Free The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths by Harry Bingham Page A

anything, he continues, ‘Tinker. It’s turning into a biggie. Thanks to your work in identifying Kureishi, we’ve been able to trace nine different frauds, eight of those payroll-related. One of them an expense-based thing: the same, but different. Total monthly amount stolen is in excess of a quarter of a million pounds. At the current rate, about three point eight million a year.’
    Perhaps I look surprised, because he adds, ‘We haven’t closed anything down. Not yet. If we do, our chances of securing convictions on the perpetrators fall to about zero. These are big companies for the most part and most of them have an existing policy of cooperating with police investigation. Those that don’t – well, they’re on board for now. How long that goes on for, I don’t know. But for the time being, we’re OK.’
    He waits to see if I want to say something, but I still don’t, so he continues, ‘It looks like the basic mechanics of the fraud were initially set up by Kureishi. He installed software that gave external access to payroll. We’re confident he was not the ultimate beneficiary of the fraud. We simply can’t find enough money or signs of heavy spending. And the set-up looks remarkably professional. The fraud involves over a hundred and fifty dummy UK bank accounts. The money siphons via Spain, Portugal or Jersey to Belize. The Belize bank account is fronted by nominees and owned by a shell company in the British Virgin Islands. That shell company in turn is owned by a foundation in Panama. We’ve got the best investigators we have trying to crack that little nut open, but frankly our chances are very low. And even if we peel things back to Panama, they’ll quite likely just pull the money back through a whole lot of anonymous shell companies, through difficult or corrupt jurisdictions, and we’ll get nowhere at all.’
    It occurs to me that Jersey and the British Virgin Islands are both under the jurisdiction of the British government, and that the Queen is head of state in Belize. It also occurs to me that making these places world centers for shell companies, nominee accounts, loosely controlled money and zero corporate taxation is not necessarily consistent with what our government is there to do.
    I don’t say this, though. Just sit there and try to look intelligent.
    Brattenbury continues. ‘Our assumption is that even if Kureishi originated the fraud, he lost control of it to criminals with far more extensive resources and experience. Kureishi got greedy or had some falling-out with his employers. They handled that the way these guys tend to do. Our primary investigative goal is therefore to find the ultimate controllers of this fraud and to bring them to justice. Charges of fraud and murder.’
    I nod. I still don’t know why I’m here, except that I think I do.
    I keep looking at the six by tens.
    I am feeling something. A cold distance that comes between me and my body, a band of December fog. I normally like to pursue these feelings, to see if I can understand and name them, but the time and place for that exercise is not now. Not now and not here.
    ‘Your furniture superstore,’ says Brattenbury. ‘That was the smallest fraud, the earliest, and the least sophisticated. I think you’d call it a proof of concept test. They’ve been building from there. The current frauds, the larger ones, are built on a much larger scale and need more … more care and attention.’
    I nod. Keep looking at the pictures. Keep feeling that December fog.
    ‘With the bigger companies, backdoor access to a single computer terminal doesn’t give the fraudsters what they need. They need someone onsite as well. Basically, they use that initial opening to design the fraud. To figure out the company’s systems, how to get around the safeguards. Then, when they’ve figured out a scam that will work, they recruit a mole within the company. The mole executes the plan and monitors it.’
    I say, or try to say,