A company operating outside the UK obtained contracts in another country by means of corrupt payments made to diplomats of that country. That company was later bought by a UK company which meant that the transactions came within the jurisdiction of the UK authorities and courts. A UK court ordered that the diplomats must pay back the benefits they received calculated at GBP4.4 million. Once recovered, the money will form part of the UK's directed aid budget for the country.
Australian banks are getting a justifiable kicking in the media. and to a degree by regulators, after year after year of bad management, bad conduct and failure to put in place effective risk management and compliance policies and procedures especially in relation to money laundering, etc. But it would be wrong to read the headline that a consultant to Macquarie Bank has been convicted of money laundering means the bank made errors in law, although arguably there may have been an error in judgement.
Two men have been sentenced to long jail terms in Australia for tax evasion and money laundering. They conspired to create an elaborate network of companies and false identities and ran a wide range of document frauds to book false losses in business activities, producing some AUD60 million in defrauded taxes. They spent the money on palatial homes, cars and boats and other luxury items and lifestyle expenditure.
Phillip Eric de Figueiredo was a principal in the firm of Strachans based in Jersey and Switzerland. Along with Philip Egglishaw, de Figueiredo arranged for clients in Australia to dishonestly reduce the tax payable to the ATO by way of a number of arrangements. De Figueiredo was extradited from Jersey and eventually pleaded guilty to 2 conspiracies involving Australian clients.
A woman from Florida, USA, who was convicted of fraudulently obtaining more than USD100,000 in benefits from her employer has been ordered to repay the amount but not sent to jail.
Six people were convicted and sentenced to jail terms following their convictions for fraud. They set up websites that were close copies of websites of various governments, promising to perform various services for which they had no legal authority or ability to perform.
Christopher Woodhead created several companies claiming them to be contractors supplying and applying external coating to houses. But the companies took payment, didn't do the work or did it shabbily and Woodhead took the cash out of the company, setting up another one in its wake. He was jailed after an investigation by the UK's Serious Fraud Office. But that's not the end of the story.
F.H. Bertling Ltd and six current and former employees have been convicted of conspiracy to make corrupt payments to an agent of the Angolan state oil company, Sonangol, in relation to F.H. Bertling’s freight forwarding business in Angola and a contract worth approximately $20m. One defendant was acquitted of the charges. Three of those convicted have been sentenced.
Two members of staff at a driving and vehicle licensing office has have pleaded guilty to taking bribes to issue commercial driving licences to persons who had not passed the relevant driving tests. Although little is made of this part of the case, it is noticeable that it involved lawful access to computer systems for illegal purposes.
Heon-Cheol Chi, 59, of South Korea, has been convicted of money laundering using a bank account in the USA in connection with bribes received in relation to his work as director of South Korea's Earthquake Research Centre, a division of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM).
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