Fraud

German prosecutors have launched a preliminary investigation into Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) subsidiary Audi related to the scandal over rigged emissions, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.Wolfram Herrle, chief prosecutor in Audi's hometown of Ingolstadt in southern Germany, was quoted as telling the Funke Media group that a preliminary investigation had been launched to see whether to initiate formal proceedings against the company."We are currently reviewing all the facts in order to decide whether an investigation should be initiated," he said.Neither the Ingolstadt prosecutors nor Audi were immediately available to comment on the newspaper report.

On October 12, the Italian financial police said it had broke up a value-added tax fraud ring allegedly involved in transactions totaling EUR930m, through 180 companies in 15 European Union (EU) countries.

Stephen Philpott, former head of animal charity the USPCA who was arrested by detectives investigating allegations of fraud, has been charged. Mr Philpott is charged with two counts of fraud by abuse of position, conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, possessing criminal property and concealing criminal property.

In a first for HM Revenue and Customs, an accountant who failed to cooperate with a value-added tax fraud investigation has been fined GBP25,000 (USD31,750) under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act.

Annual fraud and cybercrime losses in the UK have grown to the equivalent of £210 per adult, according to research.

The main Czech Court in Prague approved an extradition of Alexander Alexandrovich Nikolaev, former high-ranking state official, to the russian justice. The final decision is now on the Czech Ministr of Justice, Robert Pelikán. The former boss of the Federal state budget is in the Russia accused of a conspiracy and a fraud, which damaged state assets in a value of ten millions rubles. He was hiding in the Czech Republic until January this year, when he was arrested by czech officers based on the international arrest warrant. According to him, the accusations of fraud are faked. I never planned to steal Putin’s money, that is crazy, he said. Putin is slowly getting out of money, so he is finding new enemies of the state and I decided to leave to the Czech Republic, he added.

Trinidadian Jack Warner, once one of the most powerful men in world football, has been banned from all football-related activities for life, the ethics committee of the global governing body fifa said on Tuesday.

Since the explosive indictments and arrests of international football officials in May, fifa President Sepp Blatter -- previously a prolific traveller -- had only once left his home base of Switzerland. In the end, he wasn’t even safe in his own office.On Friday morning, staff from the Swiss Attorney General’s Office (OAG) arrived at FIFA’s headquarters building high in the hills above Zurich.

The London-based trader accused by U.S. authorities of market manipulation that helped cause the 2010 Wall Street "flash crash" is due to appear in court On Friday to fight extradition to the United States to face trial.Navinder Sarao, arrested by British police on a U.S. warrant in April, has been indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury on 22 criminal counts including wire fraud, commodities fraud, commodity price manipulation and attempted price manipulation.

Volkswagen AG said a scandal over falsified U.S. vehicle emission tests could affect 11 million of its cars worldwide as investigations of its diesel models multiplied, heaping fresh pressure on CEO Martin Winterkorn.Volkswagen said it would set aside 6.5 billion euros (£4.7 billion) in its third-quarter accounts to help cover the costs of the biggest scandal in its 78-year-history, blowing a hole in analysts' profit forecasts.