FIB expert testimony helps secure conviction

Expert witness testimony provided by ICC’s Financial Investigation Bureau (FIB) has helped secure the conviction of a highly sought after Australian fraudster.

Expert witness testimony provided by ICC’s Financial Investigation Bureau (FIB) has helped secure the conviction of a highly sought after Australian fraudster.

FIB expert analysis confirmed that 64-year-old James Holley used fraudulent documents in a variety of financial scams aiming to rob investors of large sums of money.

As a result of this professional analysis and the efforts of the City of London Police, Mr Holley was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison by a UK court last month.

FIB Assistant Director Jon Merrett said: “For years James Holley has been listed in the FIB database in relation to several reports against him for suspected advance fee fraud. It was a pleasure to be able to assist the City of London Police in his conviction.”

Using advance fees as his calling card, Mr Holley attempted to take nearly $300,000 from a number of investors between October 2000 and March 2003. One of his targets was an Australian property developer who was introduced to Mr Holley by a broker based on Australia’s Gold Coast. Mr Holley agreed to broker a $50 million loan for the developer, but requested advance fees of $140,000 to facilitate the loan. Having received these fees, Mr Holley used a number of typical advance fee fraud stall tactics to play for time while demanding more money. Ultimately, the promised loan never materialized. The property developer reported Mr Holley to the Australian authorities, but Mr Holley escaped to the UK before an investigation could be launched.

As police would later discover, Mr Holley’s scams were many and varied. In a variation of a Nigerian 419 scam, he claimed to control £80 million worth of cash and diamonds belonging to a deceased Nigerian general. In another, he claimed to have been awarded a lucrative contract to supply 2 million bullet-proof vests to the Nigerian Government. In yet another scam, Mr Holley convinced an investor to pay him £30,000 to cover the cost of the chemicals needed to clean $32 million worth of stained bank notes. The fictitious bank notes were said to have been coated with a dye and smuggled into Europe from West Africa. The reward for the investor in this scam was a share of the “clean” money.

In Mr Holley’s court case, the City of London Police testified that the common thread running through all his schemes was the use of advance fee fraud.

Mr Merrett commented: “The role of the FIB in the court proceedings was the analysis of fraudulent documents and scam techniques used in Mr Holley’s criminal enterprises. We identified numerous common red flag phrases in the documentation and explained these terms in detail. The prosecution also used the FIB publication ‘Preventing Financial Investment Fraud’ to support its case, referencing a fraud model described in that document.”

Increasingly, the FIB is being called upon to provide expertise at trials involving financial fraud. This service is not only available for public proceedings, but can also be arranged for those wishing to pursue private prosecutions.

FIB is part of ICC’s Commercial Crime Services (CCS). For further information about FIB Expert Witness Service or to request a copy of “Preventing Financial Instrument Fraud: The Money Launderer’s Tool”, please contact FIB Assistant Director Jon Merrett, Tel: +44 208 591 3000 or Email: fib@icc-ccs.org.uk