Afren forced to notify SFO over expenses woes March 23, 2015 TROUBLED oil firm Afren has been forced to notify the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) of concerns around the hiring of an individual within the company in 2012 and the payment of certain travel and accommodation expenses. The firm said it had also notified the bondholders’ committee, which is in the process of granting the company [...]
Traders at Barclays and Deutsche Bank questioned over Euribor rigging March 8, 2015 The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is questioning former traders from Barclays and Deutsche Bank over possible Euribor rigging. According to the FT, which spoke to sources close to the matter, they are being interviewed “under caution”. This means the UK fraud investigators must have at least a reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, and this type of [...]
Bank of England tight lipped on liquidity market probe March 5, 2015 Threadneedle Street was on lockdown yesterday, as Bank of England officials declined to give any details of potential fraud around its liquidity operations in the crisis years. A spokesperson for the Bank said it would not answer questions on speculation over which of the Bank’s schemes the alleged fraud relates to. “We are not getting [...]
Serious Fraud Office to probe Bank of England’s liquidity auction March 4, 2015 The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is investigating Bank of England liquidity auctions held during the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008. The central bank confirmed last night that it had handed over the findings of an independent inquiry conducted by Lord Grabiner QC into whether any bank officials knew of, or took part in, attempts [...]
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. [...]