May 2, 2024
Cases
R (MCML Ltd & Anor) v Southwark Crown Ct [2024] EWHC 861 (Admin): Challenge to issue of search warrants dismissed.
Sentencing & Confiscation
Haden & Ors [2024] EWCA Crim 344: Guidance on app. of 2 year limit for completing confiscation & equity & prop interest (linked appeal: Luxton [2024] EWCA Crim 340)
Miscellaneous amendments 2023 to sentencing guidelines: (extensive amendments to fraud guidelines) in force 1 Apr 24
Bills, Statues & SIs
ECCTA: Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (Financial Penalty) Regulations 2024: in force 2 May 24
Changes to bodies granted investigatory powers under POCA 2002: HO order under s.453 POCA 02
Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Search, Recovery of Cryptoassets and Investigations: Codes of Practice) Regulations 2024. SI 2024/551: in force 26 Apr 24
Guidance, Circulars, Reports and Consultations
HMCPSI Report Disclosure Serious Fraud Office: HMCPSI: 30 Apr 24
Independent Review of Disclosure and Fraud Offences: preliminary findings: HO 24 Apr 24
Mapping the global geography of cybercrime with the World Cybercrime Index: PLOS ONE 10 Apr 24. [Top 10 in order – Russia, Ukraine, China, USA, Nigeria, Romania, N. Korea, UK, Brazil, India.]
Luxury on the Surface: Social Media Influencers and Financial Crime; RUSI: 18 Apr 24
News
Post Office Horizon IT inquiry:
Recordings, transcripts, reports, evidence and key documents etc available on the POHITI website.
CPS:
Members of Britain’s biggest benefit fraud gang convicted: 10 Apr 24
FCA:
Individual charged with investment fraud over unauthorised multimillion pound ‘Kube Trading’ scheme: 23 Apr 24
FCA secures £1.6m for investors from alleged unlawful investment schemes: 5 Apr 24
Former site manager found guilty of insider trading: Bus. Desk: 2 Apr. 24 (sentencing 26 Apr)
Gambling Commission:
Bet365 to pay £582,120 for regulatory failures – re AML & social responsibility: 4 Apr 24.
Insolvency Service:
Ex-England and Liverpool footballer John Barnes banned as company director: 24 Apr 24
More than 800 company directors banned for abusing Covid support scheme: 12 Apr 24
NCA:
Gold and art worth millions and linked to crime is forfeited: 30 Apr 24
European police chiefs call for end-to-end encryption roll out to include public protection measures: 21 Apr 24
UK arrest in €645 million international investment scam: 12 Apr 24
Rabbi to return £2.35m to charities after investigation by National Crime Agency: Guard: 5 Apr. 24
SFO:
Four Plead Not Guilty to Patisserie Valerie Accounting Fraud: Bloomberg: 26 Apr 24
Interview with Director (podcast): Interviewed by former DPP Lord Macdonald: 23 Apr 24
SFO Strategy 2024-2029: Focus on AI, Covert Intel & whistleblowers.
Jailed bankers ruling could hit key loan rate, warn founders – CA’s “deep misunderstanding” of Euribor rules alleged: BBC News: 20 Apr 24
Former MoD official jailed for taking £70k in kickbacks following SFO investigation: 12 Apr 24
Home
HMRC investigates health technology company linked to Tories: The Times (Paywall): 29 Apr 24: [re Babylon Healthcare, valued at $4.2B Oct 21: in administration Aug 24.]
The Thief, the fraudster and £3b of missing pensions – S. Times (Paywall): ST investigation into Brite Advisory Group funds also under review in US and Australia: 28 Apr 24
HSBC successfully fights off £240m legal challenge over Disney film tax scheme: City AM: 27 Apr 24. [Balance of £1.3B case on behalf of 177 investors settled mid-trial without admissions of wrongdoing or liability]: Judgment: Upham & Ors v HSBC: [2024] EWHC 849 (Comm)
Suspended sentence for ex-solicitor convicted of fraud: Law Soc. Gaz. 19 Apr 24
Peter Murrell charged with embezzlement in SNP probe: BBC News 18 Apr 24
Stay safe from a cruel summer: be alert to ticket fraud ahead of this summer’s top events; Action Fraud; 16 Apr 24
Hedge Fund Founder Sanjay Shah at Heart of Trial Over £1.4 B Tax Scam: Bloomberg UK: 15 Apr 24.
Eurojust Assists UK in Cracking Down on Benefit System Fraud; OCCRP 12 Apr 24
Lawyers admit charging for extra hours they have not worked Times (paywall) 11 Apr 24; Padding timesheets ‘endemic’, say lawyers – Rollonfriday: 28 Mar 24
Universal Credit: Gang guilty of large £53.9m benefit fraud on an “industrial scale”: BBC News: 10 Apr 24
City of London Police reveals more than £612 m lost to investment fraud in UK last year – one victim lost £11.9m: cryptocurrency the most common commodity: CoP: 8 Apr 24
For sale: The mansion seized from £70m postal fraud scammer: BBC News 3 Apr 24
EU
US
Biotech CEO Sentenced for $28M COVID-19 Securities Fraud Scheme and Obstruction of Related Investigation; DOJ; 12 Apr 24
Sam Bankman-Fried appeals FTX fraud convictions and 25-year prison sentence: Guard: 11 Apr 24
Ohtani interpreter charged with stealing over $16m from baseball star: BBC: 11 Apr 24.
Joe Lewis: How one of Britain’s richest people broke insider trading laws – fined $5m: Broad Bay Ltd fined $44m: BBC News: 4 Apr 24
Head of legal and compliance for multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency pyramid scheme OneCoin sentenced to four years in prison: IRS: 3 Apr 24
Trump posts $175m bond in New York fraud case: BBC News: 2 Apr 24
Trader Trafigura Pleads Guilty to a Decade of Oil Bribery in Brazil: Bloomberg: 29 Mar 24
Abroad
Truong My Lan: Vietnamese billionaire sentenced to death for $44bn fraud: 6 tonnes of documents; 85 others tried; 2,700 witnesses; 210 lawyers. Original investigations part of massive “Blazing Furnaces” anti-corruption campaign BBC: 11 Apr 24
KPMG Fined Record $25m in Exam-Cheating Scandal: Wall St Jo: 10 Apr 24.
Panama Papers trial begins with denials eight years after historic tax evasion exposé: ICIJ: 8 Apr 24
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