Judge paves way to reclaim £99m of fraudster's assets
Tax fraudster Ian Leaf fails to convince judge that he did not generate £99m from frauds
One of the UK’s biggest tax fraudsters, Ian Leaf, yesterday failed in his
attempts to convince a judge that he had not generated £99m from illegal trades.
Leaf is currently serving a 10-year jail sentence for running scams where he
acquired companies and used them to fleece the taxman.
Leaf would buy businesses that were in difficulty but still had enough cash
to pay off any tax liabilities. Leaf would then create bogus loans and masses of
paperwork to build the impression that highly lucrative forex deals were
underway, out of which dividends were paid.
These dividends were then used to reclaim corporation tax paid by the
companies before Leaf bought.
In court yesterday Leaf’s lawyers failed to convince Judge David Higgins that
Leaf did not have £99m that he had generated from frauds, the FT
reports.
Leaf is attempting to fend off attempts by the prosecution to recoup money
taken from the taxman by locating any realisable assets he may have in his
position.