SNP urged to bring in forensic accountants
26 Apr 2023A former Scottish National Party (SNP) Minister has called for a forensic investigation into the Party’s finances following the resignation of its long-time auditors, Johnston Carmichael. Alex Neil has called on new SNP First Minister, Humza Yousaf to “get to the bottom of this” and then “move on”. Mr Yousaf confirmed that Johnston Carmichael resigned […]
Sharing of wealth in divorce to be reviewed
26 Apr 2023Justice Minister Lord Christopher Bellamy has said that he plans to ask the Law Commission to examine whether the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 needs updating. The current law is, in the words of celebrated divorce lawyer Baroness Shackleton, “hopelessly out of date”. This is hardly surprising, as the rules are 50 years old and were […]
First conviction for eat out to help out fraud
13 Apr 2023A former Keighley councillor has become the first individual to be jailed for making fraudulent claims under the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme. Mohammed Ikram was sentenced to two-and-a-half years for making claims totalling £434,073 for eight different food outlets over four weeks. Under the terms of the scheme, food outlets were offered […]
Wealthy individuals targeted by HMRC
11 Apr 2023It has been revealed recently that HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) Offshore Corporate and Wealthy (OCW) unit opened 25 criminal investigations into wealthy individuals during 2022. The OCW is part of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service (FIS), which was set up following the Panama Papers leak in 2016. The unit’s brief is to target deliberate high-value […]
Forensic investigation recovers £4 million of smuggled gold
03 Apr 2023Gold worth around £4 million has been reclaimed after being discovered in a private jet at Heathrow Airport in 2019. The National Crime Agency (NCA) seized 104kg of gold, some in bars, others in the shape of hearts cylinders, in June 2019 after the plane stopped at Heathrow en route to Switzerland from the Cayman […]
How internal controls can help to prevent fraud
28 Mar 2023According to the Government, the new Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency (ECCT) Bill will improve transparency among UK companies and other legal entities to strengthen the UK’s business environment. However, news that ministers are planning to exclude small businesses from this anti-fraud legislation is concerning. Ministers and other supporters of tougher measures being incorporated into […]
Seven-year, cross-border investigation sees fraudsters jailed
20 Mar 2023Three fund managers have been jailed for a total of 12 years and three months after committing large-scale fraud amounting to more than $8 million. Following a seven-year investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA), Frederic Marino and Yoshika Ohmura were sentenced to 7 years 6 months and 3 years 6 months respectively, while Aurelien […]
High cost of Covid schemes fraud
10 Mar 2023According to figures released recently by the Insolvency Service, the number of company directors disqualified for abusing Covid loans has more than doubled in the past year. In the current financial year to date, 312 individuals have been struck off for that reason, compared with 141 during the previous year, which equates to almost half […]
Complex university fraud uncovered by forensic investigation
06 Mar 2023The Head of Income and Payments at the University of Brighton, who used his job to steal more than £2.4 million over three decades, has been convicted of fraud by abuse of position, theft by an employee and false accounting. David Hall concealed his fraudulent activity through a complex string of financial cover-ups, which were […]
Crackdown on R&D fraud
21 Feb 2023HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is cracking down on inaccurate and fraudulent Research and Development (R&D) claims, which cost the Government £469 million in the 2021-22 tax year. The initiative, which started last year, has seen the taxman tightening the criteria for tax credit schemes for R&D activities, following concerns over organised criminal attacks on […]
Divorce rate on the rise following introduction of ‘no-fault’ divorce
16 Feb 2023According to recent figures, the Divorce Dissolution and Separation Act 2022 – more commonly known as the ‘no-fault divorce’ act – has resulted in a rise in applications for divorce. Under the Act, introduced in April last year, the process to obtain a divorce or dissolution has become much more straightforward. Unlike the previous legislation, […]
Allegations of fraud and money laundering at Unite
27 Jan 2023An unnamed employee of trade union Unite has been accused of bribery, fraud, money-laundering and tax evasion, according to South Wales Police. The police have formed a specialist investigation group with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to look into the allegations because of the “seriousness and complexity of the case”. The investigation was launched after […]
Forensic accounting reveals links between the Church of England endowment fund and slave trade
18 Jan 2023A report by the Church of England, based on a complex forensic investigation, has found that its £9 billion-plus endowment fund has links to the historic slave trade. The findings show that some of the Church’s investments were made in companies that benefited from slavery, including funds related to Queen Anne’s Bounty – a financial […]
HMRC steps up IHT clawback
18 Jan 2023HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has stepped up its investigations into those it suspects of underpaying Inheritance Tax (IHT). Last year it clawed back £326 million – a 28 per cent increase on the previous 12 months. According to figures released this month under a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, HMRC opened 4,258 enquires into […]
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 […]