Tag: HBOS

Regulatory Watch News

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  Man pleads guilty to fraud and forgery offences relating to fake takeover approach

  Financial Conduct Authority

  September 10, 2026

  Christopher Woolcott has pleaded guilty to 4 counts of fraud and forgery after creating a fake takeover bid for Touchstone Exploration Inc.

  Mr Woolcott held shares in Touchstone Exploration Inc and stood to benefit financially from any upward movement in the share price had the fake takeover bid been announced to the market. Mr Woolcott admitted creating a fictitious takeover approach for Touchstone Exploration Inc using multiple false identities and forged documents, in an attempt to lend credibility to the approach.

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  Thousands of horses caught up in Europe-wide trafficking scheme

  Europol

  September 10, 2026

  Europol has supported a major operation against a criminal network suspected of trafficking horses across Europe using falsified documents and manipulated microchips to conceal the animals’ true identities. Between 8 and 9 September 2026, nearly 200 officers and representatives of different authorities took part in the operation across Belgium, France, Ireland and the Netherlands. At the centre of this investigation led by Belgium is a suspected large-scale trade in horses whose identities and histories were allegedly manipulated to allow them to be moved and resold across Europe. Some of the animals may ultimately have been diverted into the food chain without their true origin and history being known.

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  Poland: Two suspects indicted over attempted €3.3 million fraud targeting EU funds for nurseries

  European Public Prosecutor's Office

  September 10, 2026

  (Luxembourg, 10 September 2026) – The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Katowice (Poland) filed an indictment on 8 September 2026 at the Circuit Court in Katowice against two suspects accused of attempting to fraudulently obtain €3.3 million in EU funding to establish nurseries across the country. The defendants, acting jointly and on behalf of a series of companies represented by them, filed 15 applications to obtain subsidies to open nurseries all over Poland.  The applications were submitted online to several financing institutions, namely the regional authorities in the Silesian, Pomeranian, Warmian–Masurian, Lublin, Lesser Poland and Greater Poland Voivodeships. All the communication between suspects and financing authorities was also conducted online.