KPMG Executive In Deep Trouble For Stealing Money to Gamble

KPMG director involved in work scandal for almost GBP 45,000 money fraud in order to support his gambling desires.

Brian Chapman, management consultant from Cumbernauld, Scotland, was having serious money issues at the time when the money theft happened. He was under pressure because of his inability to cover his mortgage bills as well as the payments towards his 12 credit cards.

This gambling news seems rather surprising because he had a gross annual salary of over GBP 100,000, but he also had serious debt of more than GBP 90,000 as he was losing around GBP 330/week while gambling.

What Chapman did in order to help himself and pay towards his debt was to double, even triple-claim the same expenses over and over again. These included various flights, hotels and mobile phone bills.

His scheme continued for over five years and it would have been even longer if it was not for KPMG’s Risk and control team, which initiated an investigation back in 2012. This information was provided during the court trial.

Prosecution

Jane Osborne, the prosecutor commented: “Mr. Chapman was a consultant working for KPMG at director level in their financial services sector. Traveling was frequently part of that role and he would legitimately incur substantial expenses which had to be claimed back.”

KPMG manager steals money from the company to fund his gambling passion

• Brian Chapman claimed falsely almost GBP 45,000

• His scheme continued for over 5 years

• He currently has a total personal debt of around GBP 94,000

Moreover: “Those expenses were not quite as substantial as those that he claimed for and over the course of a five-year period there were almost GBP 45,000 of expenses that he claimed that were not in fact owed to him. He did that deliberately, no doubt because at the time his personal financial circumstances were characterized by mounting and very substantial debt.”

She added: “What he was doing was quite simple. When an expense was incurred by him he would claim that expense but sometimes he would claim that same expense not once but twice and sometimes three times.”

Prosecutor Osborne also said: “KPMG has paid off the debt on the Amex card but also transferred money to Mr. Chapman ensuring that he benefitted personally. If it was small sums of money perhaps it could have been done without noticing but on occasion it was thousands of pounds paid into his bank account.”

Serious issues

The review of Chapman’s declared expenses was provoked by his noticeable debt to Vodafone, which placed him in the company’s Top 50 debtors list. The weird fact that he had already claimed some of the bills as expenses, but the money still hadn’t reached Vodafone, raised the suspicion.

Furthermore, in order to be able to play various online casinos in the UK, he transferred the complete amount on his corporate charge card, which already meant double claiming of the same expenses.

When the Control team figured out his scheme, his case was transferred to the City of London Police, where it was made clear that he had 12 credit cards and his total debt was GBP 90,000 in 2007, and later on in 2011 it was already GBP 94,000.

Prosecutor Osborne commented: “He had also been running an online gambling account with Betfair, betting on a daily basis. He lost more than he won and his monthly loss averaged about GBP 330.”

Despite the fact that his monthly net salary was very decent at approximately GBP 5,500 he still couldn’t cover all his expenses like mortgage, credit card payments and gambling passion.

The trial is still in progress and for now Chapman is denying the fraud charges.