Christopher Woodhead’s decade and a half on the run has ended, following an enforcement hearing at Leeds Magistrates’ Court. In 2004, Woodhead was sentenced to 6 years and 4 months in prison, following a joint prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office and West Yorkshire Police. Today he was handed down an additional 3 years default sentence in relation to the unpaid confiscation order of £428,000. With interest, the amount now owing is £900,000.

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EU countries lost €137 billion in Value-Added Tax (VAT) revenues in 2017 according to a study released by the European Commission. The so-called ‘VAT Gap’ – or the overall difference between the expected VAT revenue and the amount actually collected – has reduced somewhat compared to previous years but remains very high. This substantial VAT Gap again highlights the need for comprehensive reform of the EU VAT rules, as proposed in 2017 by the Commission, and increased cooperation between Member States to clamp down on VAT fraud and to make the rules work for legitimate businesses and traders. The VAT Gap measures the effectiveness of VAT enforcement and compliance measures in each Member State, as it provides an estimate of revenue loss due to fraud and evasion, tax avoidance, bankruptcies, financial insolvencies as well as miscalculations. Continue reading…

Mr Baldwin was sentenced in his absence after he absconded from justice during his trial for money laundering in July 2017. The sentence also includes punishment for separate contempts of court that he admitted in November 2015 for breaching a Restraint Order made in June 2011. The Restraint Order prevented Mr Baldwin from in any way disposing of, dealing with or diminishing the value of any of his assets within or outside of England & Wales.

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Sara Lawson QC, General Counsel of the Serious Fraud Office, speaking at the Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime 2019. She startes here speech as follows: “I am delighted to be here, for the first time, speaking on behalf of the Serious Fraud Office. You have heard from our Director about what we have been doing; building on the work of Sir David and his team who, amongst other things, pioneered the use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements and, importantly, made the case for the survival of the SFO so eloquently, not only in words but in deeds. That is to say, by taking on the formidable cases which could only be pursued with the tools and the structure of the SFO.”

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In 1787, during the debates on adopting the US Constitution, James Madison stated that “[t]he circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money”. It’s telling that Madison chose to use public trust in money as the yardstick for trust in public institutions – money and trust are as inextricably intertwined as money and the state. Money is an “indispensable social convention” that can only work if the public trusts in its stability and acceptability and, no less importantly, if the public has confidence in the resolve of its issuing authorities to stand behind it, in bad times as well as in good.

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The European Court of Auditors (ECA) and the European Central Bank (ECB) have agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that establishes practical information-sharing arrangements between the two institutions. These arrangements will allow the ECA to seek and obtain all the documents and information that it needs to audit ECB Banking Supervision. Highly confidential documentation will be fully protected, and access to sensitive bank-specific information will be granted in a controlled environment on-site at the ECB.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a Pennsylvania investment adviser with operating an investment advisory fraud involving over $100 million in investments. The SEC also obtained an emergency asset freeze. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Brenda Smith, and her fund Broad Reach Capital, LP, raised approximately $105 million from approximately 40 investors by representing that she would invest their money in publicly traded securities through various trading strategies that she championed as providing consistent high returns.

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The European Banking Authority (EBA) published the findings of its analysis on the regulatory framework applicable to FinTech firms when accessing the market. The Report illustrates the developments on the regulatory perimeter across the EU, the regulatory status of FinTech firms, and the approaches followed by competent authorities when granting authorisation for banking and payment services.
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The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets’ regulator, has published a statement addressed to providers marketing, distributing or selling contracts for differences (CFDs) to retail clients. The statement is in response to various practices and situations observed in the market, which raise concerns of non-compliance with the legal requirements applicable when providing services to retail clients.

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Most organisations still falling short of requirements. The (UK) government is determined to toughen its approach to modern slavery following a review of the 2015 Modern Slavery Act, according to Alexandros Paraskevas a professor of strategic risk management at the University of West London. Speaking to Airmic News shortly before the results of the review are due to published, he said businesses “should expect stricter regulation, with sanctions for non-compliance and greater obligations on businesses to mitigate the risks.”
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