Fraud Intelligence

One year on from the UK Financial Services Authority’s excoriating review of banks’ management of high money laundering risk situations [1], the regulator reports equally miserable failings in UK retail banks’ defences against investment fraud and discovers further severe anti-money laundering breaches.

Deferred prosecution agreements for individuals unlikely, says Solicitor General Supervision of deferred prosecution agreement hearings would be a matter for the Lord Chief Justice, Edward Garnier, the solicitor-general told lawyers at a recent..

Timon Molloy, Editor

The US authorities may have swung a legal and diplomatic sledgehammer at Swiss banking secrecy but it withstood the blows and survives, a central pillar of local law. Elsewhere on the Continent, legislative barriers also continue to frustrate the search for hidden property as Robert Stokes reports.

Once the initial euphoria subsides, the attention of governments in emerging democratic states immediately turns to money matters with recovery of funds misappropriated by an ousted regime high on the agenda. Easy enough to justify politically, repatriation of stolen wealth calls for a careful investigative and legal strategy, often spanning multiple jurisdictions, if the hopes of the newly enfranchised populace are to be fulfilled. Angela Barkhouse and Kevin Hellard of Grant Thornton UK LLP and Jamie Curle and Jean-Pierre Douglas-Henry of DLA Piper LLP look at how and where to find the missing assets.

The Court of Appeal decision in Cavenagh v William Evans [2012] EWCA Civ 697 to come down on the side of the former company director who was made redundant after deliberately taking money from his employer, to which he knew he was not entitled, has set a precedent that could alter the relationship between employer and employee, writes Dennis Cooper of Zaiwalla & Co. The Court ordered the company to pay contractual compensation to the employee for having to leave without serving his notice.

‘Crash for cash’ fraudsters have conducted a demolition derby on UK roads in recent years, creating a menace for innocent drivers who they cause to ram into the back of their vehicle so as to make claims on the victim’s policy. But insurers are fighting back. Stephen Dalton, head of intelligence at the Insurance Fraud Bureau, tells Esther Martin the latest developments.

Caribbean jurisdictions are stereotypically viewed as information black holes, whose minimal filing requirements for companies and trusts facilitate fraud. Robert Stokes switches on his torch.

Not all cases of employee fraud are suitable for the legal system – some could be effectively handled using mediation, argues Clive Lewis OBE DL.