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China fines PwC US$62.7 million over Evergrande accounting fraud
The Chinese auditing unit of accounting giant PwC has been fined a record CNY441 million (US$62.7 million) and banned from auditing in mainland China for six months after a regulator concluded it had "covered up and even condoned" fraud at Evergrande Real Estate Group, notably its Hong Kong subsidiary Hengda.
Online Published Date:
26 September 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2025
China fines PwC US$62.7 million over Evergrande accounting fraud
The Chinese auditing unit of accounting giant PwC has been fined a record CNY441 million (US$62.7 million) and banned from auditing in mainland China for six months after a regulator concluded it had "covered up and even condoned" fraud at Evergrande Real Estate Group, notably its Hong Kong subsidiary Hengda.
Online Published Date:
26 September 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
Gender pay gap narrows, says ACFE
The gender pay gap is closing among anti-fraud professionals worldwide, according to the latest survey from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).
Online Published Date:
30 September 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
Global standard to strengthen auditor approach to fraud
The New York-based International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) is revising its International Standard on Auditing ISA 240 - 'The Auditor's Responsibilities Relating to Fraud in an Audit of Financial Statements' - to help auditors play a more direct role in detecting and investigating fraud.
Online Published Date:
30 September 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
Proposed powers to tackle UK social security fraud upset privacy campaigners
The new British Labour Government is planning to tackle the UK£10 billion (US$13 billion) that the UK loses annually to social security fraud and error by empowering the department for work and pensions (DWP) to requirebanks and other financial institutions to share data that may indicate benefit overpayments.
Online Published Date:
10 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
Credible witness - experts on the case
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, surely, but even if sufficient, an inability to communicate may negate its benefit, or worse, undermine a jury's confidence in the person who has it, and so work to the detriment of the case they were intended to support. Keith Nuthall talks to Mark Anderson, who has presented evidence in court many times, about best practice and pitfalls around the use of expert witnesses.
Online Published Date:
12 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
EU appoints anti-fraud commissioner for first time in 10 years
The European Union (EU) will have an anti-fraud commissioner in the new European Commission set to take over on 1 December, the first since 2014. Polish Commissioner designate Piotr Serafin, currently acting permanent representative of Poland to the EU, has been given the role in the second-term team of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. He will hold the new Budget, Anti-Fraud and Public Administration portfolio.
Online Published Date:
18 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
Dark to light - fraudsters making good
It takes a thief to catch a thief, perhaps, but can a reformed fraudster ever be trusted - should they be? Keith Nuthall spoke to one and sought the opinion of some experienced investigators.
Online Published Date:
21 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
UK banking fraud losses drop 1.5% in first half of 2024
The amount of money stolen from British bank accounts through fraud dropped 1.5% in H1 2024 year-on-year, according to banking and finance trade association UK Finance.
Online Published Date:
24 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
Not so clever - credential checks and mishire trends
Competition for jobs may be fierce but technology, too, is enabling candidates to rewrite their history of academic and professional study. Paul Cochrane looks into the cause and effect of qualification inflation.
Online Published Date:
29 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
UK corporate registration process facilitates crime - Companies House assessment
"It is highly likely that limited company structures within the UK are widely used to facilitate many types of serious and organised criminality," according to the first ever strategic intelligence assessment from Britain's corporate registration agency, Companies House.
Online Published Date:
31 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
UK government issues failure to prevent fraud offence guidance
Large organisations with a UK nexus are able, since 6 November, to refer to official guidance when developing "reasonable measures" to defend against a potential criminal charge of failure to prevent fraud intended to benefit them by their employees, agents, subsidiaries or other "associated persons" under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. The offence takes effect nine months from publication of the guidance - in fact, nearer ten - on 1 September 2025.
Online Published Date:
06 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
Ukraine pays whistleblowers in latest anti-graft drive
Ukraine has, for the first time, paid two whistleblowers who used a long-standing tip-off channel designed to crack down on corruption.
Online Published Date:
07 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
Low and few - penalty assessment
Light sentencing for serious offending is a complaint across many parts of the UK criminal justice system and nowhere more than in fraud, but do the figures bear this out? Keith Nuthall looks at the evidence and draws comparison with the United States.
Online Published Date:
11 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
Filter tips - SFO guides reporting
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in collaboration with the City of London Police has issued new guidance about where to report fraud allegations, writes Katie Wheatley of Bindmans. Under the new guidance all fraud referrals - unless from companies or whistleblowers - should be made to Action Fraud. Reports of allegations of serious corruption or bribery, or from whistleblowers or persons reporting on behalf of a corporate entity, should be made to the SFO. The SFO's website states that whistleblowers are current or former workers of the organisation they are reporting.
Online Published Date:
12 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
EU crime fighters and prosecutors take down fake art network
An Italian-led investigation, supported by the European Union (EU) prosecutor and judiciary agency Eurojust, has smashed a network responsible for forging and selling 2,000 pieces of twentieth century and contemporary art, including works by Banksy, Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso.
Online Published Date:
13 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
EU currents - OLAF and EPPO collaboration is key says new anti-fraud commissioner
Promoting closer liaison between OLAF, the European Union's (EU) anti-fraud office, and the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) will be a key priority of the new EU budget, anti-fraud and public administration commissioner once he takes office, probably on 1 December.
Online Published Date:
21 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
Crime compounds in Myanmar
USA government human rights investigators and human trafficking victims in Myanmar say that a lawless town on the border with Thailand has become a forced labour hub, where kidnap victims must take part in phone or cyber scams, or face violence, torture, even death. Poppy James, reports from Shwe Kokko, Myanmar.
Online Published Date:
21 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024
British think-tank wants US-style whistleblowing awards in the UK
Whistleblower incentives developed in the USA should be introduced in the UK to help deter and detect corporate fraud, says the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
Online Published Date:
26 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
December 2024/January 2025 - 01 December 2024