by Felicity Hathaway for the MMRG
Following
the Madeleine Foundation meetings I attended back in 2009/10, where the
name of Gary Hagland was brought up, I have done some investigations
into him. I’m sorry it’s taken me a while to come back to you.
I
am calling him the ‘mysterious seventh man’ because what I regard as
the six other main private investigators in the case have been clearly
(if not exactly prominently) publicised. They are:Francisco Marco, boss of Metodo 3 (made bogus claims that Madeleine would be ‘home by Christmas)
Antonio Jimenez Raso,
chief McCann investigator for Metodo 3 (former police officer,
imprisoned from February 2008 to July 2012 on suspicion of involvement
in a major criminal gang)
Julian Peribañez, assistant to Antonio Jimenez Raso
Kevin Halligen
(known to the McCanns as Richard Halligen) (continuously in prison
since October 2009 on suspicion of fraud, now convicted of fraud and
serving time in prison in the U.S.)
Dave Edgar,
Cheshire-based retired detective (said Jane Tanner might have seen a
woman not a man on 3 May 2007, was ‘convinced’ that Madeleine was being
held in a ‘prison lair’ close to Praia da Luz)
Arthur Cowley,
Flintshire-based retired detective (set up bogus company, ALPHAIG, to
make it look as though he and Edgar were running a well-established
detective agency called ‘Alpha Investigations Group’.
Gary
Hagland, from Nottingham, was employed directly by the effective
controller of the McCann Team’s private investigation, Brian Kennedy,
from September 2007 to March 2008. It was a crucial phase of the
investigation, covering the period from the date of the McCanns being
declared ‘arguidos’ to the moment the McCanns succeeded in winning an
estimated £550,000 in agreed libel damages from various British media.
So
far as I can see, Hagland’s name has only cropped up twice publicly in
relation to the McCann case. He was identified as a McCann Team
investigator in articles by ‘Blackwatch’ on the old ‘Sargent’s Inn’
blog. And he has contributed to an internet forum.. It is time that his
role in the McCann Team investigation was highlighted.
He was born Gary Peter Hagland on 15 September 1954. He will therefore be 58 years old on 15 September 2012.
I
have not yet managed to track down his secondary school and further
education details, but at various times he has claimed to have the
following academic qualifications: M.Sc. and M.B.A. (respectively:
Master of Science and Masters degree in Business Administration). It
would be very unusual for someone to have two Masters’ degrees - and he
doesn’t say which University he got them from.
Either
in 1978 or 1979, at the age of about 24/25, he got a job working in the
Criminal Intelligence Department of Royal Hong Kong Police. There is
also evidence that he may have worked for a time on the Organised Crime
and Triad Department of the force. He worked there until 1985, when he
returned home to England and made his home at Charleston House,
Nottingham, where he has been living ever since.
I’ve
been unable to discover what job he got on his return here from Hong
Kong, but I have been able to establish that by September 1991 he was
working as Associate Director of Compliance at Albert E Sharp and Co.
‘Compliance’ basically means compliance with various financial
regulations designed to prevent fraud.Clearly Hagland was becoming something of an expert in compliance with financial regulations because the Editor of the Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance invited Hagland to write an article on the subject. The article, ‘Effective Compliance v. Regulatory Gestation’, was published in 1993, in Vol. 2, Issue 1, pp. 11-21. Accompanying the article is a brief description of Gary Hagland, which states:
“Gary
Hagland, AMSI, MIMgt, entered the fledgling area of compliance in 1985
after leaving the Royal Hong Kong Police where he had served in criminal
intelligence for some six years.
I have not been able to track down what AMSI stands for. MIMgt is: ‘Member of the Institute of Management’.
On 3 May 1994, Gary Hagland became a Director of OMFS (AESFM) Ltd. On
On
2 January 1996 he became Director of OMFS (BSPEP) Ltd. I have not yet
been able to find out exactly what these companies do, but they were
clearly connected with investment and finance. Gary Hagland’s role in
OMFS (BSPEP) Ltd was as ‘Compliance Officer’. Fellow Directors of the
company included, at one time, Sir William Royden Stuttaford.
At some time in the 1990s he also became a Director of Gerrard (OMH) Ltd, but resigned this Directorship on 14 October 1998.Just 11 days later, on 25 October 1998, he also resigned from the Boards of both OMFS (BSPEP) Ltd and OMFS (AESFM) Ltd.
In 1999, Hagland was clearly regarded more than ever as an expert in the fields of fraud and money laundering. An article by him was published that year in a journal called: ‘Money Laundering Bulletin’.
At some stage around then, he became a ‘consultant’ with special expertise on money-laundering for law firm Wragge and Co in their Birmingham office, where his job was: ‘advising clients on the active management of compliance risks, including money laundering’. He was also said to ‘work with the Institute of Directors' Board consultancy department on the "Compliant Board" initiative that aims to guide company directors through the labyrinth of regulations and procedure that successful compliance demands’.
An article about Hagland’s work for Wragge and Co. appeared in the Financial Times Director magazine, 30 March 2001, and is reproduced below (Appendix 1).
Clearly, then, he was an acknowledged expert in the fields of financial regulation, compliance, fraud and money laundering.
On 4 April 2002, Hagland became a Director of Heath Reid & People Limited, as their ‘Attorney’ - but resigned just 8 days later. Just for the record, his fellow-Directors at that time were:
Toby James Brook-Reid (also Company Secretary) (then aged 27)
Thomas Heath (then aged 31)
Dominique Fay Welch (then aged 26)
Philip Anthony Jones (then aged 41).
In
September 2007 he was hired by Brian Kennedy. Kennedy had set up a base
for his private investigations into Madeleine’s disappearance at a
house in Knutsford, Cheshire, close to his home in Swettenham and to
Wilmslow, the base for his Latium Group business empire.
Hagland
resigned from the McCann Team in March 2008 - around the time the
McCann Team hired Kevin Halligen as their lead investigator at a cost of
£500,000 plus expenses.
In
August of the same year, Hagland he became a Director of Investec
Gresham II Ltd, resigning a few weeks later on 30 September. Investec
Gresham II Ltd appears to be an investment fund, one of dozens of
subsidiary companies of the international banking group, Investec
(currently the subject of litigation in South Africa). A search of
Investec Group companies shows that many of their investment funds
appear to be placed for their clients in low tax havens such as the
Cayman Islands, Jersey and Switzerland.
Also,
on 15 August 2008, Hagland became a Director of Investec Trust Holdings
Ltd (ITH). At the time of his appointment, most of his fellow Directors
of ITH were living in tax havens, thus:
Richard David Williams – Channel Islands
Robert Clifford – Channel Islands
Brian Williams – Channel Islands
James Michael Spittal – Channel Islands
Keith Hamilton Turberville – Channel Islands
Steven John Heilbron – South African Banker
Xavier Michel Louis Isaac – Switzerland.
It appears that Hagland remains a Director of this company to this day.
On
6 March 2010, there was an all-night ‘rave’ party at Nottingham Trent
University (next door to Charleston House, where Hagland lives). One
resident was apparently hospitalised as a result of the event, and, as
reported in the Nottingham Post on 15 March 2010 (see below, Appendix
2), Hagland appeared to be taking the lead in protesting against the
University’s failure to address the nuisance caused by these all-night
parties.Soon afterwards, on 9 April 2010, he became a Director of Charleston House, which appears to be owned and managed by its residents - but he resigned just 23 days later (2 May 2010). Charleston House (Nottingham) Ltd, based at Ossington Chambers, 6-8 Castle Gate, NEWARK, Nottinghamshire, NG24 1AX, Company No. 06611330, had been incorporated on 4 June 2008. The founding Directors included Mr and Mrs David and Valerie Russell. David Russell is shown as having a total of 18 Directorships.
Gary Hagland and the Jensen sisters
The old ‘Sargeants Inn’ website carried information about Gary Hagland’s involvement in interviewing the ‘Jensen sisters’ (Jayne Jenson and Annie Wiltshire). As far as I can tell, ‘Sargents Inn’ must have had a confidential source for this information, for I have seen it nowhere else.
Here is some information culled substantially from the ‘Sargents Inn’ site, no longer available on the internet.
"Jayne
Jensen claims to have seen Robert Murat around the Ocean Club at around
10.30pm on the evening of Thursday 3 May, the night Madeleine was
reported missing. In this respect, she supported the accounts of three
members of the ‘Tapas 7’, namely Rachael Oldfield, Fiona Payne, and
Russell O’Brien. These three made statements on 15 and 16 May 2007 to
the police claiming they had seen Robert Murat ‘hanging around the Ocean
Club’ at around the same time as the Jensen sisters (i.e. around
10.30pm to 11.00pm). They claimed to have recognised Murat from footage
being shown of him on TV the day he was arrested (15 May). The Jensen
sisters also claimed to have seen two blond men hanging around one of
the ground floor apartments before Madeleine was reported missing. "The statements of the Jensen sisters and of the ‘Tapas 3’ (above) followed hard on the heels of Jane Tanner having reportedly been adamant, two days earlier, that Robert Murat was the person she claimed to have seen carrying a child from near the McCanns’ apartment at about 9.15pm on Thursday 3 May.
"About five to six month later (that is, around November 2007), according to the ‘Sargents Inn’, the Jensens sisters were, in turn, interviewed by Gary Hagland and Julian Peribañez) from Spanish detective agency Metodo 3, and either before then, or after, by Detective Constable Bob Sidoli and Detective Constable Jo Godfrey, both believed to be from Kent Police. A Robert Sidoli is shown as living in Ashford, Kent. He may have a martial arts qualification. Peribañez was seen walking side by side with Clarence Mitchell in Praia da Luz in a Portuguese TV news bulletin, believed to be in November 2007.
"It
was on 13 November 2007 that Kennedy had two meetings, one with the
Portuguese Police at Portimao Police Station, the other with his lawyer,
Edward Smethurst and Robert Murat and his lawyer, Francisco Pagarate.
Five days later, the McCanns and the Tapas 7 all met with their advisers
at Rothley Court Manor. The day after that meeting, Panorama screened
its documentary on the case.
"None
of these reports about the interviews of the Jensens come from the
police, they all appear to come from anonymous sources such as: ‘a
source close to the family’ or ‘a source close to the investigation’.
"The
Jensen sisters had played tennis on holiday in Praia da Luz with the
McCanns. Rajinder Balu from Essex, and Neil Berry also drank with the
Jensen sisters.
"Neil
Berry gave statements to the police on 7 May 2007 and on 8 January 2008
(when buccal swabs were taken). Berry’s 7 May statement is however not
in the Portuguese Police files. Rajinder Balu’s statement is also
missing from the police files".
According
to the Sargents Inn, the Jensen sisters were questioned, altogether,
for a total of 11 hours. It is not known on what date they were
questioned.
That is all I have for you at the moment.
Appendix 1: Article 30 March 2001 in Financial Times Director featuring Gary Hagland:
EXTRACT FROM ‘FINANCIAL TIMES DIRECTOR, 30 March 2001
Gary Hagland is a consultant with law firm Wragge & Co advising clients on the active management of compliance risks, including money laundering.
He
works with the Institute of Directors' board consultancy department on
the "Compliant Board" initiative that aims to guide company directors
through the labyrinth of regulations and procedure that successful
compliance demands. Mr Hagland paints a broad picture of the type of
non-financial services businesses that may well be targets for the money
launderer. These include auction houses, expensive car dealerships,
property agents and developers - indeed any business that is used to
handling high-value assets.
According to
Mr Hagland, a problem for companies in complying with anti-money
laundering initiatives is that their prevailing culture and ethos does
not lend itself readily to accommodate scepticism about prospective
customers. Rather, the opposite is likely to be the case. "To tackle the
possible threat of being unwitting accomplices to a money laundering
scheme, the challenge for non-financial businesses is to change their
mindset, their core attitudes. The reputational focus of most businesses
is clearly not on money laundering," says Mr Hagland.Businesses used to dealing with wealthy clients are also used to handling those clients' wishes for anonymity and discretion; ideal conditions in which the money launderer can ply his trade. But businesses are required, increasingly, to interrogate rather than interview their clients and prospective clients.
In order to identify the risks, businesses need to ensure that they have a firm grasp of what money laundering is, how it may have an impact on their business, and the systems and procedures they may require to put in place in order to minimise their risk of exposure. But putting awareness into practice is more difficult. As Gary Hagland explains, practical guidance is thin on the ground: "One of the principal problems is that there is no established methodology for businesses to follow. Though business is told that it must be self-policing, there are no clear guidelines as to how they should go about fulfilling that role."
The risks associated with money laundering are clear enough. Money laundering is a criminal offence: any individual caught helping to process the proceeds of crime faces a lengthy prison sentence. Companies which stand accused of assisting with money laundering operations also risk substantial damage to their reputations.
But, how can you tell a money launderer?
For many businesses they are likely to be the kind of person that, on first impressions, they would welcome as a customer.Money launderers are extremely well-funded, well-advised and make use of technically elaborate and sophisticated schemes to cover their tracks.
Appendix 2: Article in the Nottingham Evening Post on 15 March 2010, featuring a photo of Gary Hagland:
STRESSED NEIGHBOUR HOSPITALISED AFTER STUDENT ‘RAVE’
AN all-night rave at student halls left a pensioner in hospital with stress caused by noise, residents claim.
Nottingham Trent University has been criticised for its response to the party, which was announced on Facebook.
PICTURE: Gary Hagland outside Canterbury Court.
Residents
say Canterbury Court, in Peel Street, close to the university's city
campus, has been an unofficial rave venue in recent years.
Gary
Hagland, who lives in Charleston House, which neighbours Canterbury
Court, said partygoers urinated and littered around the complex.
He also claims a couple had sex in a camper van in full view of residents at a similar party in 2008.
Mr
Hagland, 55, a resident in Charleston House since 1985, said: "There
have been a handful of parties like this in recent years and they are
usually at the end of term.
"The
mess that is left and the disturbance of people living here is
something that is not being dealt with properly by the university, which
leases this accommodation to its students.
"The
noise and vibration from the music was so bad on this occasion that our
neighbour had to go to hospital because her heartbeat got to about 200
from stress."Some of the students we have lived with have been hard-working and have been good neighbours.
"This party, though, is the worst one we have ever known."
It is understood hundreds attended the party, on Saturday, March 6, including uninvited guests and non-students.
Mr Hagland has contacted police, the council and senior staff at the university about the issue.
A
spokeswoman for the university said: "The university is investigating
and is in contact with both the residents of this property and those in
the immediate area to determine the exact nature of the complaint."The university takes any complaints relating to its students very seriously and does not condone any anti-social behaviour.
"Any confirmed misconduct attributed to its students will be dealt with under the university's Student Code of Behaviour."
Notts Police said they did not receive an emergency call on the night.A city centre beat manager is involved in the investigation.
Inspector
Andy Townsend said: "Loud music and noise, which continues into the
early hours, can be distressing and I hope, following these discussions,
the situation does not arise again."
michael.greenwell@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk
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For discussion, please visit these threads on the CMOMM forum: https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t7311-gary-hagland-the-mysterious-seventh-man-in-the-mccann-team-private-investigations