Financial

A woman who has been ordered to hand over more than £80,000 in a National Crime Agency investigation claimed £25,000 of it was found under her grandmother’s bed.

Carlton Cushnie set up a finance company which was valued at an estimated £230m, but made only one trade finance loan in its existence, which actually lost money.

Digital payments are fuelling a multibillion-dollar fraud surge worldwide, according to new research from SAS.

https://securitybrief.co.nz/story/digital-payments-fuelling-fraud-surge-during-covid-crisis

A man responsible for a £20.5 million investment scam has been jailed, following an investigation by the City of London Police.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased challenges for financial institutions who had to react quickly to the situation, with employees working remotely and increased communication taking place digitally.

James Bufton, 26, stole more than £250,000 from eight victims - including a dying man, close friends and his own family - and spent it on his gambling addiction, hotel stays and helicopter flights to the Cheltenham races.

UK regulators have joined others around the globe to level heavy penalties at subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs for its role in a fraud scheme which looted billions of dollars from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund and used the money to fund Hollywood movies, including the Wolf Of Wall Street.

UBS' domestic activities undercut a powerhouse result elsewhere: Swiss pre-tax profit tumbled to 305 million Swiss francs ($334 million) from 353 million francs year-ago, the Swiss bank said in its quarterly results on Tuesday.

The increasing threat of money laundering and financial fraud from organised crime gangs taking advantage of coronavirus has led to record demand for SmartSearch.

Lloyds Banking Group has agreed to widen a compensation review for victims of the HBOS Reading fraud after pressure from customers and MPs. Business owners who were customers of HBOS are continuing their battle for compensation for the fraud which resulted in six people being jailed, including managers Lynden Scourfield and Mark Dobson. A panel chaired by Sir David Foskett, a former High Court judge, was formed after an independent review concluded that aspects of the bank’s original compensation scheme for the fraud in which bankers deliberately wrecked customers’ businesses were “neither fair nor reasonable” . […] Sir David confirmed that after discussions with MPs, campaigners and the panel itself, Lloyds had agreed that the panel “will no longer have to focus solely on the influence or involvement” of QCS or its associates when considering whether a customer was a victim. […] David McIlroy, a barrister representing some of the victims of the fraud, welcomed the change but criticised the bank for dragging its feet on the issue.