Betaville

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The acerbic commentator, the SFO and lingering investigations Posted: 17 Mar 2016 07:15 AM PDT The Serious Fraud Office took a bit of pasting yesterday in the British business press following it's move to close its criminal investigation into the $5 trillion-a-day global currency markets after two years of investigation. Among the business commentariat, Alistair Osborne - a former boss and colleague during my time at The Daily Telegraph but now at the The Times - was being particularly acerbic towards the SFO, dubbing it the "seriously flawed office". Here is a link to Alistair's caustic column, which also raises some important points: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/columnists/alistairosborne/article4714091.ece However, one issue that does appear to have been overlooked over is: what's likely to happen to all the other criminal cases that the SFO has been investigating for an even longer period of time than the forex probe? A quick look at the SFO website shows it's still carrying out criminal investigations - including one into FTSE 100-listed engineering giant Rolls Royce - that started several years ago. According to the SFO's website, the regulator announced in December 2013 the investigation into Rolls-Royce but the engineering group is still "under investigation". So, almost three years after the the SFO's investigation began there is still no conclusion. Does the fact that there are several investigations that have been going on for longer than the forex probe imply the SFO have got enough evidence for a criminal conviction? Or, is the SFO just prolonging the inevitable and along with it another ton of embarrassing negative publicity from the likes of Alistair Osborne? If it's the case of the latter, then readers might understand why directors at businesses "under investigation" and government departments get extremely frustrated with the SFO as the mere association of an investigation is extremely damaging to a company, its executives and their reputations.

High Court sets aside default judgement obtained against Ryan Corp; claim expected to proceed before court, according to The Times Posted: 17 Mar 2016 07:17 AM PDT There is a good follow up in the The Times today about the Saudi Arabian diplomat who is suing Credit Suisse and Tom Ryan, the mystery Irish property developer, for the return of a £25 million investment in Hertsmere House, the scheme to develop a residential skyscraper in Canary Wharf. Here is a link to the piece in The Times: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/construction-property/article4714910.ece In case you don't recall, little old Betaville was the fist to reveal last October that a Saudi Arabian diplomat was taking legal action against Tom Ryan and Credit Suisse over the £25 million he provided for the so-called scheme. Here is a link to Betaville's scoop: http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/revealed-saudi-arabian-diplomat-takes.html

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