Friday 3 July 2009

Welcome to the SFO

The Serious Fraud Office is a government department and is part of the UK criminal justice system.

Its aim is to protect society by pursuing and prosecuting those who commit serious and complex fraud.

“Welcome to the SFO website - I hope you will find it informative and useful. If you have any questions or issues with it or would like more information on a subject please let us know”. Richard Alderman, Director

  • Link to content in spanish
  • Link to content in french
  • Link to content in Gujarati
  • Link to content in hindi
  • Link to content in urdu
  • Link to content in welsh
An overview of the SFO is available in the following languages: [Spanish] [French] [Gujarati] [Hindi] [Urdu] [Welsh]

Latest News

30 June 2009

SFO restrains $100M in Allen Stanford Case

Following developments in the US where Allen Stanford was taken into FBI custody in a criminal investigation, the SFO can now reveal that responding to a formal request from the US Department of Justice, it has obtained a restraining order over $100 million of assets believed to be held at certain London financial institutions. The order is in connection with Robert Allen Stanford, Stanford International Bank and others.

23 June 2009

Financial consultant defrauded British ‘expats’

Expatriates in Indonesia were defrauded of over US$800,000 by purported financial advisor Alan Gardner, a jury determined yesterday. Gardner created a fictitious foreign currency trading scheme, supposedly backed by the reputable Swiss bank UBS, offering 48% returns per year. The scheme was a sham in which four British and a Canadian expatriate were defrauded in a classic case of a high-yield investment fraud. Gardner was sentenced by HHJ Hooper at Worcester Crown Court to six years imprisonment.

19 June 2009

Four sentenced in a $10 million "Ponzi" fraud

Four men who operated high-yield investment schemes have been sentenced today to a total of over ten years after admitting their participation in defrauding investors worldwide of a total of US$10 million. A fifth man was sentenced in September 2008. At the centre of the fraud, entailing one of the most complex investigations undertaken by the SFO and Cheshire Police, was a project to extract gold from spent ore, though not an ounce was produced, and no revenue generated.

News archive

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