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Excise fraud – a growth industry
Gavin McFarlane of Titmuss Sainer Dechert and London Guildhall University looks at the rising cost of duty evasion and observes that the government must start by being honest with the public if it is to have any hope of tackling excise fraud.
Online Published Date:
01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Changing the culture of the European Commission: the new anti-fraud measures
After the ignominious resignation en masse by the European Commission last March, a series of initiatives have been launched to tackle the deep-rooted problems of fraud and corruption in the administration of the European Union. Joanna Gray of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne reviews Brussels’ strategy.
Online Published Date:
01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
New powers to combat fraud: Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill
Michael Grant of London Guildhall University examines UK draft legislation that defines a new framework for surveillance, communication interception and decryption activities.
Online Published Date:
01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Roll out the opt-out
The Electoral Roll represents a vital source of personal data for those who combat financial crime. However, data protection concerns threaten to diminish severely its usefulness to commercial organisations. Sue Grossey reports.
Online Published Date:
01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Hospitalised
The account which follows is taken directly from a US Centre for Strategic and International Studies report on Global Organised Crime.
FBI agents conducted a raid of a psychiatric hospital in San Diego that was under investigation for medical..
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01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Match and detect
The Audit Commission for local authorities and the National Health Service in England and Wales has uncovered UK£41 million in fraud, actual and potential, by using sophisticated data-matching software. The figures relate to the National Fraud..
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01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Payback time
Five men have been convicted of masterminding Britain’s largest time-share fraud in which nearly 17,000 investors lost UK£30 million. The victims from across Europe, principally the UK, were persuaded, through high-pressure sales..
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01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Lords back Bank
The protracted dispute between the liquidators of the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International and the Bank of England may finally be reaching a denouement after the House of Lords determined that the Bank could not be sued under European..
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01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Costly copper
Merrill Lynch, the US investment bank, has agreed to pay Sumitomo Corporation US$275 million in partial recompense for US$2.6 billion losses which the Japanese group incurred through unauthorised copper trading by one of its employees. Yasuo..
Online Published Date:
01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Exaggerated claims
Two thirds of the British population would falsely inflate an insurance claim if they believed they could get away with it is the implication of recent research commissioned by Royal & SunAlliance. The UK general insurer estimates that fraud..
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01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
MoD and property fraud
The Ministry of Defence, one of the largest single buyers of maintenance work in the UK public sector, has an unacceptably low level of control to combat property fraud, according to the National Audit Office. Sir John Bourn, Comptroller and Auditor..
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01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Giving the lead in Scandinavia
Sweden has been experimenting with a new kind of fraud-busting organisation, through its Economic Crimes Bureau (ECB), which unites police, prosecutors and financial specialists to fight offences ranging from tax evasion through to money laundering..
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01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Dam leaks US$120m
Jin Wenchao, a senior construction manager on the Three Gorges Dam project in China, has gone into hiding after it was alleged in the South China Morning Post that he defrauded US$120 million over the last six years. He was arrested last year..
Online Published Date:
01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
A footling UK£470 million
Japanese police have taken 12 members of a foot-reading cult into custody after they were accused of defrauding adherents of UK£470 million since 1987. Ho No Hana Sanpogyo founder Hogen Fukunaga was accused of defrauding five people of..
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01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Illicit ISA refunds
The UK Government has pushed its tax-free retail investment scheme, the Independent Savings Account (ISA), very heavily. Investment manager administration centres come under immense pressure towards the end of the tax year to complete registrations..
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01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Benefit fraud may cost UK£7 billion
The Sunday Times reported in mid May that the true cost of housing benefit fraud may be as much as UK£7 billion a year. A Department of Social Security internal report indicated confirmed fraud of UK£2 billion with UK£3 billion of..
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01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Making money
The governors of the G10 central banks have established a working party, Special Studies Group 2 – International Counterfeit Deterrence System, to examine means of combating PC-based counterfeiting of banknotes. The move is a response to the..
Online Published Date:
01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
Tax action
The prevention of fraud and tax evasion is being used by the European Commission as a political lever to amend EU treaties and to allow the EU Council of Ministers to reform European finance laws by qualified majority rather than by unanimity. At..
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01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
OLAF in conflict with MEPs
Members of the European Parliament have won the first round of a legal battle to prevent investigators from OLAF – the EU’s new independent anti-fraud office – from probing their affairs without their consent. Under the so-called..
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01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000
The unmanaged risk
Ernst & Young published its seventh international fraud survey at the end of May. Its findings clearly indicate that the fight against fraud represents a hard and continuing struggle, a point acknowledged in the observation: “Fraud is an ongoing task, not a one-time fix-it job that lasts for eternity.” In this article, David Sherwin, head of Ernst & Young’s Fraud Investigation Group, reviews the survey results and draws some lessons.
Online Published Date:
01 June 2000
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28 - 01 June 2000