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Magic numbers - inside accounting trickery
Accounting fraud can be deadly for corporations, with high profile scandals such as at Enron, Lehman Brothers, WorldCom, FTX and Wirecard evidence that cooking the books rarely ends well. Far better, find Keith Nuthall & Andreia Nogueira, that sharp-eyed auditors, forensic accountants and anti-fraud professionals spot accounting deceptions before their inevitable eventual discovery causes permanent harm to a company.
Online Published Date:
15 July 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
Over 10% of EU lawmakers fail to declare meetings with lobbyists
More than 10% of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have failed to comply with the requirement that they declare all meetings they hold with lobby groups, according to anti-corruption group Transparency International EU.
Online Published Date:
19 July 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
Tom Hayes wins long battle against LIBOR-rigging conviction
The UK Supreme Court has unanimously quashed the benchmark-manipulation convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo because instructions to the trial juries meant that their defences could not be considered fairly. A response from the Serious Fraud Office, which prosecuted the cases, stated: "We have considered this judgment and the full circumstances carefully and determined it would not be in the public interest for us to seek a retrial."
Online Published Date:
23 July 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
European Commission launches EU anti-fraud system review
The European Commission is planning to overhaul the European Union's (EU) anti-fraud architecture, not only the working of bodies such as the bloc's anti-fraud and police offices (OLAF and Europol respectively) but also legislation.
Online Published Date:
24 July 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
EU currents - European Commission plans anti-fraud reforms, but funding unclear
While the European Union (EU) has launched a review of its complex network of agencies charged with tackling financial crime, its proposals for a medium-term 2028-34 budget (multi-annual financial framework - MFF) do not contain explicit proposals to increase EU funding for anti-fraud.
Online Published Date:
25 July 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
Recruitment scams soar in UK
Incidence of job and recruitment fraud notified to Action Fraud, the UK national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre, in 2024 more than doubled over 2022 rates.
Online Published Date:
31 July 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
US-listed companies project fraud increases over next two years
Two thirds of employees, auditors and regulators believe levels of fraud in US publicly-traded companies - already in the billions of dollars - will increase over the next two years, a new report from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) and Anti-Fraud Collaboration has revealed.
Online Published Date:
06 August 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
Oligarchs spied on ex Serious Fraud Office investigators
Oligarchs from Russia or with Russian links under investigation by the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) have hired spies to carry out surveillance on former investigators at the agancy who had explored their business dealings, according to a report by The Guardian newspaper.
Online Published Date:
14 August 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
Ready or not - quantum risk crystallises
The race is on - though many who should don't know it - to defend against a new order of computing attack, which will cut straight through existing cryptographic data defences. Keith Nuthall looks at how soon that will happen and reactions in the USA and Europe.
Online Published Date:
18 August 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
Double blow: ransomware and impersonation hits on healthcare
Earlier this year [2025], Kettering Health, a major hospital network in Ohio, USA experienced a ransomware attack that paralysed its IT systems. While these types of attacks are all too familiar - ransomware breaches increased from 0 in 2010 to 222 in 2021, accounting for nearly one third of all major healthcare breaches last year [2024] - the Kettering Health incident was notable for what followed the initial attack.
Online Published Date:
20 August 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
TI sets out advice for young people fighting corruption
Transparency International (TI) marked International Youth Day on 12 August by celebrating young people worldwide who stand up to corruption, offering a graft-busting toolkit: "15 Ways Young People Can Fight Corruption".
Online Published Date:
21 August 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
The case for juries in white-collar crime trials
With English criminal courts staggering under a 75,000 case backlog, a review recommends that serious and complex fraud cases should be tried by judge alone. However, the choice "is not between efficiency and delay, but between investment in democratic justice and retreat from its fundamental principles", argues James Broomhall of Grosvenor Law.
Online Published Date:
21 August 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
Millions in counterfeit money seized in international crackdown
Millions of counterfeit dollars, euros and pounds sterling have been seized in raids by law enforcement from 18 countries, including 14 European Union (EU) member states, Serbia, Türkiye, the UK and the US, according to the EU police office (Europol).
Online Published Date:
28 August 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
UK's failure to prevent fraud offence goes live, views differ
Doubts have been raised over the impact of a new UK 'failure to prevent fraud offence', which came into effect on 1 September.
Online Published Date:
04 September 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
Who can tell? - deepfake detection
Already, it is hard, approaching impossible, to be confident that content seen and heard online is genuine, with advances in deepfake creation, powered by AI, accelerating the erosion in trust. Sarah Gibbons & Keith Nuthall investigate the latest iterations in moving image manipulation and the tools seeking to catch it.
Online Published Date:
05 September 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
UK's economic crime plan yet to cut reported fraud, update confirms
The volume of fraud reported in England and Wales soared by 31%, to 4.16 million cases, over the year to 31 March 2025, despite the former Conservative government's 2023 Economic Crime Plan 2.
Online Published Date:
10 September 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
Ex-FBI hostage negotiator flips the script
"Is now a bad time to talk?" Deal-making techniques are often obsessed with getting to 'yes', but Chris Voss has a different approach. In a 24-year career with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), negotiating with terrorists and criminal organisations, he learnt to get better results by tactical empathy along with preserving a person's right to veto. Reporting by Esther Martin.
Online Published Date:
17 September 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
UK's first unexplained wealth order recovers £1.1 million
The UK Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) first unexplained wealth order (UWO) under the Criminal Finances Act 2017 has allowed it to claw back UK£1.1 million (US$1.5 million) in ill-gotten gains from a fraudulent investment scheme.
Online Published Date:
18 September 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
UK government uses AI in £480m fraud loss recovery
In the year to April 2025 the UK government recovered a record annual £480 million (US$647 million) in losses to fraud on the public purse.
Online Published Date:
24 September 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
EU customs seized fakes worth €3.8 billion in 2024
European Union (EU) customs and market surveillance authorities intercepted 112 million counterfeit goods valued at €3.8 billion (US$4.4 billion) in 2024, the second-highest haul on record, according to the latest report from the European Commission and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
Online Published Date:
09 October 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
New UK ethics watchdog lacks bite, say campaigners
British campaign group Spotlight on Corruption is warning that "serious gaps remain" in the fight to drive up standards in public life after the UK's 13 October launch of the Ethics and Integrity Commission (EIC).
Online Published Date:
16 October 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
UK banks report £629.3 million fraud losses in first half of 2025
Fraud is increasing in Britain, according to the latest half-year fraud report from banking trade association UK Finance.
Online Published Date:
30 October 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
Close up - surveillance use, law and kit
Better than a smoking gun, one might think, is video or audio of a suspect caught in the bad act, but then is it legal, admissible, technically feasible, a sensible use of investigative resource? Keith Nuthall laces his gumshoes and goes looking for answers.
Online Published Date:
13 November 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
Over one in four UK businesses experienced fraud in last 12 months: 2024 survey
Over a quarter (27%) of active British businesses encountered fraud in the previous 12 months, with medium and large firms bearing the brunt, according to the UK Economic Crime Survey 2024 (sample size 3,477), published by the Home Office on 7 November [2025].
Online Published Date:
14 November 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025
EU currents - multiple arrests for organised agricultural subsidy abuse; agencies pursue more joint casework
European Union (EU) anti-fraud agencies have been targeting swindles involving the dishonest earning of agricultural subsidies. The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), working with Greek police, have arrested 37 organised crime suspects allegedly operating a large-scale subsidy fraud and money laundering scheme involving claims for agricultural subsidies using misleading documents.
Online Published Date:
20 November 2025
Appeared in issue:
October/November 2025 - 15 July 2025