McCann consultant in pounds 1.3m fraud row

23 November 2009 
The Daily Telegraph 
Alastair Jamieson

A security consultant whose company was allegedly paid pounds 300,000 from publicly donated funds to help find Madeleine McCann has been charged with an unrelated pounds 1.3 million fraud.  Kevin Halligen, 48, from Surrey, is wanted in America for allegedly conning a law firm out of $2.1 million in fees which he spent on himself. The Washington-based businessman, who styled himself as a security expert with FBI and MI5 connections, has not been arrested because officials in America do not know where he is.

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

Maddy investigator on run after fraud claims

23 November 2009 
Belfast Telegraph 
Jerome Taylor

A private investigator whose company was paid more than £500,000 by the McCann family to look for their missing daughter has gone on the run after being implicated in a string of high-profile frauds. Kevin Halligen (48) is thought to have pocketed at least £300,000 from public donations that were given in the wake of Madeleine McCann's disappearance before he went on the run from his mansion near Washington DC over a separate investigation into an allegation that he defrauded an international oil company out of more than £1m.

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

FBI hunting PI charged over $2.3m law firm con

23 November 2009 
Daily Telegraph

A private detective whose company was paid up to pound stg. 500,000 ($900,000) from publicly donated funds to find Madeleine McCann has been charged with fraud.  Kevin Halligen, 48, is wanted in the US by the FBI for allegedly conning a law firm out of pound stg. 1.3 million ($2.35 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

Maddie 'spy' facing fraud allegations

23 November 2009 
Liverpool Echo 
Liza Williams

A businessman hired to find Madeleine McCann has allegedly kept up to £300,000 meant to pay investigators. It has been reported that British security consultant, Kevin Halligen, 50, failed to pass the money on to private detectives who did the work for him. Around £500,000 was paid to his firm, Oakley International, by the Find Madeleine fund.

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

FBI hunt £300K Maddie conman

23 November 2009 
Scottish Daily Record 
Craig McDonald
Secret agent fantasist vanishes with cash after promise of help

A self-styled secret agent has pocketed £300,000 from the Madeleine McCann fund, it's been claimed. Businessman and "security consultant" Kevin Halligen, 50, was paid thousands to find the missing girl - but allegedly failed to pass the money on to private detectives carrying out the work for him. A McCann family friend said: "He offered to provide satellite images which could help the case - but all he came up with was something off Google Earth. "He acted as if he were a James Bond-style spy. He promised the Earth but it came to nothing."

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

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