Fewer HMRC investigations cost the Treasury billions in lost revenue
11 Jan 2023According to a study by the National Audit Office (NAO), tax dodging and non-compliance during the pandemic cost the Government £9 billion. The NAO found that a sharp fall in investigations by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) was caused by workers being redeployed to Covid schemes, shrinking the number of those working on tax compliance […]
Proof of cash provenance required in ‘inheritance’ case
06 Jan 2023A Gravesend couple has had more than £111,000 confiscated after Kent Police raided their home and found the cash in a kitchen cupboard. Lee and Hayley Martin claimed that the money had been left to them by a relative just before they died in 2020 and that they had planned to share the cash out […]
“Mundane documents” land first significant legal blow on Trump empire
06 Jan 2023Two of former President Donald Trump’s businesses have been found guilty on 17 criminal counts stemming from a 15-year tax fraud scheme following a trial that began more than one month ago. According to prosecutors, the two Trump Organization companies, called the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation, concealed compensation to senior executives, including […]
Massive weight of evidence to be evaluated in Wirecard case
09 Dec 2022A trial that is expected to last into 2024 has started in Germany, where every email and document that is potentially relevant to the proceedings will need to be introduced into the hearing. The trial centres around the collapse in June 2020 of Wirecard, once hailed as one of Europe’s most successful tech start-ups. Three […]
Forensic investigations target Bounce Back Loan fraudsters
05 Dec 2022A business owner who dissolved his company the day after a Bounce Back Loan (BBL) worth £25,000 was paid into the company bank account has been sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months. Ben Hamilton was convicted under the Companies Act following abuse of the BBL financial support scheme in 2020. The company […]
“Massive investigation” to pinpoint ownership of superyacht
25 Nov 2022The US, UK and European governments have been trying to find proof that the owner of one of the world’s most opulent yachts, the Amadea, is Russian oligarch, Suleiman Kerimov. In March, the US and its allies set up a special group called REPO (Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs) to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs. Since […]
Disqualification and winding up for abusing Covid support packages
04 Nov 2022A business that abused three separate Covid relief support schemes has been wound up by the Insolvency Service and two Directors who falsely claimed a £20,000 Bounce Back Loan (BBL) have been disqualified for a total of 16 years. Keysholders Ltd, a training company was wound up for abusing a total of three Covid support […]
Calls for dedicated ‘Economic Crime Courts’
01 Nov 2022In a report on what it calls an ‘epidemic’ of fraud, MPs on the House of Commons Justice Committee have called for the creation of specialist fraud courts in a bid to combat the “epidemic” of scamming in the UK. In the report, the Committee claims that of the estimated 4.6 million frauds and scams […]
Mismanagement of Vatican money
17 Oct 2022In the trial of 10 individuals accused of defrauding the Vatican, a witness described a culture of mismanagement in the Secretariat of State. The trial centres around the purchase in 2018 of a property in London by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State that ultimately cost the institution well over $200 million, mainly taken from papal […]
Inability to explain transactions
07 Oct 2022In one of the latest cases of Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) fraud, a construction company boss has been disqualified as a director for seven years after failing to keep adequate accounts while his business was trading. Marian Clipici was the sole director of Dahlial Limited, which operated a construction business from November 2017. However, […]
Fraud crackdown – Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill
03 Oct 2022The Government has introduced a package of “historic” measures that will build on the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act that was given Royal Assent in March to impose sanctions on oligarchs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill will give Companies House new powers to check, challenge and decline […]
Alleged money launderer arrested in Spain
21 Sep 2022A man said to be the ringleader of a gang of money launderers has been arrested in Spain as a result of an international law enforcement operation. John Francis Morrissey was arrested earlier this month along with two other alleged gang members in Spain and one in England. According to a police statement, Morrissey’s ring […]
UK taxpayers footing the bill for bounce back loan scheme fraud
20 Sep 2022According to recent official figures, more than £1 billion of taxpayer-funded loans made under the Government’s Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), have been identified as potentially fraudulent. A statement from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has revealed that, as of July 31, 2022, businesses have drawn a total of £46.6 billion […]
Rocky relationship – Finding hidden assets
05 Sep 2022Actor Sylvester Stallone’s wife Jennifer Flavin has filed for divorce from her husband of 25 years, claiming that he is trying to cheat her in the settlement, having moved assets from their shared marital funds. According to the divorce papers, Ms Flavin believes that Mr Stallone “… has engaged in the intentional dissipation, depletion and/or […]
Shakira could face substantial jail term over alleged tax fraud
10 Aug 2022Colombian singer Shakira faces more than eight years in jail if convicted of tax fraud in Spain, where she lived intermittently during the years being investigated. The singer is facing six charges alleging that she failed to pay the Spanish government nearly $15 million in taxes between 2012 and 2014. The prosecutors said they would […]
Pandemic a boon to fraudsters
27 Jul 2022A recent report from the Fraud Advisory Panel has revealed that the Coronavirus pandemic created the perfect opportunity for fraudsters to profit. As it points out, the pandemic created an unprecedented confusion of unfamiliar ways to do familiar things and, even better, took us all into cyberspace, exposing more of us to online criminal activity. […]
Crackdown on US candy stores in the UK
20 Jul 2022Councils around the country are cracking down on so called American Candy shops, in the belief that they are being used for tax dodging. Earlier this year, Trading Standards seized a huge haul of goods to the value of £22,000 from one shop on London’s Oxford Street alone. The main products seized, along with chocolate […]
Covid fraud spike
29 Jun 2022According to a recent report, firms in the UK suffered from a spike in fraud during the pandemic due to several factors, including remote working. As the report highlights, businesses that had to roll out digital platforms quickly in order to support remote working in lockdown often failed to nail down their cybersecurity. Meanwhile, separate […]
Global investigation results in double conviction for fraudsters
22 Jun 2022Two company directors have been found guilty of fraud over fake investment schemes in Brazil, which saw investors defrauded of £37 million. A Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation, conducted with assistance from partner agencies across the globe, revealed that Andrew Skeene and Junie Bowers had deceived around 2,000 investors worldwide. The pair of fraudsters presented […]
Fear of forensic investigation saw fraud victim get his money back
17 Jun 2022A victim of an Australian con-woman, Melissa Caddick, is one of only a few investors in her Ponzi scheme who got his money back. A wealthy surgeon was one of the dozens of people tricked into investing millions of dollars into the scheme. According to investigators, Caddick stole more than $30 million between 2012 and […]
Serious internal fraud detected through forensic investigation
06 Jun 2022A recent global economic crime survey has found that more than 60 per cent of UK firms have experienced fraud or economic crime in the last few years. This was well above the global average of 46 per cent for this year and was higher than the last time the survey was conducted in 2020. […]
Investigation at former employer leads to swift departure from Moderna role
24 May 2022Jorge Gomez has left his new role as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Covid vaccine maker Moderna after only one day on the job, amid allegations of inappropriate financial reporting by his former employer. Before joining Moderna, Mr Gomez had since 2019 been employed by Dentsply Sirona as its CFO and Executive Vice President. The […]
Further enquiry into Post Office scandal
18 May 2022Last week, Post Office scandal victims told a public enquiry in Scotland about their harrowing experiences, with differences in English and Scottish law raising further serious questions. The hearings in Glasgow were held as part of the inquiry into the Post Office accounting scandal, which involved more than 700 sub-postmasters being wrongly accused of theft, […]
Latest Vatican investigation ends with exoneration
11 May 2022A financial investigation by the Vatican into whether Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki and his vicar general, Mgr Markus Hofmann, had violated canon law in their funding of investigations and hiring of communications consultants has found them not guilty. A letter from Cardinal Marc Oullet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops states that, after an “in-depth […]
Hiding assets doesn’t pay off for Becker
05 May 2022Former Wimbledon tennis champion Boris Becker has been jailed for hiding assets worth more than £2.5 million after being declared bankrupt. In April, the tennis ace was found guilty of four charges under the Insolvency Act in London and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. The charges included failing to disclose, concealing, and removing […]