The Daily Express
Mark Reynolds
A private detective paid up to £500,000 from publicly donated funds to find Madeleine McCann has been charged with fraud, it emerged yesterday. Kevin Halligen, a 48-year-old security consultant, is wanted in America by the FBI for allegedly conning a law firm out of £1.3 million by claiming he could help free two men jailed in war-torn Africa.
It is claimed he instead spent the money on a mansion. Mr Halligen's company Oakley International, based in Washington DC, was paid half a million pounds after being hired by the Find Madeleine Fund. It is understood he offered to provide Kate and Gerry McCann with satellite images and lists of telephone traffic on the night Madeleine disappeared. The data was supposed to come from contacts in Washington but, one source claimed, "all he came up with was a Google Earth image."
Mr Halligen, who claims to have many contacts in the British security services and FBI, said he had managed to infiltrate a Belgium paedophile ring. He regularly visited the McCanns to give them updates on the hunt for Madeleine, who was three when she vanished from a holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007. The Madeleine Fund was provided with further reports from teams of investigators, but they in turn found it increasingly difficult to obtain their fees from Mr Halligen.
One of them, Henri Exton, a former national head of undercover operations for the British police, is understood to be owed more than £100,000 for work he did on the Madeleine case.
Police sources say Mr Halligen was last seen in Italy but has allegedly left a trail of debts in America. He is understood to have pretended to have served in the intelligence services to impress business and social contacts, claim those who knew him.
Two years ago he allegedly even faked his own wedding to lawyer Maria Dybczak in Washington, watched by ex-agents, a CIA station chief and an adviser to Barack Obama. Mr Halligen told his bride that his spy masters wouldn't allow his real name on the wedding papers. But he was already married and the priest was an actor.
A wider financial investigation has found that Mr Halligen bought a £1million mansion with money allegedly defrauded from Trafigura, a Dutch company accused of dumping toxic waste in Africa. Last week the US Department of Justice issued an indictment seeking his arrest over the alleged Trafigura fraud. A document claims Mr Halligen took money saying his firm could help secure the release of two Trafigura executives imprisoned in the Ivory Coast in 2007.
But his connections to the Madeleine investigation are now prompting further investigation. His indictment in the US is likely to dismay thousands who gave money to the Madeleine Fund. It received more than £1million in donations after her disappearance but this was hit heavily by the sums given to Mr Halligen for his services. Stephen Dorrell, the McCanns' MP, said: "This man clearly saw a vulnerable family going through a terrible ordeal and the only thing he was focused on was that there were people offering money to help find Madeleine."
Last night the McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, was unavailable for comment. But earlier he insisted the fund had not been duped. Two weeks ago, 2.5 million people viewed computer images of how Madeleine might look now in an online campaign to flush out her abductor. Internet users in 160 countries have watched the special 60-second film targeted at those closest to the kidnapper.
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