@ArmitageJim @premnsikka 1/ ‘'Solid gold' payments card case exposes limits of UK regulator (@theFCA). Arrest of #Nvayo's Christopher Scanlon raises questions about @theFCA’s ability to oversee digital payments sector. (). #Emoney #OpenBanking ft.com/content/20e7ed…


2/ In 06/2017 #OnlineGambling op #GVC Holdings Plc (f/k/a #Entain) announced the completion of the sale of it’s ‘controversial’ in house #FCA auth. payment processing & card issuing group: ‘#Kalixa Group’ (f/k/a ‘#CQR Group’) that came in #GVC’s acquisition of ‘controversial’ #OnlineGambling op #BWIN.Party.

1/ #Wirecard’s former CFO ‘Burkhard Ley’ charged by German prosecutors with #fraud, 3 years after the now notorious German payment processing unicorn #Wirecard imploded. But who was ‘Burkhard Ley’ ? (‘Wirecard’s Mr Teflon’ - Handelsblatt 10/2021 - ). drive.google.com/file/d/1vo5dQQ…
2/ ‘Burkhard Ley’ was a bank clerk at a German savings bank (1982-8) before joining the now notorious #SalOppenheim private bank (1988-2000), rising to its director of corporate Finance. #SalOppenheim, was one of Europe’s biggest & most conservative private banks, interacting …

@ArmitageJim @premnsikka 1/ #RationalFX: Yet another of Blinky’s (@theFCA) ‘big fish’ from its uber notorious #Emoney/#FX scene bites the dust & put in to ‘special administration’, leaving 10s of 1000s of it’s customers ‘in limbo’ & unprotected by @FSCS (). fca.org.uk/news/news-stor…
2/ #RationalFX collapsed in to insolvency a few days ago, it’s long term (since 2013 y/end) auditor (#CLAEvelynPartners) signed off it’s last (UNqualified) 2022 y/end audited accounts on 23/03/2023 this year - in the background, the dual ‘red flags’ of: an extended (18 month) …

@ArmitageJim @premnsikka 1/ #FormationsHouse - far more than just another of Londonski’s notorious ‘formation factories’ with allegedly fistfuls of trans-national fraudsters/#MoneyLaunderers as clients: ‘liquidator fails to find company boss amid unexplained bank transactions’. 2/ "#29Leaks": in 2019, hacker linked group ‘Distributed Denial of Secrets’ leaked to the media >130GB of data incl. millions of emails, documents, passport copies & bank statements allegedly from #FormationsHouse’ servers, detailing amongst other things it’s clienteles’ japery.

@ArmitageJim @premnsikka 1/ ‘#LSE listed #GrantThornton/#KMPG audited #Entain (formerly #GVC, incorporating #CasinoClub/#SportingBet/#BWIN/#PartyGaming/#Ladbrokes etc) settles bribery case for £615m - says it has the highest levels of #CorporateGovernance after deal with #HMRC’. 2/ #Entain listed on #AIM (a cesspit of illegal gambling & associated payment processing ops, presided over by New Labour & it’s now Lords of #OnlineGambling) in 2004 as Gaming VC Holdings SA - a Luxembourg SPV/#KPMG Lux audited op before switching to #GrantThornton Lux in 2008.

1/ #CryptoCrap - ‘Forking Hell’, handbags at dawn in Switzerland’s crypto-crappery at controversial ‘#blockchain patent production line’ #nChain: ‘#nChain in crisis as CEO quits & alleges #fraud’ (). #CraigWright #CalvinAyre #BitcoinSV fullycrypto.com/nchain-in-cris…
2/ A day is a long time in the crypto-crappery as the hand-bagging at #nChain resulted overnight in #nChain’s CEO & ~half of the directors dropping off the website. The multi-$bn fallout amongst the crypto bros over ‘who is really #Satoshi ?’ & the #Bitcoin ‘hard fork’ continues.

@ArmitageJim @premnsikka 1/ £5.1M High Court claim by ‘Hong Kong-based’ #PSP #UnicornPayment Ltd alleges false risk report filed/funds withheld by it’s #Mastercard payment acquirer #Worldpay (UK). @theFCA auth #Emoney op #WorldPay allege the same old Londonski #PSP story.

2/ At the heart of the dispute according to #WorldPay is an ‘online cosmetics op’ (+ associated ops) #24Beauty (reportedly signed up via a reseller to ‘#UnicornPayment’), whose transactions #WorldPay reportedly had ‘concerns about the "genuineness" of’.

@ArmitageJim @premnsikka 1/ The continuing curious case of the ‘SuperSpry #Superdry CFO guy’. We left off in 10/2020 with the resignation of Nick Gresham, latest in a long line of SuperSpry Superdry CFOs & Superdry finance faux pas’. Next up Benedict Smith, who lasted < a year …

https://twitter.com/ianbeckett/status/1318119366018387968

2/ before the return of Shaun Wills in 2021, a former SuperSpry Superdry CFO guy, who left under a cloud (reportedly personal bankruptcy) in 2015. “… Shaun emerged as the outstanding candidate for the role” Superdry chief executive Julian Dunkerton reportedly said.

@retheauditors @premnsikka 1/ UK audit regulator (#FRC) fines #KPMG £1.25m (+ a former KPMG director fined £50k with a severe reprimand) for serious failures in LSE listed electrical product manufacturer/distributor #Luceco’s 2016 #audit (frc.org.uk/news/april-202…). 2/ Luceco IPO’d on LSE in 10/2016 (130p : £210m mkt cap). Luceco’s long term auditor KPMG ‘triple dipped’ as auditor plus tax & IPO transaction services. Saddled up at Luceco as independent non-exec/on audit committee: Tim Surridge, former partner at KPMG transaction services.

@ArmitageJim @premnsikka 1/ #MiltonGroup the $bn scams: from Tel Aviv/Londonski to Tirana (Albania), @BalkanInsight look at the ‘political connections’ of alleged Albanian scam ‘FX/CFD etc broker boiler rooms’ (balkaninsight.com/2023/04/14/con…). 2/ One of the alleged FX/CFD scam brands cited: #UniverseMarkets (aka White Square Trading) was allegedly linked to both the UK & the web of now arrested (By Italian police) Tripoli born Italian national Ever Cohen. Allegedly last year, his son Daniel & others were arrested …

https://twitter.com/ianbeckett/status/1385603356232671235

1/ @ArmitageJim @premnsikka More from the ‘rotten boroughs’ in only the first conviction of an ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ Govt. COVID support scheme blagger (bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…). Now convicted fraudster/money launderer Mohammed Ikram reportedly made 19 fake claims (£434k) for … 2/ eight different food outlets through the scheme, most of which were "entirely fictitious". Md. Ikram, now a former Keighley Town councillor was also a member of it’s Finance & Audit Committee. Scant publicly available records seemingly indicate Md. Ikram was a ‘co-opted’ …

1/ #CryptoCrap - CEO (Michael Stollery
aka Michael Stollaire) of Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services Inc (#TBIS)/EHI Internetwork & Systems Mgmt Inc (#EHI) sentenced to 4.25 yrs for the $21m #TitaniumBlockchain (#BAR) crypto #ICO #fraud (justice.gov/opa/pr/ceo-tit…). 2/ According to court documents, from 2017 Michael Stollery, touted #TBIS & the unregistered #TBIS crypto ICO (purportedly a decentralised enterprise infrastructure services platform, monetised by a native crypto token: #BAR). Investors were lured through a series of …

@ArmitageJim @premnsikka 1/ #LSE listed taxpayer funded homeless/vulnerable accommodation op & #BDO audited ‘#HomeReit’s biggest tenant (‘#LotusHomes’) dished out £1.2m to bosses before bankruptcy’ (cityam.com/exclusive-home…). HomeReit’s punters were bedazzled, it’s … 2/ ‘double dipping’ auditor/IPO advisor #BDO remains befuddled, the UK’s blind eyed financial regulator (@TheFCA) remains becalmed & trading in HomeReit’s shares remains suspended. Background: ‘how scandal-hit investment fund let down war veterans’ -

https://twitter.com/ianbeckett/status/1632672485308092416

; …

@ArmitageJim @retheauditors @premnsikka 1/ @TheFCA auth. #Emoney op (neobank) #Revolut reportedly frustrates its own board & raises eyebrows in the accounting industry after spinning a critical #BDO
#audit report as a clean bill of health (ft.com/content/9d2f61…). 2/ #Revolut published it’s 2021 audited accounts 5 months after they were originally required to be filed & 2 months after an extension to the deadline had expired. Revolut’s lawyers Schillings said there were "a range of views on the meaning of the qualified opinion".

@retheauditors @premnsikka 1/ “Flipping Hell”: #LSE listed taxpayer funded homeless/vulnerable accommodation op & #BDO audited ‘#HomeReit built on poor foundations’. CityAM, three days ago wrote: ‘#HomeREIT faces legal threat from biggest tenant over £5.5m rent relief deal’ … 2/ (cityam.com/home-reit-face…). A week earlier it was reported that #HomeReit’s ‘investment adviser’ (‘Alvarium’) had (prior to its #SPAC merger) spun out the unit ‘advising’ #HomeReit (‘Alvarium Home REIT Advisors Ltd’) allegedly to a newly created shell, …

https://twitter.com/ianbeckett/status/1598317338662666243

@retheauditors @premnsikka 1/‘ Investigation in to #AIM listed #RevolutionBeauty unveils "serious issues" over the way the business was allegedly run under previous senior managers’. Revolution hired Macfarlanes to investigate after their long term auditors #BDO ‘reared up’. 2/ Yesterday it reportedly emerged that Macfarlanes had discovered Revolution made "unacceptable" loans to senior managers, requested distributors book orders worth £9m to meet y/end financial targets + failed to consider key info. when acquiring a company owned by its chairman.

@ArmitageJim @premnsikka 1/ Offshore #PSP (Payment Service Provider) #CheckoutDOTcom (formerly #OpusPayments) - “Checkout”: ‘how Europe’s most valuable start-up lost its crown’ (ft.com/content/308048…). Checkout (like it’s PSP brethren) was ‘formally’ authorised by the … 2/ UK’s blind eyed financial regulator (@TheFCA, formerly #FSA) in 12/2012, following implementation of the 2011 #Emoney regulations: Checkout’s website would follow months later. The FCA’s ‘#Emoney scene’ has been long covered by a thick ‘FCA fog’ which scandal …

@retheauditors @premnsikka 1/ UK audit regulator #FRC fines #Deloitte £1.25m (£906k) c/w ‘severe reprimand’ over building materials distributor #SIGplc #audit failures. Deloitte’s audit partner Simon Manning fined £50k (£36k) - frc.org.uk/news/december-…. 2/ Unsurprisingly for this type of business the ‘old chestnuts’ of y/end cash & supplier rebates reared their heads. A whistleblower reportedly ‘identified issues’ at its UK insulation & interiors subsidiary: ‘SIG Distribution’. KMPG were reportedly brought in to investigate.

@ArmitageJim @premnsikka 1/ ‘Key US law enforcement aide being investigated for allegedly extorting former Venezuelan officials’. But questions hang over Spain’s allegations that Martin Rodil exploited ties to US officials (icij.org/inside-icij/20…). 2/2 Getting on for a decade ago Bloomberg published a rip-roaring tale of US resident Venezuelan emigre chauffeur Martin Rodil, also working at the IMF as a data entry clerk entering #MoneyLaundering data - he allegedly became a US ‘deep state’/Israeli intelligence ‘middleman’.

@ArmitageJim @premnsikka 1/ #TSB Bank fined by UK regulator (@TheFCA) £48m over ‘serious failings’ in IT platform meltdown (theguardian.com/business/2022/…). TSB was acquired by Spain's #BancoSabadell in 2015 + shunted on to the infamous ‘Sabadell Proteo’ spawned IT platform. 2/ “We have created a more digital, agile & flexible TSB,” said Paul Pester, CEO of TSB, at the unveiling of the bank’s new technology platform, Proteo4UK in 2017 (fintechfutures.com/2017/12/tsb-un…). However, switchover in April 2018 resulted in the loss of internet & mobile banking …

@ArmitageJim @premnsikka - 1/ A corrupt solicitor: ‘Timothy Schools’, who named his firm ‘ATM’ because it was "a cash machine" for litigation awards has been convicted of a notorious #fraud - the £120m #Axiom Legal Financing Fund “Axiom”. Axiom was launched in 2009 as an … 2/ offshore fund (+ its associated ‘fund manager’ - Tangerine Investment Management’ - “#Tangerine”), purportedly providing litigation finance to small UK solicitors firms for low value high volume claims. It was peddled to the UK public & expats widely by a large web of …