SMALL'S Big House

This is a bit late, but just in case you haven't seen this report it's worth checking out the house a fraudster built. Builders' merchant Gerard Small from Tyrone, Northern Ireland, defrauded revenue of st£4.5 million in unpaid tax and false claims for family credits. He preferred to splash it all on his ornate house. He even held an open-day so neighbours could come in and gawk. Have a look at the pictures here on the BBC.

SLOW burn Bernie

I've moaned about how slow things are to move against Irish fraudsters when compared to how quick the US authorities moved against Bernie Madoff. His sons blew the whistle in October 2008 and by March 2009 he was serving a life sentence. There's nothing like the immediate threat of jail to uncover any hidden stashes of money. But it seems the US financial watchdogs have not covered themselves in glory. Self-confessed 'Greek geek' Harry Markopolos has written No One Would Listen about his ten year battle to expose Madoff as a fraud. He was pointing the finger long before Madoff was forced to admit he was a conman. Check out this very interesting extract here.

AIB and fraud

Two men have now been charged with one of the UK's biggest property frauds which saw Allied Irish Banks lose st£56 million. Achilleas Kollakis persuaded the bankers he was a big player in the property market. He got loans thanks to having blue-chip tenants for various properties (such as UK government agencies.) The claims were fake or exaggerated. Read the press release from the Serious Fraud Office here and follow the links through a previous post for more information on Kollakis' colourful life.

EASY money

There was an interesting case in today's Dublin Circuit Criminal Court where a guy showed how easy it can be to steal money from a bank. The only drawback for Limerick man, Pat Sheedy (40), of Cliona Park, Moyross, was that he got caught. In 2007 he set up a bank account in Dublin to enable the fictitious transfer of cash from his non-existent company in the UK and then used an overdraft to gamble away over €10,000 of the bank's money. He used his real passport and a reference from his real employer to set up the sting. Sheedy, who has 25 previous convictions is now awaiting sentence.

BOGUS smokes

Irish Revenue today seized a big consignment of smuggled cigarettes which they 'conservatively' estimate to amount to 28 million cigarettes. While the Regal brand seized are the real thing, part of the cargo includes counterfeit Superkings. Read about it here on RTE. A billion cigarettes are smuggled into Ireland every year of which the tobacco industry estimate a third of which are counterfeit cigarettes rolled and packaged in black market factories. Read the previous posts on Ireland's black market tobacco trade here.

BOILER rooms

Financial graduates and junior bankers looking for work have been warned about signing up to work for bogus brokerages. Better known as 'boiler-rooms' the scam involves talking people into buying worthless stock. Sometimes the shares don't even exist or are propped up by the fraudsters trading shares with eachother in a practice known as 'pump and dump.' The Serious Fraud Office in London warned graduates that the moment they suspect their employers are crooks they have to report it to the authorities. If they ignore their suspicions and continue working then they become part of the scam. Sales people can earn thousands of euros for one successful deal so the temptation is there. The con-artists will also be looking to recruit website specialists and IT experts to support their operations. The advice is to make sure the recruiting company is legitimate before signing up. Check out my previous post on Paul Robert Gunter.

419 scams

The 419ers (so-called after the section of the Nigerian constitution outlawing fraud) are a democratic bunch when it comes to scamming victims. Last week in the UK, it emerged during a court case how an eye-surgeon was blind-sided by a 419er. Chinaenye Mokelu (44) sent a spam email to the UK seeking help to transfer his $300 million fortune to Britain. Needless to say, the cash didn't exist and Mokelu duped a consultant doctor into sending him st£352,000. He turned up in London at one point to show his hapless victim a suitcase of fake cash. Mokelu got five-years at Basildon Crown Court for his crimes. Read the court report here.