March 19, 2016
The Serious Fraud Office has been branded incompetent and accused of major lapses after two men it prosecuted for money laundering on behalf of a $120m (£83m) boiler room scam were acquitted.
The Hong Kong-based co-defendants were accused by the SFO of knowingly channelling money on behalf of share fraudsters through Zetland Fiduciary Services, a company providing transaction services to companies and wealthy individuals.
Prosecutors claimed that 67-year-old Mr Sutherland, Zetland’s owner and chairman, had received $5.25m for laundering around $120m for an Australian high-pressure share sales fraudster and his associates, who were convicted and jailed in two trials in 2013 and 2014.
But Mr Sutherland’s defence demonstrated, using documents entered in evidence by the SFO itself, that he did not receive such an illegal payment. They successfully argued that the prosecution had failed to follow money trails and a lacked of understanding of Zetland or the services it provides. The defence asked the SFO to drop the case at the halfway point, but prosecutors pressed ahead.