help Three fund managers have been sentenced to ?years and three months following a sevenyear investigation into their fraudulent handling of the Libyan sovereign wealth fund.
The UK's National Crime Agency NCA ?said it began its investigation after one of the trio, Frederic Marino, walked out of a London meeting with auditors and promptly fled to Norway.
French nationals Marino and coconspirator Aurelien Bessot set up an investment company, FM Capital Partners FMCP ?in Knightsbridge to make investments on behalf of the Libya A fica Investment Portfolio IAIP
However, they were discovered to have made these investments via Swiss banker Yoshiki Ohmura, generating linder fees that were under declared and laundered through several shell companies set up by the trio in the Seychelles and Cayman Islands.
Between ?and ?the three men's actions resulted in losses of$ mathrm~m ?to the LAIP, according to the NCA.
The agency's investigation scoured Libya, Switzerland, the UAE, Monaco and Guernsey for evidence and witnesses over a sevenyear period.
In a trial at Southwark Crown Court, Marino and Ohmura were found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud by abuse of position, while Bexsot pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by abuse of position of trust before the start of the trial.
"Ihis has been an extremely complex investigation with multijurisdictional challenges," argued NCA branch commander, Richard Harrison.
"These sentences send a clear message to anyone in the financial sector about the consequences of abusing their position. The mathrmNCprimemathrmA ?is committed to tackling fraud and those who abuse the UK's financial centre to facilitate their crimes."
However, London still has a reputation for being too soft on alleged widespread money laundering and financial fraud ?especially by Russian oligarehs. Transparency International identified mathrmbn$ mathrmbn ?of Russian money in London property, most of which is held by shell companics ofl'shore, according to The Ticonomist,
The paper claimed that enforeement efforts in the UK are woefully underresourced. However, there are occasional wins for the NCA.
Iast December, a Russian businessman was atrested in his multimillionpound London residence on suspicion ol ?ollenses including money laundering, conspiracy to deliaud the Ilome Office and conspiracy to commit perjury.
In January ?a Russian and a Lithuanian national were sentenced to a combined ?years for laundering an estimated mathrm~m$ mathrm~m ?Required: As the principal in your organization, critically discuss the extent to which public accountants and auditors should take action for fraud prevention strategies to uitigate the fraud occurrences in their organization. Support your discussion with relerences to literuture.
