The bosses of some of Britain’s biggest banks were thrown into confusion and chaos after discovering hundreds of forged documents relating to their financial investments submitted by an ordained “Dudeist priest” in Northern Ireland.
The alarm was raised by banking trade body UK Finance, which warned its members in a letter earlier this year that there were over 800 fake loan documents linked to 190 of the country’s largest companies, including Bank of Scotland, estate agent Knight Frank and Private Equity giant Macquarie, had been filed with Companies House.
Accordingly The Times of LondonThe fake documents stated that each company’s loans had been repaid or “satisfied in full” even though all debts were still outstanding.
While the mass claims earlier this year could easily have been part of a complex, state-sponsored cyberattack or industrial-scale fraud, in reality they were the actions of just one man.
The person in question is an unnamed meditation and acupuncture practitioner from Northern Ireland who identifies as a so-called Dudeist priest. Dudeism is a religious movement inspired by the 1998 Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski, which endorses the practices of the film’s main character, Jeffrey “the Dude” Lebowski. The movement compares to Chinese Taoism with his “Take it easy manifesto”.
The film’s plot revolves around the laid-back Lebowski who becomes embroiled in a kidnapping conspiracy involving a millionaire who bears Lebowski’s name.
In an interview with The timesThe man, whose identity the outlet did not reveal, said he submitted the paperwork because he believed the companies in question owed him money.
Assets reviewed the list of companies shared by UK Finance that were affected by the false dismissal of the charges. Banks implicated in the unmet charges include HSBC, NatWest, CBRE and Royal Bank of Canada.
The incident puts Companies House, a British government agency that maintains the company register, under additional scrutiny.
Companies House has come under heavy criticism in recent years for frequently releasing false or misleading data about British companies, a powerful tool used by Sham companies, fake directorships And Money launderers to hide their true intentions.
Things are starting to change as the agency was given new powers last year under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, finally allowing Companies House to begin examining data submitted to it. However, there is an increase in demand for his achievements means that concerns related to business operations affect many companies and individuals and therefore need to be taken into account.
“We have taken steps to freeze the account linked to these transactions and, using the new powers available to us, removed all associated documentation,” a Companies House spokesperson said Assets in a statement. “We are contacting the affected companies and have initiated an urgent review of our processes. We continue to work with law enforcement partners as appropriate.”
Northern Ireland’s Dudeist priest
The problems surrounding false filings are now largely resolved – but ironically, the person behind it had no clear rationale for going after the companies like he did.
Speak with The timessaid the man, “I didn’t know anything about it [the filings] until I read it and then sent it all away at once.
“When I found something new, I would get a little too engrossed in it and then get a little distracted. I think if I had spread it out and read it slowly and taken my time, things might have turned out differently, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.”
All incorrect filings have now been removed from the Companies House website, with the prefix “corrected”. For example, Companies House records on Nero Coffee Roasting Limited said: “Corrected The material was previously considered to be part of the Register but is no longer considered to be part of the Register by the Registrar.”