Archive for March, 2009
31.03.09 SOCA Issues Warning To Drug Traffickers
Posted by: BTC in General News & Cases, SOCA - Latest News on March 31st, 2009
The Serious Organised Crime Agency is warning drug traffickers they will face a long time behind bars if they attempt to import drugs into the United Kingdom.
Tobagonians Owen Alfred and Oswin Moore were jailed for 18 and 15 years respectively in London today for their roles in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy. Ten other members of the organised crime gang, which has been completely dismantled by SOCA, were previously sentenced to a total of 144 years.
Alfred and Moore were extradited from Trinidad and Tobago to the UK in June 2008 and were convicted of conspiracy to import controlled drugs following a six-week trial at Kingston Crown Court.
SOCA Executive Director Trevor Pearce said: “Drug trafficking causes misery to local communities and funds other criminal activity. SOCA and its partners are committed to using our global partnerships to tackle this problem.
“Today’s lengthy jail terms send a very clear message to criminals – if you come onto SOCA’s radar we will pursue you, track you down, and put you behind bars. Alfred and Moore have paid a heavy price for importing cocaine into the UK and are now in jail thousands of miles away from their family and friends. Targeting the UK is a high risk business and will not be tolerated.”
The court heard how gang members in the UK used a money transfer service to pay Alfred and Moore to supply drugs and provide documentation, accommodation, transportation and cover stories for drug mules. Officers identified 21 mules, who had each swallowed up to one kilo of cocaine. They have all been jailed separately either in Tobago or the UK.
Evidence including money transaction details, false letters and telephone bills enabled officers to prove approximately 140 kilos of cocaine had been sent to the UK between June 2002 and July 2005. The cocaine was being distributed by UK gang members to dealers in South London.
Both men were arrested on behalf of SOCA by officers from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service’s Organised Crime, Narcotics and Firearms Bureau. They were extradited to the UK in June 2008 following a court hearing in the Port of Spain.
Trevor Pearce added: “The success of this investigation is down to the hard work and dedication of officers from both SOCA and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service. Eight of their officers travelled to the UK to give evidence and I want to thank them for their assistance.
“By working in partnership with the TTPS and the Attorney General’s office we have successfully dismantled an organised crime gang responsible for causing harm to the public in both the UK and Trinidad and Tobago.”
As part of a different operation, the UK’s 120 year old extradition treaty with Colombia was used for the first time last week when a man was brought back to the UK by SOCA officers to face charges of money laundering linked to cocaine supply.
Sentencing details:
Kingston Crown Court, London – 31 March 2009
• Owen Alfred, DoB 30/6/68, of Idle Wild, Scarborough, Tobago – 18 years
• Oswin Moore, DoB 28/4/68, of Big George Junction, Orange Hill Road,
• Patience Hill, Tobago – 15 years
Kingston Crown Court, London – 20 July 2006
• Paul Williams, DoB 22/06/67, Harris House, Brixton, London – 22 years
• Delroy Gibson, DoB 19/06/67, Church Road, Gypsy Hill, London – 21 years
• Anson Charles, DoB 25/08/59, Alexander Drive, Gipsy Hill, London (T&T national) – 20 years
• Charles Gordon, DoB not known, Broadstone House, Kennington, London – 20 years
• Wayne Brown, DoB 20/04/65, Whitehorse Lane, Thornton Heath, London – 10 years
• Kerin Burris-Gordon, DoB 23/06/82, Broadstone House, Kennington – 10 years
• Derek Anthony, DoB 28/08/68, Roberts House, Tulse Hill, London – 15years
• Stephanie McQueenie, DoB 05/12/79, Lockwood Square, Rotherhithe, London – 13 years
• Stacy Burris, DoB 13/07/84, Alexander Drive, Gipsy Hill, London – 7 years
• Yvonne Anthony, DoB 03/09/75, Letchford Gardens, White City, London – 6 years
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30.03.09 Wirral drug baron’s wife’s Champagne lifestyle comes to end
Posted by: BTC in General News & Cases on March 30th, 2009
SHE enjoyed a life of the most vulgar excess, once joining her husband for a £600 chauffeur ride to Claridges for a £345 meal at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant. But yesterday the glamorous wife of a Liverpool drugs baron was locked up for laundering his ill-gotten gains. Former beautician Sara Shea used her university-educated husband Keith’s drug money to pay for an enviable lifestyle of luxury.
He was locked up for 15 years in 2007 for plotting to flood the streets with cocaine, while storing a deadly arsenal of weapons.
The couple married in a lavish Barbados beach ceremony – spending £12,000 on flights alone – before throwing a £6,000 homecoming at Wirral’s Hillbark hotel. They splashed out £1,095 on dinner in the Oxo Tower – washed down with a £850 bottle of Cristal champagne. Their love of designer watches included an exclusive Chopard, a diamond-encrusted Chanel and his 18-carat gold Rolex. The latter cost £11,530.
Of course, no luxury lifestyle is complete without expensive cars. The Sheas had their share of Porsches, before settling on the £110,000 Aston Martin police found when they raided their £300,000 Wallasey home, where the steam room had its own plasma TV. The Aston was accompanied by a £46,500 BMW and a £76,000 Porsche.
In just a year, the Sheas spent £90,000 in lavish entertainment, including £5,000 on hospitality at the British Open golf and £1,000 a time hiring a box at the MEN Arena. Mrs Shea owned handbags worth £12,000, with an account at Christian Dior’s boutique in Monaco.
Yesterday, smartly-dressed with sunglasses, and carrying a designer bag, she was jailed for 2½ years. Judge David Harris, QC, said: “There are other partners who may be in this position.
“The message has to go out that, if they meddle in the proceeds of crime, particularly drug crime, there will be serious repercussions for them.”
Liverpool Crown Court heard the jet-set couple holidayed in luxurious resorts in Mexico, Marbella, and Nice. Sara Shea claimed she never knew her husband was a drugs lord.
But Graham Pickavance, prosecuting, told the court the couple were stripped of £7,000 and 2000 euros at Liverpool’s John Lennon airport that was heavily contaminated with Class A drugs. Mrs Shea was carrying half the money, which they never tried to reclaim. The dark-haired 30-year-old, of Montpellier Court, Wallasey, later admitted she suspected their life-style was funded by crime.
She admitted 11 money laundering charges, totaling £104,000.
Jonathan Clarke, defending, told the court Sara Shea had inadvertently become involved because of her husband’s actions. He said: “It is an unusual case because this defendant has played no role whatsoever in the offences that lay in such funding coming into the household coffers.
“Her money laundering was simply spending the money she received from her husband, or being in possession of items he had bought. “She found herself there rather than seeking it.”
Mr Clarke told the court Shea, who is now dependant on beta blockers and sleeping tablets, had moved away from crime and had been working full-time in Debenhams. She had no wish to return to her husband.
Judge Harris agreed Sara Shea had “undoubted qualities”, but said she had led an “excessively luxurious lifestyle”. “You chose to turn a blind eye, to ask no questions and to shelter yourself from developing certain knowledge to the nature of his activity.”
Keith and Sara Shea will face a ‘proceeds of crime’ hearing on July 18.
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16 March 2009 HM Treasury warns businesses of serious threats posed to the international financial system
Posted by: BTC in AML Legislation updates, General Information & FAQ's, HMRC News and Guidance on March 16th, 2009
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has announced that it remains concerned by Iran’s failure to meaningfully address the deficiencies in its Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF) regime, particularly in respect of terrorist financing and suspicious activity reporting.
The FATF has called on its members to consider effective countermeasures to protect their financial sectors from risks emanating from Iran, and to protect against the use of correspondent banking relationships to bypass or evade counter-measures and risk mitigation practices.
All UK businesses regulated under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007, whether Money Service Businesses or other regulated persons should treat transactions associated with Iran as situations that by their nature can present a higher risk of money laundering or terrorist financing, and which therefore require increased scrutiny, enhanced due diligence, and ongoing monitoring. In the light of the call for countermeasures the UK is, in addition, considering what further action is required.
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12 March 2009 SOCA ‘Payback’ Conference a success
Posted by: BTC in General News & Cases, SOCA - Latest News on March 13th, 2009
The payback conference at the National Motorbike Museum, Birmingham was well attended and was generally appreciated by all attendees. Most sectors had a presence of their supervisory bodies. HMRC gave a presentation on risk assessment as well as having advisors on hand to answer queries.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was on hand for the estate agency market while representatives from the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) and The Law Society were on hand for the legal market. The Accountancy sector was represented by a number of supervisors such as the ACCA, ICB & CIPFA. For the first time there were also displays from a number of firms who had support services for the regulated firm. There was a large number representing electronic verification services.
There were a number of excellent ‘breakout’ sessions giving a good insight into law enforcement as well as supervisors stating their own purpose and problems. The highlight of the day had to be the new head of the SRA who stated that he had a number of problems in his sector to address, for example, who files a SAR on a transaction emanating from a solicitors client’s account? Answer, no one. When questioned directly regarding his concerns over solicitors acting in a criminal or improper manner, he replied, “I do not believe that solicitors are any worse than any other sector”. This did cause a titter amongst the audience.
These events are worth attending especially for the smaller business, giving you a chance to network and discuss concerns with your peers, supervisors and law enforcement.
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11/03/09 Brown and tax havens – Treat ‘em mean
Posted by: BTC in General News & Cases on March 11th, 2009
Editorial: The Guardian
However slowly, however piecemeal, progress is being made in forcing tax havens to become less secretive. Yesterday it was the turn of Jersey to sign an agreement with the UK that it will share information about offshore tax payments. Gordon Brown has been sounding tougher too. In his address to US Congress last week was this remarkable sentence: “How much safer would everybody’s savings be if the whole world finally came together to outlaw offshore tax havens?”
An excellent question, even if the person raising it comes as rather a surprise. This is after all the same Gordon Brown who barely did anything about tax havens during his decade as chancellor. Indeed, while Mr Brown was in Number 11, the International Monetary Fund effectively branded Britain a tax haven on account of its lax rules on rich non-domiciles. Sinners can repent, of course, but to be truly convincing they must reform. And of that there is not yet enough evidence. The tax-information exchange agreement with Jersey may be less significant than it appears. Seasoned campaigner Richard Murphy observes that the Cayman Islands, which has a similar agreement with the US, only budgets for around 120 enquiries a year. That is a tiny number considering how much money flows between the US and the Caribbean tax haven. Nor are the UK authorities being quite as tough as they make out. When officials discuss the agenda for next month’s G20 summit, it is clear that they are relying on others – whether that be the US, Germany or France, or the rich-countries club of the OECD – to take the lead in the havens debate, with the UK following some way behind.
So any optimism must be heavily qualified – but there should still be optimism, for three reasons. The first is that the political climate is different. The US now has a president who is determined to crack down on tax havens, and the financial crisis has emboldened those European leaders who have long wanted action. Mr Brown has cover for his new-found radicalism. The second is that the financial crisis is helping to make the case against offshore tax dodging. As officials and expert outsiders are able to examine the detritus of the securitisation boom, they are finding strong evidence of how much of it was driven by the tax advantages of using offshore havens.
Finally, there is an economic imperative – governments are spending vast sums, even while their revenues are being hit by the recession. The search is on for more ways to raise cash, even if that means a shake-down of tax havens. A fairer tax system is not inevitable, but the conditions to create one could not be more propitious.
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