Private detective fleeced Maddie fund of £300,000

23 November 2009
Daily Mail
Neil Sears 


A 'Walter Mitty' private investigator who claimed to be an experienced secret agent was paid £300,000 from the funds raised to try to find Madeleine McCann. Thousands of members of public donated money to Gerry and Kate McCann's fund after their three-year-old daughter went missing during a holiday in Portugal in May 2007. Now it has emerged that a sizeable portion of that money was paid to self-proclaimed security consultant Kevin Halligen, 50, a Briton who boasted that secret service contacts in Washington DC could provide satellite images of Portugal from the night Madeleine disappeared.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2009, Brian Kennedy, Clarence Mitchell, Find Madeleine Fund, Madeleine McCann, Metodo3

Detective hired in the hunt for Madeleine is charged with £1m con

23 November 2009
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.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2009, Clarence Mitchell, Find Madeleine Fund, Madeleine McCann

FBI searches for Madeleine detective

22 November 2009
The Observer
Ben Quinn

A British security consultant who was paid pounds 300,000 to assist efforts by Kate and Gerry McCann to find their daughter Madeleine is being sought by the FBI over an alleged pounds 1.3m fraud. A pounds 500,000 contract given to Kevin Halligen's private detective agency, Oakley International, to help with the search for the missing child was terminated last year after a major benefactor of the McCanns expressed concerns about the quality of the firm's work. However, Halligen is now wanted by the FBI following an indictment issued by US authorities in connection with allegations that he defrauded a London law firm of money that was supposed to be used to lobby for the release of two executives from the Dutch company Trafigura, arrested in the Ivory Coast.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2009, Brian Kennedy, Clarence Mitchell, Find Madeleine Fund, Madeleine McCann

Ex Maddie detective 'on the run'

22 November 2009 
The Express on Sunday

Private detective once hired to find Madeleine McCann was reportedly wanted last night after an alleged £1.3million fraud in the US.  British security consultant Kevin Halligen, 48, who was paid £300,000 almost two years ago to find Madeleine, is wanted by the FBI in America for allegedly conning a US law firm. Rather than use the money to help free two men jailed in Africa, it is claimed he spent it on a mansion. Halligen has not yet been arrested because US officials do not know where he is.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2009, Find Madeleine Fund, Madeleine McCann

Halligen : Wanted by the SAS and FBI

22 November 2009 
The Sunday Times

A Dubliner who allegedly conned the Madeleine McCann fund out of more than ¤300,000 by posing as a secret service agent is on the run from the law — and the woman he pretended to marry

The wedding guests arrived in black limousines to see a British secret agent marry his US government lawyer bride, surrounded by the strictest of security. From the grand 19th-century Evermay mansion, where the ceremony took place, the guests had commanding views of America's power base, Washington, DC. It is a city where former intelligence agents and ex-military men mix warily with their former colleagues and politicians looking for lucrative government security contracts.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2009, Brian Kennedy, Find Madeleine Fund, Forensic Science Services, Madeleine McCann

McCann fund hired 'spy' conman

22 November 2009
The Sunday Times

A businessman who pretended to be a secret agent has allegedly pocketed up to £300,000 (¤333,250) from funds intended to pay investigators working to find Madeleine McCann. Kevin Halligen, a Dublin born security consultant, was paid £500,000 by the Find Madeleine fund but allegedly failed to pass it on to private eyes who worked for him. A friend of Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine's parents, said: "He acted as if he were a James Bond-style spy. He promised the earth but it came to nothing."

Continue Reading... Labels: 2009, Find Madeleine Fund, Madeleine McCann

Maddie Detective £1m Fraud Charge

22 November 2009
 The Mail on Sunday
Daniel Boffey and Mark Hollingsworth

A private detective whose company was paid up to £500,000 from publicly donated funds to find Madeleine McCann has been charged with fraud.  Kevin Halligen, 48, 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.  However, he has not been arrested because US officials do not know where he is.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2009, Brian Kennedy, Clarence Mitchell, Find Madeleine Fund, Madeleine McCann, Metodo3

'Agent' conned McCanns

22 November 2009 
The Sunday Times 

A businessman who pretended to be a secret agent has allegedly pocketed up to £300,000 from funds intended to pay investigators working on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Kevin Halligen, 50, a British security consultant, was paid to find Madeleine but allegedly failed to pass the money on to the private detectives who did the work on his behalf. A friend of Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine's parents, said they had become increasingly concerned about Halligen. "He acted as if he were a James Bond style spy," said the friend. "He promised the earth but it came to nothing."

Continue Reading... Labels: 2009, Find Madeleine Fund, Madeleine McCann

United Kingdom Man Indicted for Fraud

12 November 2009
Targeted News Service

The U.S. Department of Justice's U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Columbia issued the following news release:

Kevin R. Halligen, 48, of Surrey, United Kingdom, was indicted today on charges of wire fraud and money laundering by a grand jury sitting in the District of Columbia, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the Washington Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2009, Find Madeleine Fund

IRA terrorists were based in the Algarve

6 Nov 2009
Express
Hugo Franco

Google Translation (with apologies and request for more accurate translation. Original Article HERE)

Two operational Irish kept explosives in a restaurant in Alvor are on trial for murder in Belfast.

Panda Grill does not serve pints of Guinness or transmit games between Liverpool and Arsenal in the plasma display. Is a restaurant Algarve typical of bifanas and grilled fish, away from noisy pubs frequented by foreigners in the center of Alvor.

It was at that location that Paul Anthony McCaugherty , 43, and Michael Gregory, 41, two citizens of Northern Ireland, met to negotiate the purchase and sale of weapons between 2005 and 2006.

This week is being tried in Belfast, suspected of belonging to the Real IRA, a dissident faction of the Republican army (IRA).

Continue Reading... Labels: 2009, Donegal