In Thursday’s (2/4) Times (London), Sadie Gray reports, “The London Philharmonic Orchestra has won a High Court judgment for £2.3 million against a financial director who allegedly embezzled its funds. Mr. Justice Field yesterday entered judgment against Cameron Poole, 35, for a total of £2,351,155. His assets had been frozen in November by a court order, extended after the hearing was told there was a risk that he would flee to his home country of Australia or use his financial expertise to frustrate the LPO’s efforts to recover its money. The sum initially claimed by the orchestra was £357,000 but that was increased yesterday to £2.3 million. Mr. Poole began work as general manager and financial director in 2004. After he left the LPO, in 2008, employees were dismayed to discover ‘compelling evidence of a substantial fraud perpetrated by its former finance director’, Andrew Thomas, the LPO’s barrister, said. … He disguised the fraud by entering the amounts on the accounts system as payments to musical organisations, Mr. Thomas said in a written submission.”
Posted February 4, 2010
