A Cambridge academic who fraudulently claimed approximately £2.8m in government grants has been ordered to pay £1.3m back from his crimes or face a further eight and a half years in prison.
National Crime Agency | Rosenblatt’s Financial Crime Team
The National Crime Agency (NCA) started an investigation into Dr Ehsan Abdi-Jalebi when he was stopped three times attempting to leave the country carrying a large amount of cash. On one occasion he tried to conceal the cash in a chocolate box to avoid detection.
Dr Ehsan Abdi-Jalebi claimed government funds allocated to develop renewable energy projects and used fake documents to have the money siphoned into his bank accounts. NCA officers found a series of grant applications to fund research and falsified documents including invoices, accounts and bank statements to detail how the money was being spent. Dr Abdi-Jalebi sent his accountants forged invoices to show non-existent payments or figures that had been altered.
Dr Ehsan Abdi-Jalebi had fraudulently claimed £2.8m in grants and withdrawn more than £820,000 in cash in just under four years. The investigation discovered that £1.5m of the funds received had been transferred to Dubai for his personal use or removed to Iran in cash. Dr Abdi-Jalebi was subsequently jailed in December 2018 after admitting 13 counts of forgery.
On 19 August 2021 Dr Abdi-Jalebi appeared at a confiscation hearing where it was determined that the benefit from his crimes was £2.1m. The Judge agreed with the NCA investigators that much of the funds claimed had been spent on Dr Abdi-Jalebi’s lifestyle. Accordingly, Dr Abdi-Jalebi was ordered to pay £1.3m, the amount the Judge found was still available from his crimes. If this payment is not made within three months Dr Abdi-Jalebi faces a prison sentence of eight and a half years and will still owe the money.
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(Sources: Cambridge academic ordered to pay £1.3 million or face another 8.5 years in prison – National Crime Agency)
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