News

The fourth annual Fraud Conference took place on 29 February, welcoming 160 delegates to the Royal College of Physicians in London. A collaboration between INSOL Europe’s Anti-Fraud Forum, the Fraud Advisory Panel and R3, this year’s theme was “The Future of Fraud: Is Seeing Believing?” with the event bringing together a range of counter-fraud specialists from policy makers to insolvency and asset recovery experts to academics.
 
The opening keynote by Professor Oli Buckley (UEA) on AI and Deepfakes provided much food for thought, being something of a beginner’s guide to creating voice clones. Arun Chauhan (Conference Chair) and Frances Coulson (INSOL Europe Vice President) were most surprised to find their voices cloned from brief, publicly available samples. The use of AI by both bad actors and as a tool to combat fraud was explored over the course of the day, with a subsequent session exploring the latter.
 
A breakout panel facilitated by Bart Heynickx (INSOL Europe Anti-Fraud Forum Co-Chair) considered international collaboration across a range of jurisdictions including the UK, Belgium, Netherlands and UAE. Participants included INSOL Europe members Luke Harrison and Ferry Ortiz Aldana. Other panels throughout the morning included a consideration of large collapses, such as FTX and Wirecard; a discussion about luxury goods, counterfeiting and provenance, and the disruption of rogue companies and directors.
 
During the course of the afternoon, Frances Coulson facilitated an in-depth exploration of the failure of public bodies to behave in a fiscally responsible manner, focussing on the Thurrock Council controversy and its consequences. Penny Dunbabin (Home Office) provided a brief run-through of the new “failure to prevent” guidance, which provided a jumping-off point for a debate chaired by Carmel King (INSOL Europe Anti-Fraud Forum Co-Chair) on whether the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act and similar legislation are likely to prove effective.
 
The final session of the day was a much-anticipated update on the Post Office scandal. Kay Linnell, who had spoken on this topic alongside colleagues at the Fraud Conference 2022, received rousing applause for a compelling account of this ongoing pursuit of justice and restitution.
 
As ever, the networking lunch and closing reception offered delegates the opportunity to catch up with old friends and to meet some new contacts. A forward-facing conference considering many of the topics most important to the future of our profession left delegates plenty to talk about!
 
Report by Carmel King & Bart Heynickx, Co-Chairs of the INSOL Europe Anti-Fraud Forum