A London court heard on Thursday that former chief of Serious Fraud Office Richard Alderman reportedly oversaw a chaotic agency. Alderman appeared at a Southwark Court hearing on fraud charges against Weavering Capital founder Magnus Peterson, who was charged with 16 fraud-related offenses between the years 2003 and 2009.
In court on Thursday, Alderman provided evidence in the hearing to consider whether an abuse of process happened at SFO when it issued charges against Peterson, Reuters said. The charges ranged from obtaining a money transfer by deception, false representation to false accounting, fraud by abuse of position and fraudulent trading and forgery. Peterson has pleaded not guilty on all charges, the news agency said.
According to Reuters, SFO could be forced to drop the case, which is expected to go to trial in October of this year should presiding judge Judge Andrew deemed Alderman guilty in acting unlawfully when he delegated his former chief operating officer Phillippa Williamson to launch the investigation on Peterson in 2008. Alderman reportedly claimed that he had wanted to make SFO more efficient and asked Williamson to accelerate the process of launching investigations and reviews. Alderman also shared to the court how he had played an active part in Williamson's decisions on SFO's cases and also of the investigation in Weavering.
Alderman said, "Ms Williamson would not have taken these decisions had I not given her the authority to do so." he disclosed, however, that he does not have any documentation to support his claim that he had delegated Williamson his supposed responsibilities.
Reuters said the case is dependent in part on whether Alderman has the power to delegate decisions to other people to launch investigations on SFO cases, whether due process was exercised in the appointment of a delegate and that whether serious misconduct occurred.
Peterson's senior lawyer Peter Lodder said, "In essence ... we are saying there is an element of almost chaos in the way the office is run ... You cannot rely on this evidence. There is no actual firm evidence of this delegation having taken place - just the assumption it must have happened."
Reuters said the judge will be handing out his decision about the case in the coming weeks.
