It was a bad week for accountants from the U.K. with the first name of Andrew.
AFC Fylde accountant blew £240,000 on sex, drink and drugs [BBC News]
A semi-professional socc … I mean, football team in England nearly went belly-up because its finance director, Andrew Barnbrook, stole thousands of pounds from the team to spend on cocaine, alcohol, and a webcam model.
Barnbrook, 38, who admitted to the theft, was sent to prison for 32 months. The club, AFC Fylde, was only able to survive because it was part of a larger group, Tangerine Holdings, and could borrow money.
Barnbrook spent gobs of money he stole on webcam model Victoria Sinclair, including shopping trips to Harrods and buying her Chanel handbags. She claims their relationship was not physical, after admitting Barnbrook had blown between £50,000 and £70,000 on luxury gifts for her. And Barnbrook apparently paid £8 a minute for Sinclair’s live webcam services.
Judge Andrew Jeffries QC told him: “You stuck the money up your nose, drank in champagne bars, befriended a live sex cam model, bought lavish gifts for her and paid for her time.”
Rita Ora and Matt Dawson fraudster accountant jailed [BBC News]
Andrew Munday, an accountant who defrauded celebrity clients, including singer Rita Ora and retired English rugby player Matt Dawson, was found guilty on nine counts of fraud and sentenced to five years and eight months in jail.
Munday, 38, used money from the fraud, totaling at least £3.35 million, to buy houses, Star Wars and football memorabilia, and an executive lounge membership at Tottenham Hotspur.
In a victim statement, singer VV Brown said Munday had “ruined a lot of people’s lives” and left “deep scars” in relation to trust.
Munday caused a loss to former X Factor judge Ora’s company of nearly £2.4 million during the seven years he was committing fraud.
He had previously declared bankruptcy after building up gambling debts.
Ahmed Seedat used wheel brace to murder wife Fahima Yusuf before burying her in Carlisle backyard [Australian Broadcasting Corp.]
So, this is all sorts of fucked up:
A Perth accountant killed his wife with a wheel brace while his young children slept in another room and then buried her body in the backyard of the family home, the Supreme Court has been told.
Ahmed Seedat, 37, was charged with murder in September last year after the body of Fahima Yusuf, 32, were discovered buried in a shallow grave at the Carlisle property.
He pleaded guilty in January and faced a sentencing hearing today [May 8] where details of the crime were revealed for the first time.
Among the gory details:
- The hole his wife’s body was buried in had been dug by a landscape gardener hired by Seedat weeks earlier; he told the contractor he was planning to install a pool.
- In the weeks before killing his wife, Seedat searched on the Internet things like “burying a cat,” “cremating a body,” and “burying someone aliv” [sic].
- Text messages between Seedat and his wife’s sister infer that he had wanted to progress his relationship with his sister-in-law after his wife’s death. He also searched on the Internet: “Can you marry brother in law if sister dead, muslim?”
Seedat will be sentenced for the murder conviction later this month.
Beijing Imprisons Accountant Buying Beauty on State’s Dime [Sixth Tone]
Zhang Honghong, formerly an accountant at China’s Ministry of Natural Resources, was recently sentenced to eight years in prison for embezzling more than 12 million yuan ($1.75 million) from state coffers to spend on beauty services and other expenses.
Zhang was found guilty of misappropriating public funds between 2001 and 2017—half of which was spent on beauty services, including plastic surgeries.
She confessed to her supervisor about embezzling “part of the work unit’s money” by falsifying some expenses in the ministry’s bookkeeping while omitting others.
Man charged with embezzling $1 million from nonprofit previously served 18 months in prison [Port Huron Times Herald]
Richard Hartwick, an accountant who worked at Blue Water Center for Independent Living in Port Huron, MI, is accused of embezzling more than $1 million from the facility.
Hartwick, 71, is facing charges of embezzlement of $100,000 or more, computer fraudulent access, using a computer to commit a crime, financial transaction forgery, accounting violations, conducting a criminal enterprise and racketeering.
According to the Michigan Department of Corrections, Hartwick was sentenced on May 8, 2000, to two to 10 years in prison on a charge of embezzlement, agent or trustee more than $100. He served 18 months at Pine River Correctional Facility before being granted parole.
Investigators have said Hartwick was convicted of embezzlement in 2000, suspected of having embezzled more than $3 million from an auto supplier in the Detroit area over six years.
