Former Rangers adviser charged over film scheme tax fraud

[der Berliner 3,891]

Heck, I read the headline and thought: wow, after so much dirt being thrown Celtic`s way, a journo has finally dug up something negative on us to throw into the mix. Albeit many Yahoo players and managers are neck deep in these schemes too.

 

Only on second glance I noted that it was actually thread-necromancy from 2016 ...

Edited June 7, 2019 by der Berliner

[forlanssister 3,114]

15 hours ago, 116610LV said:

Does anyone happen to have the court documents regarding this case?

They're irrelevant as he sued the taxman and won millions.

 

Quote

Prosecutors pay Boohoo broker Richard Hughes over tax fiasco

Tom Harper, Home Affairs Correspondent

May 26 2019, 12:01am, The Sunday Times

• Law
• Economics
• Racing

Richard Hughes, founder of Zeus Capital

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The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been forced to pay millions of pounds in costs to a corporate financier wrongly accused of masterminding a tax fraud.

 

The payment, understood to be one of the largest in its history, came after the collapse of the prosecution of Richard Hughes, founder of Zeus Capital, the broker that advised on the buyout of Rangers FC and the float of fast-fashion retailer Boohoo.

 

In 2016, Hughes and nine others were charged with conspiracy to defraud HM Revenue & Customs over a £134m film investment scheme. The case collapsed when the CPS had to admit “stark errors and omissions”.

 

Lawyers for Hughes have now accused several HMRC investigators of witness tampering and perverting the course of justice.

 

Leaked HMRC documents reveal its internal governance division has launched an inquiry — codenamed Operation Ice Rink — after orders from the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Claims are being examined that investigators failed to follow reasonable lines of inquiry, manipulated and intimidated witnesses, and suppressed “exculpatory material”, including a failure to tell the CPS there was material that may have helped the defence.

 

The Sunday Times has learnt that the CPS has now paid out more than £3m of taxpayers’ money to the defendants, including £1.4m to Hughes.

 

The massive payout is the latest twist in a disclosure scandal that has engulfed the CPS since last year, when it emerged that an innocent man faced trial for rape after key material was withheld from his lawyers.

 

Anthony Barnfather, a lawyer who represented one of the defendants in the Zeus case, said: “This must be one of the worst failures of disclosure in my 20 years of defending such cases.”

Hughes and the others were charged after a six-year criminal investigation by HMRC into their alleged involvement in film investment schemes sold by Zeus Partners — a separate company from Zeus Capital that he co-founded in 2006 — to about 165 wealthy investors. Participants included Hugh Sloane, the hedge fund mogul and Tory donor, and Laurie McIlwee, the former chief financial officer of Tesco. There is no suggestion that either has committed any wrongdoing.

 

Under the schemes, each investor was offered a deal to buy films and library content from Seven Arts Entertainment, a US film company. If the films were “blockbusters”, the investors would double their money. If they did badly, the investment would be largely wiped out and the cost written off against the investors’ other income.

 

An investor who put in £160,000 could borrow about £840,000 and claim tax relief on the full £1m. The potential relief could be between £400,000 and £500,000.

 

Films purchased from Seven Arts included Knife Edge, a 2009 British thriller starring Hugh Bonneville and Tamsin Egerton, and The Winter Queen, starring Milla Jovovich.

 

The CPS said that it was “an extremely complex case”, but accepted there were “failings”.

HMRC said it was undertaking a “fact-finding investigation” and was “limited” in what it could say. “The existence of our investigation should not be seen as confirming that the allegations are true,” it said.