Bank of England liquidity auctions under investigation by Serious Fraud Office March 4, 2015 The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is investigating the Bank of England's (BoE) money-market auctions in late 2007 and early 2008 for possible fraud. The Bank said it had referred information relevant to the auctions to the SFO in November. This is the first time the Bank's auctions has been put under investigation by the SFO. [...]
Rolls-Royce dragged into Petrobras bribery scandal February 16, 2015 Shares in embattled engineering giant Rolls-Royce opened 0.8 per cent lower this morning, after it was revealed it has been dragged into a multi-billion dollar bribery scandal by Brazillian state oil producer Petrobras. The company has been accused of paying out bribes in exchange for contracts to build gas turbines for oil platforms. The accusations [...]
“ChickenGate” duo receive UK’s first conviction for bribing foreign officials February 12, 2015 Two former executives of printing company Smith & Ouzman have received the UK's first conviction for bribing foreign officials. Smith & Ouzman's marketing director Nicholas Smith received a three year sentence for three counts of corruptly agreeing to make payments, while chairman Chris Smith was handed an 18-month suspended sentence for two counts of [...]
Serious Fraud Office must stay at arm’s length from government February 4, 2015 Other than their membership of the UK’s blue-chip share index, what unites Barclays, G4S, GlaxoSmithKline, Rolls Royce Holdings and Tesco? The answer is that they all feature prominently in the caseload of David Green, the director of the Serious Fraud Office. Britain’s principal white-collar crime-fighting agency has come a long way since Green inherited the [...]
UK fraud office ends Autonomy accounts probe January 19, 2015 THE BATTLE between Hewlett-Packard (HP) and the former executives of UK-based software company Autonomy took another turn yesterday as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) closed its probe into the firm saying there wasn’t enough evidence for a conviction. Autonomy, then a darling of the UK’s technology startup community, was sold to HP for $11.7bn (£7.7bn) [...]
Weavering hedge fund founder Magnus Peterson convicted in fraud case January 19, 2015 The chief executive of failed Mayfair hedge fund Weavering was found guilty of a fraud at Southwark crown court today, after his rouge investment fund collapsed swallowing $536m (£354m) of investors' cash in 2009. Magnus Peterson was found guilty of eight courts of fraud, forgery, false accounting, fraudulent trading while being acquitted on eight other charges. [...]
HP vs Autonomy: “Insufficient evidence” to convict, says Serious Fraud Office January 19, 2015 More news on the epic battle between Hewlett-Packard (HP) and UK-based software company Autonomy. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said today it has closed its investigation into the British company, despite accusations from HP that it had committed accounting fraud. Autonomy, then a darling of the UK's technology startup community, was sold to HP for [...]
Forex price fixers may face jail under George Osborne’s new plans December 22, 2014 Chancellor George Osborne yesterday confirmed the government would make price-fixing in foreign exchange markets a criminal offence in 2015. It is part of a larger plan that extends the rules put in place to regulate Libor – a rate at which banks lend to each other – to several other financial market benchmarks. [...]
Alstom pays record fine of $772m to US Department of Justice for bribery charges December 22, 2014 Alstom has pleaded guilty to charges of bribery by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), and must now pay a penalty fine of $772m. The French engineering firm has admitted to giving money to government officials in countries such as Indonesia, India and China, in order to win business from them. The DOJ [...]
Former JJB Sports chief receives four-year jail term for £1m fraud December 15, 2014 THE FORMER chief executive of JJB Sports has been handed a four-year jail sentence after being found guilty of accepting more than £1m in backhanders from suppliers. Chris Ronnie was convicted last month of pocketing six-figure payments from three suppliers while in charge of the now-defunct retailer and failing to declare them to the board. [...]