post Office branches around the UK were convicted […]
OECD guidelines to impact multinational businesses
24 Jul 2023The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has revised its guidance for multinational businesses to reflect the increasingly complex world in which they operate. The 2023 OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct is the first refresh of the body’s recommendations for 12 years. The updates reflect current social, political and environmental issues, aligning […]
Appeal against Libor rate conviction
19 Jul 2023The first trader to be jailed for “rigging” interest rates over the Libor rate scandal has just won the right to appeal his conviction after an eight-year battle to clear his name. Tom Hayes, a former top-performing UBS and Citigroup employee will be taking his case to the Court of Appeal following a decision by […]
Cross-border “missing trader” investigation
07 Jul 2023Five suspects have been arrested in connection with a €38 million VAT fraud following a Europol-supported investigation. The investigation, code-named Huracán, was led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Cologne after they discovered a large VAT fraud scheme concerning the international trade of more than 10,000 cars. The investigation started with a report […]
In defence of innocence: The ongoing SNP investigation
05 Jul 2023The investigation into the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) finances has moved on since it began in July 2021, following claims that around £660,000 raised since 2017 for a second independence referendum campaign had been used for unrelated expenses. In April this year, former SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell, husband of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, […]
Whistleblowing sparks investigation
23 Jun 2023A police investigation is underway concerning alleged fraud and conspiracy offences carried out by four members of Neyland Town Council and a paid employee. Earlier this month, the Deputy Mayor, Steve Thomas, announced the investigation at an Extraordinary Meeting of the Council, which is located in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The local government monitoring officer was also […]
The cost of employee fraud
20 Jun 2023Recent figures suggest that theft at work in England and Wales has increased by 19 per cent amid the rising cost of living. The research, which was based on police data gathered from a freedom of information request, found that almost 6,000 employees were caught stealing from their workplace in 2022, compared to 5,000 the […]
National crackdown on fraud leads to large seizure of assets
02 Jun 2023More than £6 million of assets were seized or restrained in a month-long, national crackdown on fraud by UK crimefighters. Operation Henhouse, a national fraud intensification campaign, saw police forces, regional organised crime units (ROCUs) and the National Crime Agency (NCA), target a variety of offences, including banking and insurance fraud, as well as money […]
Failure to prevent fraud offence – how forensic accountants can help
25 May 2023The UK is set to introduce a new criminal offence of ‘failure to prevent fraud’ as part of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill. Under the new offence, an organisation will be liable where a specified fraud offence is committed by an employee or agent, for the organisation’s benefit, and the organisation did not […]
Businesses still not reporting fraud, according to latest report
19 May 2023A recent report has found that one in five UK companies fell victim to fraud between 2018 and 2020 but most of them did not report it to the police. According to the report by the Home Office, written in 2020 but only published in early May this year, there are ‘high levels of repeat […]
Post Office Horizon scandal back in the news
12 May 2023The decision to award a £5.7 million contract that will create a new emergency alert system for the Government to Fujitsu has been branded “immoral” by peers. This is because of the scandal around Fujitsu’s Horizon system, which was used by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015 for transactions, accounting and stocktaking. However, it […]
UK’s largest fraud investigation leads to important prosecution
04 May 2023A man has pleaded guilty to running a website that allowed criminals and fraudsters to appear as if they were calling from banks, tax offices and other official bodies in an attempt to defraud victims. Tejay Fletcher ran a website called iSpoof, which allowed criminals to pretend to be workers at banks and tax offices. […]