From The Telegraph
21 December 2018 • 8:28pm
A Cambridge academic who stole £1m from a government green-energy project has been jailed for four years.
Dr Ehsan Abdi-Jalebi, 37, was stopped by Border Force officers at Heathrow with £100,000 in cash in a Thorntons Continental chocolate box as he boarded a flight to Tehran in May 2016.
The discovery prompted an investigation by the National Crime Agency, which found he had used fake documents to siphon off money into his own accounts from funding allocated to the development of renewable energy projects.
He had used the funds to develop a property in Iran worth £900,000 and to lease a Maserati sports car as well as a property in Cambridge.
Abdi-Jalebi had won international acclaim for his work on wind turbines and set up his technology firm Wind Technologies Ltd in 2006.
But, he dishonestly received project funding to the value of £2.8m in grant money from Innovate UK, the EU and The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
Investigators discovered that the his firm had made a series of grant applications to the government to fund research, but on a number of occasions Abdi-Jalebi had falsified documents, including invoices, accounts and bank statements to show what was happening to the money.
At the same time he had used the bank accounts of some of his PHD research students to receive what were referenced as “studentship payments” from the companies, with the money then being transferred into his own personal accounts.
Judge Martin Beddoe told Abdi-Jalebi: “Of the funding dishonestly obtained you trousered £1m yourself.”
Wind Technologies Ltd was entitled to grants for part of the costs incurred but not for the total amount, the court heard.
Abdi-Jalebi altered the invoices, increasing Wind Technologies costs to make up for the costs that were not covered by the partial grants.
The company would therefore receive de facto 100 per cent grants instead of partial grants.
Jonathan Polnay, prosecuting, said the fraud was “a long-running course of conduct.”
“The Department of Energy and Climate Change and Innovate UK were submitted forged invoices which resulted in £2.5 million being handed over,” he said.
Following his arrest, Abdi-Jalebi lost his fellowship at Churchill College in Cambridge as the National Crime Agency spent 18 months examining his financial history.
NCA senior investigating officer Ian Truby said: “While the companies that Dr Abdi-Jalebi was involved with were doing some legitimate work in the field of renewable energy, he used them as a cash cow to siphon off money.
“This money had come in as government grants, so it was essentially stolen from taxpayers.
“Through some great detective work and after analysing thousands of documents NCA investigators were able to prove that he was a fraud.
“While we have identified a number of UK assets held by Abdi-Jalebi the likelihood is that most of the money ended up in Iran, which will make it far more difficult to recover.
“However, we will do everything in our power to recover as much of that UK taxpayers’ money as possible.”
HT/KimS
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My only question is what happened to the Chocolates?
Personally, I think he should have used a bag of the “Vanilla Snowflakes”, probably easier to smuggle out.
https://www.thorntons.co.uk/continental
michael
The sad thing is most of these scammers get away with millions, all legal like the Solyndra executives. He was actually pretty dumb. He should have did it using stock options.
(violates sites terms of service, with racial profiling. mod)
The report states that “This money had come in as government grants, so it was essentially stolen from taxpayers…” Well, yes, ALL money wasted on wind “energy” is stolen from the taxpayers.
Perhaps stealing from a thief is considered a praiseworthy in the Persian moral code, so this young man may have thought he is doing a good did.
As riches increase, so do those who consume them.
This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Ecclesiastes.
Continental Chocolate Gift Collection
Price per 100g = £3.52
About $16 per pound in USA money
Add another $XXX to get it across the Pond and through the woods.
Thorntons Large Continental Chocolate Box 432g is selling at £20.
Perhaps he could be made an example.
To wit: hang him up by the eyelids, kick him between the legs until he blinks.
Note to self: don’t ever get Poor Richard mad at me.
lmao !
Greeeeeeeeeen energy is the scam for me.
Faaaaaarm living on your subsidy.
Cash spread around so far and wide.
With trousers full I’m heading off to Dubai.
@papertiger – You win the internet today.
As soon as I saw this, that was my first question.
Dang, sorry, somehow got out of place.
Papertiger,
I nominate you the poet laureate of WUWT; or is that poet lariat?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46196969
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/18/uk-recycling-industry-under-investigation-for-and-corruption
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/rhi-scandal-2-5m-cost-of-suspected-fraud-in-just-one-case-35395683.html
what in the heck
Willis was wondering where the money for the climate fraud in the USA had gone now we know where some of the UK money has gone and it ain’t coming back.
James Bull
When it comes to climate change US federal grant money to universities, how much total money is involved yearly? Which schools and professors receive the most money? What is the percentage of the money that is spent on actual research (fake data allowed) and then on overhead of this this grant? What actual paperwork is needed to show how the grant money is spent? Where does the paperwork get sent to to prove actual expenses are legit? Which US government agency provide the climate change grant money? When is grant money given to the university, and what happens to the money not spent? How often does climate change grant money get approved year after year? Who checks for fraud with these grants? What do the climate change grant money actually produce?
Gary,
Universities have agreements with the Federal Government (USA) based on audits of the school’s budgets. From that an allowed “overhead” is paid on the “salaries” portion of funds. The % varies depending on the type of research institution (geology, chemistry, physics research can be expensive, versus say history -nothing wrong with history).
The proposal for the research, written by the investigators, will have a budget that will be looked at by the university office and the funding agency. Once awarded, the spending of that money will be allocated as proposed and monitored by the university auditors. A large project can have several sources of funds so expenditures are watched closely.
Because the budget is set in advance there will be only minor amounts near the end of a project that “may seem to be” left over. In fact, that just means the principle investigator failed to spend it when it should have been. Something such as paper and printing costs might get billed at the end of a project instead of 6 months before.
Major research institutions do get funding over and over, or sometimes for say a 3 year project. The researchers are responding — year after year — to the Request For Proposals (RFPs) prepared by the funding agencies, say the National Science Foundation.
You write: “Who checks for fraud …” Actual fraud, in the sense of taking money from the grant to buy a new car for personal use, is monitored by the university auditors.
You write: “What do the climate change grant money actually produce?”
Being serious, the proposal will say upfront — before any money is granted — what the research products will be, for example: papers, posters, a piece of equipment and its use and data, and so on. Surprises are not expected.
If you think “climate change” research is a waste of resources, that is a different concept and not part of funding agency nor researchers concern.
I suppose WUWT and other people and places try to decide.
gary asks “What do the climate change grant money actually produce?”
to date nothing, absolutely nothing of use to the human race.
I hope that the NCA investigators don’t stop there.
There must be plenty of others living the good life off the taxpayer that could do with a good, honest grant enquiry. High-profile does not always mean high-integrity.
The grant oversight committee need some consequences also..
Meanwhile, when considering lost economic growth, the great climate scam is bleeding the worlds economy to the tune of $Trillions under their noses, in the broad light of day. But people in power will not acknowledge it.
But, he dishonestly received project funding to the value of £2.8m in grant money from Innovate UK, the EU and The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
~~~
So, like every other wind energy startup ever?
This makes me wonder how much government grant money, from the USA, UK, or wherever, ends up being ‘trousered’ as Judge Beddoe said.
Money can be created, but it is ever destroyed.
However it can be taken out of circulation.
Where did all the taxpayers money go ?
The answer my friend is blowin in the wind.
The answer is blowin in the wind.
Only if you think there are baby unicorns sniffing in the luggage scanner one is dumb enough to believe banknotes in a chocolate box go through undetected.
When you’re already engaged in the scam known as wind energy, it’s a small step to outright embezzlement.
“However, we will do everything in our power to recover as much of that UK taxpayers’ money as possible.”
Translation: we want this to go away because we look like fools, and people might realize anyone can stiff the government not just political hacks and bureaucrats, and we do not like the competition.
Oh wait he was receiving a government pay check from a government university.
On the USA we had Solyndra a great scam about 900million dollars of taxpayer money evaporated, and then claimed a few hundred million more as loss on taxes, while owners walked away with full bank accounts.
What is the National Crime Agency in the UJ? The government?
I met a couple of NCA detectives a few years ago when they were in Canada investigating money laundering via cross-border sales and purchases of stocks in a “junior” mining exploration company. They deposed me because I had done some geology for the company.
They told me that the NCA was a recent creation to tackle serious and organised crimes at the national and trans-national level. As you may know, police forces in the UK are organised by region, with the Met (“Scotland Yard”) helping out in special cases. But the Met focuses on traditional crimes like murder, robbery etc. The NCA looks mostly at financial crimes. These guys prided themselves on being elite. They didn’t seem to have a very high opinion of our national police force (the RCMP).
I’ve read that the NCA also investigates human trafficking in its various forms. Again, mostly trans-national crimes.
Pedant report:
‘in a box of chocolates’
‘in a Thorntons Continental chocolate box’
Not the same. The chocolates were presumably gone.
So, let’s extrapolate this example to the case where the Paris Accord will involve hundreds of billions of US dollars equivalent—if not trillions—being in play around the world in search of carbon-free nirvana. Does anyone think for one moment that there won’t be proportional massive fraud and waste.
ROTFLMAO!
But think of the boom in sales of chocolate [for the boxes, of course!].
Auto
Also ROTFLMAO, naturally.