The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has reported that it has recovered a further £295,000 from two pension funds belonging to the convicted fraudster, Virendra Rastogi, who is now known as Vareen Kumar or Veerain Kumarr. The recovery is part of an ongoing proceeds of crime investigation into Rastogi’s assets, who was prosecuted, together with other former directors of RBG Resources plc, for operating an international metal trading scam which defrauded banks around the world out of almost $700m.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) reported on 4 April 2023 the sentencing at Southwark Crown Court of Nasser Alaghband, the CEO of British steel trading company Balli Steel Plc. Alaghband was sentenced to six and a half years in prison, whilst two senior executives received sentences of over three years each. The sentences follow a successful SFO investgation which revealed a $500m fraud orchestrated by Alaghband.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has reported that Jeffrey Cook, the former Ministry of Defence official who was convicted for misconduct  in public office for taking secret payments in exchange for commissioning work from offshore consultants, has been given a 30 month prison sentence and a £123,000 confiscation order.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has recovered £400,000 to be returned to nine fraud victims, 24 years after they were defrauded, through civil recovery action, despite no criminal conviction being secured. The recovery concerns an advance fee fraud scheme operated by Abdullah Ali Jammal, a former director of a retail-depositor bank, who obtained over £4.4m from 18 victims worldwide between 2001 and 2002. The SFO concluded that a conviction was unlikely, as Mr Jammal had fled the UK before being charged, and determined that the case warranted an alternative recovery route. Investigators worked with international law enforcement agencies, including the Australian Federal Police, Belgian Police, the French Liaison Magistrate and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, to trace victims and secure their consent for the action. The approach departs from standard civil recovery proceedings, as funds will be returned directly to victims rather than to HM Treasury. The SFO has said it intends to use this approach in other relevant cases.

Law360: Reforms that make it easier to hold companies criminally liable for their employees were a 'Christmas present' for the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and will have a 'huge' effect on its work, the general counsel for the anti-corruption agency said on 15 February 2024.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has secured the conviction of the director of AOG Technics, Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala, who pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to operating the company for a fraudulent purpose. Between 2019 and 2023, Yrala falsified documentation concerning the origin and status of CFM56 engine parts used in Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircraft. These fraudulent parts were sold to airlines, maintenance repair operators and engine parts suppliers globally. Aircraft in the UK and internationally were grounded in 2023 after the Civil Aviation Authority, the Federal Aviation Administration and the EU Aviation Safety Agency issued safety alerts regarding AOG's parts. The SFO launched its investigation in October 2023 in collaboration with Portuguese authorities, whose investigation remains ongoing. Yrala is due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 23 February 2026.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has updated its Arena Television Limited case page to include a crypto wallet freezing order, granted on 15 July 2025 at Westminster Magistrates' Court, freezing cryptocurrency held by Richard Yeowart for up to nine months. This update marks the latest development in the SFO’s ongoing investigation into suspected fraudulent activity at Arena Television and associated entities. The investigation continues.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has successfully obtained its inaugural Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO) at the High Court, targeting a £1.5m Lake District property owned by Claire Schools, ex-wife of convicted solicitor Timothy Schools. The property is suspected to have been purchased with proceeds from a £100m fraud. The SFO has frozen the asset and has ordered Claire Schools to provide information on its acquisition within 28 days. This landmark case follows a recent £1m confiscation from Timothy Schools and marks the SFO's first use of the UWO tool since its introduction in 2017, making it the second UK law enforcement agency to employ this investigative measure.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has secured £10,865.76 in Bitcoin and £289.30 in USDC in its first Crypto Wallet Freezing Order, belonging to the Chief Executive Officer of Arena TV, Richard Yeowart. The order, granted by Westminster magistrates' court on 18 July 2025, utilises new powers introduced in 2024 to freeze cryptocurrency assets linked to suspected criminal activity. The assets will be held for up to nine months as part of the SFO's ongoing investigation into Arena TV, which has already involved three arrests and multiple property searches.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has announced that it has secured a further £96,000 confiscation order against Steven John Murphy after identifying additional assets connected to Murphy’s role in a boiler-room fraud. The order follows the SFO’s discovery that Murphy held equity in a UK property purchased using proceeds of crime. The recovered funds will be returned to the public purse.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has secured convictions against three former directors of Ethical Forestry Limited over a £70m investment fraud that targeted thousands of retail investors. Matthew Pickard, Stephen Greenaway and Paul Laver pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to charges of fraudulent trading. According to the SFO, the defendants ran a call centre that cold-called members of the public, persuading them to transfer savings and pension funds into forestry projects in Costa Rica. Approximately 3,000 investors were defrauded. Although trees were planted, no funds were set aside for their maintenance or eventual harvest, rendering the promised investment returns impossible to achieve. Instead, investor funds were used to bankroll the defendants’ personal lifestyles, including luxury properties, high-value vehicles and holidays. A further £2.77m was channelled into a tax avoidance arrangement for the directors’ benefit. Sentencing is scheduled to take place at Southwark Crown Court in May 2026. The SFO has asked affected investors to complete a questionnaire by 10 April 2026, to assist the court in determining whether to make a compensation order at a later hearing.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has secured a prison sentence of four years and eight months for Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala, director of AOG Technics, after uncovering a £39.3m global aircraft engine parts fraud involving over 60,000 parts sold with forged Authorised Release Certificates (ARCs), risking public safety and disrupting the aviation industry. The SFO found that between January 2019 and July 2023 Zamora doctored genuine ARCs, invented fake employees and created false memos, with most parts linked to the CFM56 engine. The operation collapsed when Safran identified a fake certificate, prompting safety alerts from UK, US and EU aviation authorities and grounding planes worldwide. Zamora pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading in December 2025, with the SFO stating the scheme posed serious safety risks.