These are our some of our cases of note: R v Nadir Description: Bark & Co have been instructed by the former CEO of Polly Peck International (PPI) in an alleged multi-million pound fraud. The client faced 66 counts of Fraud & Theft, but failed to appear in the 1993 trial. Mr Nadir has returned to the UK to fight to clear his name.

1. Bark & Co
Solicitors

2. These are our some of our
cases of note:
R v Nadir
Description: Bark & Co have been instructed by the former CEO of Polly Peck
International (PPI) in an alleged multi-million pound fraud. The client faced 66
counts of Fraud & Theft, but failed to appear in the 1993 trial. Mr Nadir has
returned to the UK to fight to clear his name.
The trial date is now set for January 2012.
Significance: One of the first high profile SFO prosecutions.
R v Ravjani & Others
Bark & Co represented a client accused significant involvement in a complex
contra-trading MTIC fraud. The alleged fraud was of a scale that prompted the
Government to proffer the case as an explanation as to why the UK balance of
payments were adrift for a particular year. Unfortunately, reporting restrictions
prevent us from publishing the full outcome at this time.

3. RvX
Description: This matter involves an insider
trading investigation at a number of banks and
hedge funds and other large financial
institutions conducted by the FSA and SOCA
which Reuters reports has “sent shockwaves
through the country’s financial industry”.
Significance: This case involves significant press
interest and involves the representation of a
director at a very high profile financial
institution.

4. R v CC & PF
Description: This case involves the arrest of nine directors of an ethical
investment company investing in the energy sector. The value of the
alleged fraud, which related to the company’s tax structure, is in excess
of £85 million. It raises questions on the differences between tax
evasion and tax avoidance. The company obtained tax benefits for
research and development in the energy sector and secured investment
from 750 specialist private investors.
Significance: This case will have far reaching consequences for the
whole of the ethical carbon offsetting industry, as well as for all
companies with similar tax structures. The company in question was
advised by tax specialists and lawyers regarding the legislation involved.
HMRC allege that the complex nature of the related companies and tax
structures were formed for the specific reason of perpetrating a fraud
while the company states that they were not only legitimate but
standard industry practice.

5. R v F & P (Vantis Tax)
Description: We acted for former senior executives for a
specialist tax division of Vantis Plc defending allegations
of cheating the public revenue. They both vigorously
deny the allegations made against them.
Significance: This case involves extremely complex tax,
share valuation and trust issues, and raises serious
questions concerning the boundaries of tax avoidance
schemes and their use. It attracted significant media
interest with coverage in the nationals and trade press.

6. R v S & Others
Description: Bark & Co is representing a client who is involved
in a wide ranging FSA investigation into an alleged 11-handed
insider dealing fraud. This matter revolves around a spread-
betting company that was used to place derivative trades on
share price movements. Trades were made close to, or before,
significant and unexpected company announcements which
influenced the share price in the direction of the placed trade.
It is alleged that a ring of traders, some of whom had no
previous experience in spread betting, were organised to
perpetrate the fraud with the insider information originating
from two well-known investment banks.
Significance: The value of the alleged fraud is over £3 million
and involved insider information on more than 25 companies
that the investment banks dealt with. This case is still at the
investigation stage but charges are being brought.

7. R v W, W, W & D (Southwark Crown Court)
Description: Our client is charged with conspiracy to defraud and
money laundering offences. This case follows a joint FSA and City of
London Police operation and investigation into a boiler room fraud. It
is alleged that several companies that were seeking venture capital
were used as vehicles to generate appropriate share capital to sell to
victims based in the UK. The boiler rooms were based overseas and
unregulated by the FSA. They generated over £30 million in income
which was then filtered through a complex network of companies
and holding accounts and into UK and offshore accounts.
Significance: The fraud is so large that the FSA has determined that it
is limiting the case to six primary front companies. Not only is this
case a good example of the scale and increasing prevalence of this
type of fraud, it also demonstrates how international operations are
being used to bypass the UK financial regulators and authorities.

8. R v S, R, D, S, S & T (Southwark Crown Court)
Description: This was a six-handed prosecution of the founders and associates of the
“Confidential Access” website. Our client is alleged to have used his business to facilitate
the sale of false identity documents that were used to commit fraud and crime. The
identity documents, which included passports, P45s, bank statements and other financial
and identity documents, were marketed and sold as legal “novelty items”, but their
accuracy means they were used by clients who were being investigated by the
Metropolitan Police anti-terrorism unit. In a joint operation with the Hong Kong
Organised Crime Team, the Confidential Access website was temporarily shut down and
the servers and business records seized. The website subsequently reopened in another
county and the authorities entered into an ongoing battle across several jurisdictions to
force the website to close down.
Significance: This case provides a unique insight into the type of identity-based frauds
that will become more commonplace in the future. It also shows the difficulties involved
in dealing with international and cross-jurisdictional issues surrounding internet free
trade and international payment systems. Not surprisingly, the case attracted media
attention, although the details remain confidential.

9. R v L (Southwark Crown Court)
Description: Our client in this case is being re-tried after a trial held in
2008 failed to reach a verdict. The client is charged with cheating the
public revenue of £250 million in a large-scale and complex MTIC VAT
fraud in the mobile phone handset market.
Significance: The scale of the operation and subsequent investigation
was impressive, with 42 arrests in 2003, 96 sets of premises searched
and 260 computers and 500,000 documents seized, as well as
substantial amounts of electronic data. This fraud is serious and
involves highly complex forensic accountancy and international funds
tracing aspects. Again, it has attracted considerable media attention.

10. R v L (Southwark Crown Court)
Description: iSoft was awarded a multi-million pound contract to implement an All
Ireland software system. Bark & Co is representing a former director in connection
with alleged accounting irregularities in relation to this contract. This case is in the
FSA’s own words the largest case they have ever investigated.
Significance: iSoft were involved in the implementation of the new NHS IT system, a
large and politically sensitive project and the case has received extensive press
coverage. It has therefore required extremely sensitive handling. The issues
involved are also particularly complex and involve forensic legal and accountancy
analysis.
iSoft related cases (representing X)

11. Description: iSoft was awarded a multi-million pound contract to
implement an All Ireland software system. Bark & Co is
representing a former director in connection with alleged
accounting irregularities in relation to this contract. This case is in
the FSA’s own words the largest case they have ever investigated.
Significance: iSoft were involved in the implementation of the new
NHS IT system, a large and politically sensitive project and the case
has received extensive press coverage. It has therefore required
extremely sensitive handling. The issues involved are also
particularly complex and involve forensic legal and accountancy
analysis.

12. RvR
Description: This is said to be among the biggest MTIC
carousel frauds ever prosecuted. It involves a particularly
complex form of MTIC fraud called ‘contra-trading’. Here,
the perpetrator mixes a ‘clean’ chain of transactions and a
‘dirty’ chain. The key is that they act as importer in the
clean chain and exporter in the dirty one, therefore
offsetting legal imports against illegal exports, making the
VAT claim relatively balanced and the fraud far harder to
detect.

13. Significance: This case is said to be one of the biggest
MTIC frauds ever prosecuted and involves billions of
pounds worth of trade. It will give rise to national
publicity and widespread public concern because MTIC
fraud has become so widespread that it is responsible for
the UK trade figures being completely miscalculated. In
this instance there has been £170 million of fraud
identified within the telecoms sector involving the
international trading of mobile phones. Contra-trading is
an increasing growth area of specialist defence where
Bark & Co is among the leaders. This case has at present
over 60,000 pages of exhibited prosecution materials
with over 100,000 expected, making the estimated cost
of prosecuting the case substantial (more than £1million).

14. R v L, R & H
Description: This was a high-profile SFO
prosecution concerning fraudulent trading. The
prosecution alleges that there was fraudulent
trading over a 3-4 year period at Alfred
McAlpine Slate Limited. This took the form of
false invoicing and the concealment of the false
information from the parent company, Alfred
McAlpine plc, and their auditors, by way of
forged loans, invoices and manipulation of
management packs.

15. Significance: This case was the subject of a three-month
internal investigation by PMCE Coopers Waterhouse and
the City law firm, Ashurst. Press interest is high and the
case has appeared on Sky News, in The Times, and The
Guardian, as well as local papers, financial journals and
Reuters. It is alleged that the discovery of the fraud led to
a drop in the McAlpine Slate share price and contributed
to the acquisition of McAlpine by Carillion plc. With over
50,000 pages of served evidence, this case was both
complex and high profile. We were successful in achieving
a lenient sentence for our client.

16. R v Lord Rodley, Coyne & Others
Description: This case involved a conspiracy to defraud the SMBC Bank in
London of £227 million and money laundering the proceeds of the fraud.
A security guard at SMBC bank, who had access to its computer system,
allowed two Belgium computer experts entry into the bank and access to
the computer systems outside working hours. They hacked into the bank’s
systems to obtain passwords and to transfer funds to accounts set up to
launder the proceeds of this fraud.
Significance:Three defendants stood a fully contended cut-throat trial. Our
client (David Coyne aka Nash) is alleged to have been involved both in the
main plan to defraud the bank and the money laundering as he was the
owner of several offshore bank accounts that were allegedly set up to
receive the funds

17. R v F, D & Others
Description: The case results from
an investigation into a successful
multi-million pound international
lottery scam, which began with a Significance: The alarm was raised by
complaint concerning unsolicited
Barclays Bank in New York. A joint
e-mails from the Philippines. The
scam involved claims that the investigation by the FBI and
victim would be the beneficiary of Metropolitan Police then uncovered a
a percentage of an estate worth number of victims of the fraud, who
$10.2 million. were resident in various places,
ranging from the USA, to Malaysia,
Japan and the Middle East. The joint
investigation resulted in six arrests.
This case demonstrates our ability to
handle complex international fraud
cases, requiring the gathering of
evidence and information in a number
of jurisdictions.