Can we get a witness? Ed Sheeran facing copyright suit over Marvin Gaye classic August 10, 2016 Ed Sheeran has been hit with a copyright suit in the US over claims his smash hit Thinking Out Loud rips off the Marvin Gaye classic Let's Get It On. The suit has been brought by descendants of the late Ed Townsend, who wrote the 1973 hit with Gaye and held the copyright. The lawsuit, filed yesterday US federal court [...]
Harry Potter star fails to conjure up a win in tax case August 10, 2016 One of the stars of the Harry Potter movies has discovered magic is no match for the taxman, after losing his case at a tribunal. Rupert Grint had attempted to include two tax accounting periods in his filings for tax year 2009-10, which would have prevented a proportion of his income from being taxed at the [...]
Former Deloitte chief and private equity house plot challenger to big four accountancy firms August 9, 2016 A former Deloitte executive is teaming up with a private equity house to launch a challenger to the big four accountancy firms. John Connolly, who was chief executive of Deloitte UK, is said to be plotting a string of acquisitions to take on his former employer along with EY, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG. He is working on [...]
Barclays to fork out another $100m in the US over Libor-rigging scandal August 8, 2016 Banking giant Barclays is pay out a further $100m (£76.7m) for its role in the Libor-rigging scandal. The settlement covers 44 US states for Barclays Bank PLC and Barclays Capital Inc, it was revealed in a statement from the New York Attorney General's office. Other states included in the settlement include California, Florida and Washington. "There has to [...]
That’s a wrap: Taxman wins big on film tax case August 7, 2016 HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) had reason to celebrate late last week, when it won two tax avoidance scraps worth more than £820m combined in tax owed and interest. HMRC announced on Friday it had successfully argued a scheme by Ingenious Film Partnership had attempted to use artificial losses generated from investments in blockbusters, including Avatar, Life of Pi and [...]
Bremainer and Brexiteer team up to bolster British businesses August 2, 2016 Proving there are always two sides to every story, even when it comes to businesses and Brexit, a Leave and a Remain campaigner have today announced they are joining forces to help worried firms. Andrew MacLeod, Remain campaigner, former global executive for Rio Tinto and visiting professor in public policy at Kings College London, has teamed up with Donal Blaney, [...]
UBS rogue trader Kweku Adoboli says his actions were like a self-sacrifice to chase his employer’s goals August 1, 2016 Rogue trader Kweku Adoboli has hit back at suggestions he acted out of greed, correcting his critics by saying his actions were motivated by wanting to benefit his employer. Adoboli was convicted on two counts of fraud in 2012 after his unauthorised trading lost Swiss banking giant UBS £1.4bn. He was released from prison last summer [...]
Tom Hayes’ crowdfunding campaign breaks £30,000 mark August 1, 2016 The crowdfunding campaign to raise money for Tom Hayes' legal fees has broken the £30,000 barrier. The Fundrazr campaign, which has been set up to support the former UBS and Citigroup traders' appeal to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), has now raised £30,705, or 20 per cent, of its £150,000 target. The campaign had been stalled [...]
Brexit boost for lawyers and compliance experts as hiring jumps in June August 1, 2016 Legal-lovers and HR-hot shots are the latest winners from the UK's decision to breakaway from the European Union, a new survey of professional employment has found. While various indicators of hiring-and-firing following the referendum have shown that unemployment is unlikely to surge over the following months, it is those with a Brexit-specific set of skills that [...]
Crunching the numbers: Mazars completes on deal with Corality Financial Group August 1, 2016 Get ready for a whole bunch of number crunching: Accountants Mazars has completed its acquisition of financial modelling and training firm Corality Financial Group. As part of the deal, Corality's training academy and financial modelling services will be rebranded as Corality by Mazars. The new brand will be led by Rickard Warnelid, previously Corality Group's chief executive who will now [...]