Liverpool Mayor no longer under investigation
05 May 2022Former Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson has been told by Lancashire Police that the force is no longer investigating him or four other men as part of Operation Sheridan. The investigation was launched into alleged financial impropriety centred around Lancashire Council’s BT joint venture, One Connect. Liverpool Council’s then Chief Executive, Ged Fitzgerald, was arrested […]
Inadequate accounting records lead to Director’s ban
04 May 2022A company Director who failed to maintain adequate accounting records, thereby breaching legal obligations, has been disqualified as a Director for six years. Stephen Mason, who ran a recruitment agency in Glasgow, liquidated the business after just two years of trading but when asked by the Insolvency Practitioner for the company’s accounts and other records, […]
Investigation reveals assets
05 Apr 2022A piece in the Financial Times has revealed that two yachts currently moored in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua, have ties to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich via a British Virgin Islands-domiciled firm called Wenham Overseas Ltd. Antigua has, therefore, called on the Government to help confirm whether Mr Abramovich is their ultimate owner, as the British Virgin Islands (BVI) […]
Tip-off and collaboration secure convictions
31 Mar 2022Two men have been sentenced to jail time having pleaded guilty to money laundering offences for their part in a large and complex fraud concerning the re-sale of timeshares in 2011. Anthony Lea was sentenced at Reading Crown Court to three years and Ian Hollis to 18 months in absentia. The “extremely complex investigation” began […]
Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act updated
24 Mar 2022The Government has promised to step up efforts to prevent the flow of what has been described as “dirty money” entering the UK, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledging that there will be “nowhere to hide your ill-gotten gains”. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine and economic sanctions being placed on Russia, the Government has […]
Evidence of forged paperwork aided conviction and confiscation order
18 Mar 2022Confiscation Orders were issued earlier this month against two brothers who were successfully prosecuted by the Environment Agency following a fraud investigation. Jamil and Saleem Rehman were ordered to pay almost £400,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) after being sentenced in January 2020. Jamil Rehman was the sole director at Electronic Waste Specialists […]
No-fault divorce – How will financial settlements be affected
03 Mar 2022The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 comes into effect on 6 April 2022 and has been hailed as the biggest shake-up in divorce law since 1969. The new rules introduce an entirely new ‘no-fault’ basis for obtaining a divorce. This will do away with the five current grounds required to launch a petition and […]
Significant step in Trump financial investigation
22 Feb 2022Former US President Donald Trump’s accountants announced last week that they are cutting ties with the Trump Organization. This was revealed in a letter that the firm’s US general counsel, William Kelly, wrote to the Trump Organization’s lawyer, informing him that it no longer vouched for statements of financial conditions for Mr Trump from 30 […]
Evidence heard in Post Office scandal public inquiry
15 Feb 2022A public inquiry began on 14 February 2022 into the wrongful conviction of 706 Post Office branch managers. The inquiry is expected to run until the end of the year into whether those convicted have been justly compensated. An IT system called Horizon was introduced into the Post Office network by IT supplier Fujitsu in […]
The Vatican agrees to sell Sloane Avenue property at the centre of investigation
01 Feb 2022The Vatican has agreed a contract to sell the London property at the centre of a financial corruption trial. A spokesman for the Holy See has said the Vatican would sell 60 Sloane Avenue in Chelsea at a price “above” initial valuations, having received a 10 per cent deposit, with the deal expected to be […]
The challenges of splitting pensions in divorce
18 Jan 2022According to a survey of Which? members conducted in November 2021, only 15 per cent of divorcing couples include pensions in their financial settlement, even though pensions can be one of their biggest joint assets. The number of older couples divorcing is rising, and private pensions are often the most valuable asset for a couple, sometimes worth […]
Investigation leads to largest- ever sentences for money laundering
11 Jan 2022An investigation carried out by the Organised Crime Partnership (“OCP”), a joint National Crime Agency (NCA) and Metropolitan Police Service unit, resulted in two men being handed prison sentences for money laundering totalling 33 years. Artem Terzyan and Deivis Grochiatskij headed up an international criminal network responsible for laundering £70 million, of which £10 million […]
Bondholders finally offered compensation after LCF scandal
01 Dec 2021Under the proposed terms, the Government will pay 80 per cent of the compensation, up to a maximum of £68,000. Those who still want to fight on in the hope of receiving their principal investments in full can reject the offers when the FSCS contacts them. Approved claimants should get their payments before the end […]
The Vatican could lose millions over London property sale
16 Nov 2021Recent reports suggest that the Vatican is about to close a deal with two private-equity firms to sell a London commercial building at the centre of one of the major scandals of Pope Francis’ office. If it goes through, the likely price will be close to $230 million, which is more than $100 million less […]
Forensic investigation uncovers ‘industrial scale’ false paperwork
10 Nov 2021A gang that smuggled huge quantities of alcohol into the UK, dodging millions of pounds of VAT at the same time, has been jailed for a total of more than 34 years. The ringleader, Shafqat, or ‘Chas’, Majeed was jailed for 10 years having been found guilty of committing the multimillion-pound VAT and duty fraud […]
Cleaning up the cash
01 Nov 2021Money laundering is the process of converting the proceeds of crime into assets to give the appearance of legitimacy. It includes all forms of handling or possessing criminal property, including possessing the proceeds of one’s own crime and facilitating any handling or possession of criminal property. Being found guilty of money laundering can carry a […]
Ill-gotten gains seized despite no evidence of a crime
20 Oct 2021A recent newspaper article described cash and luxury watches found in the car of two alleged criminals as ‘ill-gotten gains’. A full police investigation was conducted but the two men were released without charge due to insufficient evidence. However, because the men were unable to prove ownership of the Rolex watches and explain how they […]
Austrian Chancellor looking to disprove corruption allegations
12 Oct 2021Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz will step down from his post in a bid to defuse a government crisis triggered by allegations of corruption. The move has satisfied his coalition partners, the Greens, who were on the brink of backing a motion of no-confidence in Mr Kurz that could have forced him out of power. The […]
Bitcoin bonanza for jailed drug dealer
07 Sep 2021A convicted drug dealer will have more than $1.5 million (£1.08 million) worth of Bitcoin returned to him by the Swedish government after a legal misstep saw prosecutors value the proceeds of their crime in Swedish Krona and not in cryptocurrency. When the man was jailed in April 2019, the prosecutor successfully argued that 36 […]
Pressure on the Trump organization continues
18 Aug 2021Barry Weisselberg is the latest employee of the Trump Organization to be scrutinised by prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump’s business empire. Barry is the son of Allen Weisselberg, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, who was charged with tax fraud in a New York court in July. Barry himself used to manage Mr Trump’s ice […]
New York prosecutors push for ‘McMafia orders’
16 Aug 2021As the investigation into the Trump Organization’s finances continues, pressure is being put on the Scottish Government to issue an Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO) in relation to the purchases of former President Donald Trump’s golf courses in Scotland. UWOs, commonly dubbed ‘McMafia orders’ after the popular TV series, were launched in 2018 to give the […]
Vatican fraud trial
03 Aug 2021Cardinal Angelo Becciu, once a close ally of Pope Francis, is now on trial in the Vatican, accused of misusing church funds. He is charged with spending €350 million (£299 million) in 2014 on a former Harrods warehouse in London that had permits allowing it to be converted into luxury apartments, which incurred disastrous losses […]
Extradition could re-open investigation into the sale of Autonomy
29 Jul 2021A UK court has ruled that Mike Lynch, tech entrepreneur and founder of software firm Autonomy, could be extradited to the US to face charges of conspiracy and fraud in relation to the £7.1 billion sale of the tech business to Hewlett Packard (HP). The extradition hearing had been adjourned to await the outcome of […]
Behind the scenes – how forensic accountants assisted with the surrender of £4m of laundered money
28 Jul 2021Milsted Langdon are often asked to work on complex financial cases related to money laundering and fraud – employing their analytical eye to help prosecutors and the courts. Recently their assistance was called upon by the National Crime Agency (NCA). Back in the midst of the national lockdown they were contacted because of their reputation […]
Largest dispute finally ends with help of forensic investigators
21 Jul 2021Russian billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov says he has settled a legal fight with his ex-wife after she was given a divorce settlement of about £450 million thought to be the biggest of its kind made by a judge in London. Tatiana Akhmedova was awarded a 41.5 per cent share of her ex-husband’s £1 billion-plus fortune in […]