i-law.com - Newsletter (Fraud Intelligence)

Home Office compensation for miscarriage of justice

The Home Office recently paid record compensation for a wrongful fraud conviction. Gavin McFarlane of Titmuss Sainer Dechert and London Guildhall University reviews the process by which miscarriages of justice are corrected.

Online Published Date: 01 February 2000

Appeared in issue: 24 - 01 February 2000

Intelligence systems for fraud detection

Increasingly, “intelligent” software techniques such as neural networks, genetic algorithms, and fuzzy logic are incorporated into automated systems designed to detect and highlight instances of fraud. These techniques have been applied to identify credit card fraud, insurance claims fraud and insider dealing and are also used in company auditing. In this article Jason Kingdon of Searchspace Limited in London introduces intelligent systems and examines some of their fraud-prevention applications.

Online Published Date: 01 February 2000

Appeared in issue: 24 - 01 February 2000

Piracy in Russia

Intellectual property fraud is big business in Russia, most notably the piracy of recordings and computer software. Mark Galeotti, director of the Organised Russian and Eurasian Crime Research Unit at Keele University, looks at the scale of the problem and what is being done to combat it.

Online Published Date: 01 February 2000

Appeared in issue: 24 - 01 February 2000

The Cairo connection

Mohammed Said Raffa, a former employee in Merrill Lynch’s private banking division in London, was arrested in Cairo in December for his part in an alleged US$40 million securities fraud. He is accused of illegally transferring securities..

Online Published Date: 01 February 2000

Appeared in issue: 24 - 01 February 2000

Versailles’ vanishing funds

Versailles Group, the high-profile trade finance company, has spiralled into receivership in the space of two months and is currently the subject of an official inquiry by the Serious Fraud Office. The problems began in December when the company..

Online Published Date: 01 February 2000

Appeared in issue: 24 - 01 February 2000

Noteworthy success against an “entirely different league”

A group of British forgers responsible for putting UK£30 million of counterfeit currency into circulation in four years has been jailed for a total of more than 26 years. Dubbed the “Lavender Hill Mob” by police after the classic..

Online Published Date: 01 February 2000

Appeared in issue: 24 - 01 February 2000

Cyber attack

The hackers are gaining virtual ground in cyberspace while more than 60 per cent of information technology managers fail to appreciate the threat that they pose according to a recent survey by Concentric, an English cybercrime detection company...

Online Published Date: 01 February 2000

Appeared in issue: 24 - 01 February 2000

Profiting from ignorance

Estate agents have long been accused of doing very little for their large commissions but relatively few instances of outright property sale fraud have come to light. A recent case acts as a reminder of these unlicensed individuals’..

Online Published Date: 01 February 2000

Appeared in issue: 24 - 01 February 2000

Seeing through the hedge

The US Securities and Exchanges Commission has accused a former senior hedge-fund manager of defrauding investors of more than US$300 million in what is believed to be one of the largest such losses suffered by hedge fund investors. The civil..

Online Published Date: 01 February 2000

Appeared in issue: 24 - 01 February 2000

Cultural revolution in Europe

Neil Kinnock, Vice President of the European Commission and survivor from Jacques Santer’s discredited commission team which resigned en masse last March in the wake of damning allegations of fraud and mismanagement, has unveiled a blueprint..

Online Published Date: 01 February 2000

Appeared in issue: 24 - 01 February 2000

Flourishing fraud

Even allowing for the introduction of new counting rules, the Home Office’s recorded crime statistics for England and Wales in the year to September 1999 show a steep rise of 29.1 per cent in recorded fraud and forgery offences. This follows a..

Online Published Date: 01 February 2000

Appeared in issue: 24 - 01 February 2000

Spooks, swindles and snakes in the grass: the seductive allure of the secret banker

Helen Parry of London Guildhall University probes the mythic market in obscure government bonds and deeply discounted wholesale interbank paper and discovers that “prime bank” fraud, once exclusive to the very rich, now claims an increasing number of lawyers and other professionals as victims.

Online Published Date: 01 February 2000

Appeared in issue: 24 - 01 February 2000