31

Fraud officers vow to pursue BAE

Fraud officials vowed to press ahead with international corruption investigations into BAE Systems, highlighting the risks still facing the arms company after Britain's highest court sealed off an inquiry into its dealings with Saudi Arabia. (Read more...)

30

Thousands of blank passports stolen in raid could be used in fraud or terrorism

Thousands of stolen passports worth millions of pounds could be used for fraudulent or terrorist activity, experts warned yesterday. The Foreign Office admitted a serious breach of security when a van carrying the blank passports was hijacked outside a shop in Oldham, Greater Manchester, on Monday morning. (Read more...)

Former Celtic director in court on £2.3m fraud charges

A former Celtic director appeared in court yesterday on charges relating to a multi-million pound fraud.

Dominic Keane, 55, who was also chairman of Livingston FC, appeared in private at Dundee Sheriff Court yesterday on a number of charges which allege that he formed a multi-million pound fraud scheme over a five-year period while employed as a corporate banking manager at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Dundee. (Read more...)

Metro Waste files $8.5M fraud suit against ex-workers

Metro Waste has sued several former workers, including the company's deceased co-founder, for $8.5 million, accusing them of defrauding the company by cashing in the best scrap for themselves and leading the company to be sold for less than it was worth. (Read more...)

29

Serious Fraud Office under fire as conviction rate halves as budget doubles

The Serious Fraud Office is under fire after it emerged that the number of white collar criminals it has convicted has halved in 10 years - just as its running costs have more than doubled. (Read more...)

28

Ottawa investigating fraud concerns at Pearson's self-service ticket kiosks

OTTAWA — Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon expects a report by the end of this week on concerns about fraud centred on self-service ticket kiosks at Canada's largest airport. (Read more...)

Banks hit by record level of fraud

Banks have suffered a major jump in fraud committed against them, with a record level of cases coming to court during the first half of the year, figures show.

KPMG said fraud cases against the financial services sector totalling £350 million came to court during the six months to the end of June, the highest figure recorded by the group's fraud barometer in its 20-year history. (Read more...)

Developers, lawyer indicted in $83M mortgage fraud probe

A federal grand jury in Tampa returned a 47-count indictment against three Tampa Bay area businessmen and a lawyer, accusing them of crimes related to a scheme to defraud seven Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insured banks. (Read more...)

Four indicted in $20 million mortgage scheme

SAN FRANCISCO—Two real estate agents and a married couple who ran nursing homes are facing federal charges alleging the four defrauded several banks of $20 million dollars in a complicated mortgage scheme. (Read more...)

27

PwC face probe into failure to detect €21m fraud

TOP dollar accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers are facing an embarrassing probe into their failure to spot a €21m fraud at Greencore.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland (ICAI) will ask how PwC audited Greencore's Scottish mineral water subsidiary for two years without finding the fraud. (Read more...)

UBS suspends Head of U.S. Fixed Income following Fraud Allegations

David Shulman, the head of UBS Bank’s fixed income unit in the U.S. and global head of municipal securities was suspended by the firm, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.

The suspension comes amid state and federal queries regarding sales of auction-rate securities. Shulman ran the auction-rate securities business at UBS, the Journal said on its Web site, citing people familiar with the matter. (Read more...)

26

Livedoor founder's fraud conviction upheld

A Japanese appeals upheld on Friday the conviction of a former Internet entrepreneur, Takafumi Horie, in a case that has come to symbolize Japanese efforts to deal with white collar crime at startup companies. (Read more...)

25

Three Convicted of Huge Tax Fraud

THREE businessmen were behind bars yesterday after they exploited a "weakness" in the law to plunder "hundreds of millions of pounds" from the public purse.

They and others spent years using numerous consignments of high- value mobile phones and a mountain of bogus documents to "blatantly" hoodwink the taxman out of "gigantic" sums of VAT. (Read more...)

Guilty plea in $1M fraud in Lake Success

An accountant pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing more than $1 million from the maker of one of Long Island's best-known brand names, Lake Success-based Arizona Iced Tea, prosecutors said. (Read more...)

KPMG Has Been Ordered to Stand Trial in Massive Fraud Lawsuit

Eagan O'Malley & Avenatti today announced that Big Four auditing firm KPMG, LLP has been ordered by a New Jersey Superior Court judge to stand trial in a massive accounting fraud lawsuit.

Cast Art sued KPMG in 2003 for professional malpractice and negligence for allegedly failing to detect a pervasive financial fraud at Papel Giftware, Inc. prior to Cast Art acquiring Papel in December 2000 for nearly $50 million. (Read more...)

24

UBS Target of Fraud Suit from NY Attorney General

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a civil lawsuit on Thursday against UBS, accusing the Swiss bank of steering customers into auction-rate securities that this year became impossible to cash out of amid the credit crunch.

The suit, filed in New York state court, accuses UBS of deceptively selling auction-rate securities to customers as cash equivalents. (Read more...)

ProQuest and Ex-CFO Settle Accounting Fraud Charges

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled accounting fraud charges with ProQuest, a company that produces databases of archived information, and its former CFO. (Read more...)

23

Report: Sarbox Worsens Fraud Losses

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners finds that Sarbox-related controls appear to reduce some types of fraud, but may actually make financial statement fraud more costly and harder to detect. (Read more...)

Ranbaxy `wins` case against UK fraud office

Ranbaxy Laboratories today said it has won a two-year-old case against UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the English Crown Court, a morale boosting relief to the domestic drug major.

SFO had taken Ranbaxy's UK subsidiary, Ranbaxy (UK), to court on charges of price-fixing in some of its penicillin-based antibiotics between 1996 and 2000. (Read more...)

Regulator targets mortgage fraud

The Financial Services Authority has announced tough new measures to try to curb soaring numbers of mortgage fraud cases, by tightening its surveillance of lenders and brokers. (Read more...)

Mafia tried to buy into Lazio

Rome - Italian police have arrested seven alleged mafia members suspected of attempting to buy into Seria-A team Lazio whilst three other suspects, including a former striker, are on the run, the press reported on Wednesday. (Read more...)

'Back from dead canoeist' wife convicted

London - The wife of a British man who faked his own death in a canoeing accident was found guilty on Wednesday of obtaining money by deception and money-laundering. (Read more...)

Top spammer sentenced to nearly four years

The "spam king" was sentenced on Tuesday to 47 months in prison, with a ruling that the court hopes sends a message to other online criminals. (Read more...)

Russian indicted for $1 million in Medicare fraud

A federal grand jury in Portland has indicted a Russian citizen on $1 million in health care fraud and aggravated identity theft charges, U.S. Attorney Karen Immergut said today. (Read more...)

EU Cuts Funding to Bulgaria for Failing to Fight Organized Crime

For the first time ever, the European Union cut off financial assistance to one of its own members when it ordered a stop to aid to Bulgaria over corruption and organized crime connection allegations. (Read more...)

22

Pharmed founders charged with fraud, tax evasion

In an information filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the de Céspedes brothers are accused of defrauding Kendall Regional Medical Center out of millions of dollars through fake purchase orders for Pharmed supplies. According to the information, Kendall Regional paid between $2.5 million and $7.5 million between 2001 and 2007 for Pharmed supplies it never received. (Read more...)

Olmert’s lawyers grill witness

JEUSALEM - Lawyers for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert renewed efforts today to discredit an elderly Jewish-American millionaire whose testimony in a graft probe threatens to unseat the premier. (Read more...)

FSA demands mortgage fraud action

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has told lenders to step up their defences against mortgage fraud.

So far this year it has banned or fined 17 mortgage brokers who have been implicated in making actual or potentially fraudulent applications. (Read more...)

21

Shanahan Sr. pleads guilty to fraud

Engineered Support Systems Inc.'s former CEO and chairman Michael Shanahan Sr. pleaded guilty Monday to one of a dozen charges related to backdating company options. He faces 15 to 21 months in prison and must pay $7.87 million to his former company, according to a plea agreement. (Read more...)

Five face court over Gold Coast Council fraud

Five men have appeared in the Southport Magistrates Court on fraud-related charges involving the Gold Coast City Council. (Read more...)

Simpsonville man indicted in $4 million fraud scheme

A Simpsonville man has been indicted in what prosecutors charge was a six-year scheme to bilk more than $4 million from a water-sports equipment company with distribution centers in Easley and Piedmont. (Read more...)

19

Italian prosecutors accuse top firms in spy case

Rome - Italian prosecutors have accused two of the country's top firms, Telecom Italia and its leading shareholder Pirelli, of corruption in connection with a huge spy scandal. (Read more...)

$700,000 to S.D. from Bristol-Myers Squibb for drug fraud allegations
 

South Dakota will receive more than $700,000 from Bristol-Myers Squibb in a settlement over illegal pricing and marketing of drugs distributed to Medicaid. (Read more...)

UAE minister to stand trial in a case of fraud

18

Barclays claims card-reader has eliminated fraud

Barclays claims to have reduced online fraud to zero among users of its two-factor authentication system, PINsentry. (Read more...)

Ex-Microsoft Manager Gets 22 Months for Fraud

The woman formerly responsible for managing Microsoft's Internet domain names has been sentenced to nearly two years in prison for bilking her employer out of US$1 million in fake registration fees. (Read more...)

17

FBI probing IndyMac for possible fraud

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - IndyMac is under investigation by the FBI for possible fraud involving home loans made to risky borrowers, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed law enforcement official. (Read more...)

16

Boy band promoter to repay fraud victims $300M

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Former boy band promoter Lou Pearlman will have to repay victims of his decades-long investment fraud at least $300 million in restitution. (Read more...)

Ex-Samsung chief given 3-year suspended jail term

SEOUL (Reuters) - Former Samsung Group chief Lee Kun-hee, one of South Korea's most powerful businessmen, was handed a 3-year suspended jail sentence on Wednesday for tax evasion, but was cleared of other charges. (Read more...)

El Paso Settles Energy Fraud Charges with SEC

Energy company El Paso Corp., its subsidiaries and five former employees settled fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission for improperly inflating proven oil and gas reserves and providing misleading financial statements. (Read more...)

15

Grand jury indicts three in cemetery fraud case

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A grand jury indicted three people Tuesday on theft charges alleging that they helped siphon away $24 million set aside to maintain the graves of people who had paid in advance for their funerals. (Read more...)

Bristol-Myers Squibb To Pay NC $14.8M For Medicaid Fraud

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Bristol-Myers Squibb will pay $14.8 million to North Carolina to resolve allegations that it caused the state's Medicaid program to pay too much for drugs, Attorney General Roy Cooper said Tuesday. (Read more...)

Phishing fraud up by 182 per cent

Fraudsters have been forced to change their tactics in a bid to get their hands on other people’s money – resulting in a sharp increase in the number of card cloning and phishing incidents. (Read more...)

ID theft poster girl faces jail

Philadelphia - A 22-year-old woman will probably face six years in prison after admitting that she and her boyfriend pulled off a brazen identity-theft scheme that funded trips, fancy dinners and expensive salon visits. (Read more...)

All his time spent on fraud: Ex-Livent official

TORONTO -- A former Livent Inc. accounting employee says he spent "100 per cent" of his work time recording a huge volume of fraudulent manipulations to the company's books. (Read more...)

14

Serious Fraud Office probe into Torex Retail ongoing after 18 months

The Serious Fraud Office is still conducting its investigation into Torex Retail, which it began in January 2007, writes Philip Stafford.

It was launched after Neil Mitchell, then chief executive of the retail software group, presented himself to the SFO. (Read more...)

US government accuses Ranbaxy of forgery, data fraud

New Delhi, July 13 (IANS) The US government has filed a complaint against India’s largest pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy Laboratories and its US-based consultant Parexel Consulting, for forgery and concealing data. Th US government filed a motion in a Maryland court for procuring relevant documents to investigate a case against Ranbaxy. It alleges the pharma giant had tried to forge and conceal data in order to get a favourable judgement in an ongoing investigation into the sale of sub-standard drugs in that country. (Read more...)

Lawyers: Severely punish NY woman who abused kids

NEW YORK - Despite a plea deal, a woman who adopted and abused 11 disabled children while pocketing more than $1 million in subsidies should face up to 40 years in prison for inflicting "personal nightmares" on them, lawyers for the children told a judge Monday. (Read more...)

13

Suspicions mount in Israel against Olmert

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Suspicions of fraud mounted on Sunday against Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with the publication in a newspaper of what it said were invoices backing police allegations he made duplicate claims for travel expenses. (Read more...)

FOX 6 Investigators: Food Stamp Fraud

Millions of dollars in federal aid meant for flood victims may be going to people who didn't have so much as a wet basement. Nearly 20,000 people in Milwaukee County alone applied for emergency food stamps. (Read more...)

10

First Bank Mortgage's Ex-President Indicted In $35 Million Fraud

The former president of St. Louis's First Bank Mortgage, a unit of First Bank, was indicted Thursday for allegedly losing the institution up to $35 million as a result of shady securities transactions, the Department of Justice said. (Read more...)

12 plead not guilty to mortgage fraud scheme

Twelve defendants in a federal mortgage fraud case entered pleas of not guilty in Chicago federal court Tuesday to charges that they defrauded lenders out of $16 million in loan proceeds. (Read more...)

Hanafin hopes to save €25m by targeting welfare fraud

THE DEPARTMENT of Social and Family Affairs is targeting savings of €25 million by curbing fraud, the Dáil was told. (Read more...)

Shanghai property tycoon held for loan fraud

SHANGHAI: Shanghai police have detained a major highway and property development tycoon on suspicion of bank loan fraud involving 4.6 billion yuan ($671 million), the Oriental Morning Post reported Wednesday. (Read more...)

AFL great David Dench jailed for fraud

AFL great David Dench became a prison inmate yesterday when he was jailed for four months over his role in a multi-million dollar fraud. (Read more...)

09

HSBC clerk gets nine years for attempted £72m fraud

A former HSBC clerk who tried to steal £72 million from the bank in a massive electronic fraud has been sentenced to nine years in jail. (Read more...)

Sycamore Ex-CFO Settles Backdating Case

The former CFO of optical networking company Sycamore Networks, along with an ex-director of financial operations and another former executive, will pay more than $650,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they helped backdate stock options from 1999 to 2002. (Read more...)

Probe finds dead doctors used in Medicare scams

WASHINGTON — Sellers of wheelchairs, drugs and other medical supplies collected as much as $93 million in fraudulent Medicare claims based on prescriptions from doctors who actually were dead, some for 10 years or more, a congressional investigation has found. (Read more...)

08

Bribe-takers found in anti-corruption body

Dhaka - Bangladesh's top anti-corruption body admitted on Tuesday that it has discovered several of its own officials taking bribes while enforcing a nationwide crackdown on the practice. (Read more...)

Coke Settles Fraud Suit for $137.5 Million

After eight years of litigation, the Coca-Cola Co. will pay $137.5 million in cash to settle a securities fraud suit brought by Coke shareholders. The suit alleged that former Coke executives engaged in a massive securities fraud based on a practice known as "channel-stuffing," which allegedly involved pressuring soft drink bottlers, who bought concentrated syrup from Coke, into buying at least $600 million worth of excess concentrate to bolster sales artificially.

Finance exec gets 12 years in BWC fraud case

A Pittsburgh hedge fund manager convicted of defrauding the Ohio workers' compensation system has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and must pay back more than $213 million. (Read more...)

Ex-PM Thaksin goes on trial

Bangkok - Nearly two years after he was deposed by a military coup, former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra went on trial on Tuesday on corruption charges in the first of many cases against his family and aides. (Read more...)

Government denies Saudi prince tried to halt fraud inquiry

Lawyers for the government yesterday denied that a Saudi prince had tried to pervert the course of justice to halt a corruption investigation into a contentious arms deal.

Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia has been accused of personally seeking to stop the Serious Fraud Office investigation into allegations that he received more than £1bn in secret payments from BAE Systems, Britain's biggest arms company. (Read more...)

Australia Losing Nearly $1 Billion To ID Fraud

Over $980 million was lost as a result of personal fraud according to the first National Personal Fraud Survey, by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which was released today. (Read more...)

07

Benefit fraud 'needs firm action'

The government needs to do more to prosecute suspected benefit fraudsters, MPs have said.

The Commons public accounts committee said fewer than 7,500 out of 200,000 potential fraud cases investigated in 2006/7 had ended up going to court. (Read more...)

PINs not key to secure accounts

KEEPING that four-digit PIN guarded may not provide the protection you thought it would.

US giant bank Citibank has sued hackers who allegedly broke into the bank's network of ATMs inside 7-Eleven stores and stole customers' PIN codes, according to court documents.

The scam netted the alleged identity thieves millions of dollars. But more importantly for consumers, it indicates criminals were able to access PINs - the numeric passwords that theoretically are among the most closely guarded elements of banking transactions - by attacking the back-end computers responsible for approving the cash withdrawals. (Read more...)

Ericsson officials to be tried for fraud

Five officials in Sweden from mobile phone operator Ericsson are suspected of defrauding several billion kronor (millions of dollars), Swedish agency TT reported on Sunday (Read more...)

Lawyer argues against jailing David Dench for fraud

A JUDGE has been urged not to jail AFL legend David Dench over his part in a multi-million-dollar scam.

The 57-year-old former North Melbourne star was last month found guilty of 11 charges over a $4.9 million Victoria University maintenance fraud. (Read more...)

06

Serious Fraud Office fights for its credibility

Tomorrow is a dangerous day for the Serious Fraud Office's new chief, Richard Alderman. The House of Lords will review the SFO's politically embarrassing decision to drop the investigation into BAE Systems and a criminal court will be asked to quash its prosecution of drug companies who allegedly cost the NHS £2bn by rigging prices. (Read more...)

Israel corruption probe spreads to US

JERUSALEM - Israeli police have sent two senior investigators to the United States to expand a corruption probe linked to embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a spokesman said today. (Read more...)

Extradited scamster produced in court

Big-time economic offender and CEO of an international metal trading company, Narendra Rastogi, was on Saturday produced at a special sessions court here, following his extradition from the US on Friday. He has been remanded to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody till July 11. (Read more...)

05

Five-year gambling habit + $460,000 in stolen gov't cash = 15 months in jail

Brenda Oates -- once a high-ranking government employee, devoted volunteer and well-respected member of the community -- was led out of a Regina courtroom in handcuffs on Friday after being sentenced to more than a year in jail for fraud. (Read more...)

04

French regulator fines Societe Generale for rogue trade

France's banking regulator Friday fined Societe Generale four million euros (6.3 million dollars) over "grave deficiencies" in its internal controls that enabled a massive rogue trade scandal at the bank. (Read more...)

Vienna court sends BAWAG bankers to prison

VIENNA (Reuters) - A Vienna court on Friday sentenced nine men to prison for their roles in causing losses at Austrian bank BAWAG P.S.K. of as much as 1.7 billion euros (1.3 billion pounds) by making risky investments. (Read more...)

British brokerage boss is jailed for 'depraved' fraud

The former head of the brokerage firm Refco was sentenced yesterday to 16 years in prison for the $1.5bn (£750m) fraud he engineered that ultimately destroyed the company. (Read more...)

2 drug firms to appeal $114M price fraud verdict

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Two large pharmaceutical companies said Thursday they will appeal a jury verdict ordering them to pay more than $114 million for overcharging the state's Medicaid program for prescription drugs. (Read more...)

03

Risk Management Concerns Audit Committees

Risk management has become a top concern of audit committee members, according to a new report.

A survey of 300 audit committee members by KPMG's Audit Committee Institute and the National Association of Corporate Directors found that only 28 percent consider themselves "very satisfied" that they understand the process used by management to identify and assess significant business risks. Only 21 percent are very satisfied with the risk reports they receive from management. (Read more...)

SEC and PCAOB Guidance Aids SOX Compliance

Rules and guidance issued last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board have made it easier for companies to cut the time they spend on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. (Read more...)

Michael Kyereme pleads guilty to $6.9M Cisco SMARTnet fraud

Yesterday, 41 year old Michael Kyereme a/k/a "Michael Appiahkyeremeh" of Piscataway - New Jersey, pled guilty to charges of mail fraud and tax evasion.

In his mail fraud guilty plea, Kyereme admitted defrauding Cisco out of $6.9 million in replacement parts by scamming the Cisco SMARTnet Service program. (Read more...)

Car insurance fraud runs at £5m a week as owners try to clear debts

Fraudulent motor insurance claims have soared by more than 70 per cent in the past four years, making the car the No 1 insurance fraud target. The Association of British Insurers will announce today that fraudsters are submitting dishonest motor claims of £5 million a week. (Read more...)

UAE: Detain order out in Dh8.4bn fraud case

The office of the Attorney-General of Dubai has issued an order to detain Dubai-based Al Boom Holdings partner and chairman of the board for an alleged Dh8.4 billion fraud, along with seven other unnamed people.

Attorney-General Essam Issa Al Humeidan also issued orders to freeze the assets of the company, in order to safeguard the rights of the investors. (Read more...)

Clerk admits $140 million UK bank fraud plot

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) - A bank clerk pleaded guilty in Britain on Thursday to conspiracy to defraud HSBC bank of more than $140 million, police said. (Read more...)

02

Accountant embezzled 2.8M from Tishman, prosecutors say

An accountant already in trouble for scamming a construction company out of $400,000 is now accused of ripping off millions more from another firm.

John Hoeffner was charged Wednesday with grand larceny and possession of a forged instrument for allegedly falsifying business receipts in a scheme to swindle Tishman Construction Corp., one of the city's best-known builders, out of more than $2.8 million. (Read more...)

Apple, Steve Jobs face securities fraud lawsuit

Apple's legal woes over the backdating of stock options is not over yet. A new class action lawsuit has been brought against the company, two former executives and several members of the Board of Directors, according to InformationWeek. (Read more...)

New York rabbi pleads guilty in tax fraud case

LOS ANGELES - A rabbi pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in a decade-long tax fraud and money laundering scheme that prosecutors claim involved the leader of an Orthodox Jewish group. (Read more...)

A Backlog Of Cases Alleging Fraud

More than 900 cases alleging that government contractors and drugmakers have defrauded taxpayers out of billions of dollars are languishing in a backlog that has built up over the past decade because the Justice Department cannot keep pace with the surge in charges brought by whistle-blowers, according to lawyers involved in the disputes. (Read more...)

Bad time for business, boom time for fraud

Fraud is a perennial concern to business and never more so than when times are hard.

Even a relatively minor fraud may be enough to push a small business under. So a report by accountants BDO Stoy Hayward, released this week under the headline 'As the credit crunch bites so do the fraudsters', makes alarming reading. (Read more...)

$680,000 fraud revealed after trusted man retires

A trusted supervisor who spent 15 years defrauding a company of $684,278 was jailed for 25 months when he appeared in Christchurch District Court yesterday. (Read more...)

01

Barrister jailed for jet engine VAT fraud

A barrister who pretended to buy and sell jumbo jet engines in a bold bid to pocket £17.5million in VAT refunds was jailed for five years. (Read more...)

Ex-Home Depot employee pleads guilty in fraud case

NEW YORK, June 30 (Reuters) - A former Home Depot Inc (HD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) employee has pleaded guilty to charges that he ran a kickback scam that defrauded the home improvement retailer out of millions of dollars, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday. (Read more...)

Trio appear in court over school fraud

Three men charged with fraudulently obtaining more than $3 million in school funding have appeared in court in Perth. (Read more...)