Maddie - Private Eye to break silence

Morning chrissie, this was bound to happen but since Desmond owns Channel 5 and the Express who forked out £1 million to the McCanns and the Tapas 7 he might just interfere before the McCanns try to block other stuff. How come they saw the offending comment anyway????

I'm not sure if the deal is all done and dusted yet but Richard Desmond has sold Channel 5 to the American company Viacom.

Not Born Yesterday wrote:I'm not sure if the deal is all done and dusted yet but Richard Desmond has sold Channel 5 to the American company Viacom.

Hi NBY if that is the case Viacom must have agreed the Channel 5 production because the Americans would be interested in showing it on their T.V. , not just because of the McCanns , but because of his U.S cons as well.


Your'e good at finding stuff there was the case of Halligen arranging a lavish wedding in the US, many dignitaries were invited and it turned out to be a scam .....the man is a regular Walter Mitty and he fooled a lot of people. Maybe the line was more detrimental to the US than McCanns.

This article mentions the scam wedding.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/fraud-suspect-kevin-richard-halligen-allegedly-posed-as-a-spy-and-cheated-the-elite-on-both-sides-of-the-atlantic/2012/06/09/gJQA3gdwQV_story.html

Not Born Yesterday wrote:This article mentions the scam wedding.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/fraud-suspect-kevin-richard-halligen-allegedly-posed-as-a-spy-and-cheated-the-elite-on-both-sides-of-the-atlantic/2012/06/09/gJQA3gdwQV_story.html

Award yourself a Medal NBY.....muchos gracias,

It is a very long article but well worth the read , this is the bit about the McCanns


Halligen also received an enormous boost from the internationally known case of Madeleine McCann, a 3-year-old British girl who disappeared while on vacation with her family in Portugal.

In the spring of 2008, the Find Madeleine Fund hired Oakley International on a six-month contract worth just under $1 million. Halligen was supposed to use high-tech surveillance and satellite imagery and conduct interviews to help find the girl."

Apparently the McCanns found out he had lied and Clarence Mitchell says they terminated his Contract .

I just saw a trailer for the programme on Channel 5 and it said "The McCanns and the Conman". Maybe they forgot to make a new trailer?

quickfingers wrote:I just saw a trailer for the programme on Channel 5 and it said "The McCanns and the Conman".   Maybe they forgot to make a new trailer?

I am not so sure the McCanns or that British Lawyer who invested £1 million through his Accountant, another bit of money laundering? will have any sway in trying to ban or delete from this Programme. It is American owned and they might have objections from high profile US investors and want the programme to stick solely to the McCanns......says she hopefully.  

I thought the title of the programme had been changed to "The Man Who Conned The McCanns" but that wasn't the show they were just promoting (again).

Just spotted this on another forum:

I didn’t spend McCann cash, says conman


A confidence trickster who was hired by Kate and Gerry McCann to find their missing daughter, Madeleine, has insisted that he can account for all the money spent in the fruitless search.

Kevin Halligen was speaking for the first time after being released from a jail sentence for fraud in the United States.

He set up a team of investigators whose research led to leads that are now being pursued by Scotland Yard.

The McCanns declined to renew a £500,000 contract with Oakley International, Halligen’s company, in 2008 after suggestions that it was too expensive. Halligen was alleged to have

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/article4106468.ece

The full article is behind the paywall. Could be an interesting programme...

Madeleine McCann 'Conman' Denies Misusing Public Donations For Search To Fund Lavish Style
PA | Posted: 03/06/2014 07:30 BST

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/06/03/madeileine-mccann-conman-denies-lavish-lifestyle_n_5435809.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cuk-ws-bb%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D268857

A convicted fraudster who set up a firm to hunt for Madeleine McCann has denied allegations that he funded a lavish lifestyle using cash donated by the public.

Kevin Halligen has made the claims in a new documentary, in the week that police arrived in Portugal to excavate scrubland in Praia Da Luz near where Madeleine disappeared from a holiday apartment in May 2007 in a "significant new phase" of the investigation into why she vanished.

It has been claimed that he spent money for the search on first class travel, luxury hotel suites and a chauffeur.

His Washington-based company received around £300,000 from backers of Kate and Gerry McCann but his contract was terminated early and he was later convicted of fraud in the US on a separate matter.

The McCanns used Kevin Halligen's firm to look for their missing daughter

The McCanns used the Irish national's firm Oakley International for around six months to look for their missing daughter.

The £500,000 contract saw the firm hire private detectives, set up a hotline and process information.

But the McCanns terminated the arrangement without paying the full fees because Halligen, from Surrey, apparently failed to fulfill certain agreements.

In an interview for Channel 5 documentary The McCanns And The Conman, Halligen denied claims that he misused money raised to find Madeleine.

He said: "It is gross distortion of what was actually happening.

"The print media in particular took this line that really nothing was being done, I was living the high life on the proceeds of the McCann case.

"Trust me, I didn't buy so much as a new suit."

He added: "The money, all of it, is fully accountable."

Major Tim Craig-Harvey, a former Army officer who worked on the investigation with Halligen, said: "The gist of the story was that Halligen was a conman, that he had stolen funds, that nothing had been delivered and that the contract had been cancelled."

He added: "He went into, I think it was PNC bank in (Washington) DC and drew out a hundred thousand dollars at a time (and) stuffed it in his pocket.

"That was the last anyone saw of him."

But Halligen denied that he left the country without telling anybody.

"(I) didn't vanish. Everybody knew I was going to Rome," he insisted.

"It has also been reported that I was going to Rome for a holiday with this hot young lady. Untrue. This myth that I vanished off to Rome and spent everybody's money is exactly that, a myth."

Halligen pleaded guilty at an American court last year to defrauding Dutch company Trafigura of £1.3 million after claiming he needed funds to secure the release of two business executives who were arrested in the Ivory Coast.

He is said to have spent the cash on a lavish lifestyle, including a mansion in Virginia, US.

Halligen was arrested at Old Bank hotel in Oxford in 2009 where he was staying for several months under an assumed name and had run up a £5,000 bill.

The McCanns And The Conman airs tomorrow night at 9pm on Channel 5.

The hilly area that is due to be searched is being guarded day and night by armed local police with dogs, with officers expected to use ground-penetrating radar equipment to probe the ground, looking for disturbed earth.

The land, which is a few minutes' walk from the Ocean Club resort apartment where Madeleine was staying with her family, has been searched before.

Scotland Yard, which is carrying out its own investigation into what happened to the youngster, refused to comment on reports that British officers were at the scene and said the force was "not prepared to give a running commentary" about the case.

Quote from article
The McCanns And The Conman airs tomorrow night at 9pm on Channel 5.
Unquote.

This penny grabbing pair are pushing their way into the news yet again....I wonder how much they are squeezing out of Channel 5 for this piece of overworked tish?

Well the McCanns did not make the front page but there is a photo if them , not one of their latest and Kate is holding a blown up photo of Madeleine in the obligatory red dress., there is an inset photo of Halligen ....blurb reads:-


"In 2008, a secret private investigation , led by Security Consultant Kevin Halligen , was set up to find missing child Madeleine McCann.But as it went on , it emerged Halligen was a conman , wanted by the FBI for fraud."


So all these intelligent people acting as Directors of the Company, a PR Consultant with many contacts, a British tycoon who owns a few Companies ,
a contact with undercover agents .......yet the McCanns managed to lose £500,000 of fund Donations to a Fraudster.!!!!!!!!!!

They must think we were all born yesterday..  Poor little Madeleine, if your Parents had not put their needs before yours, you would be alive today.

Channel 5 are running ads for the show tonight and the voiceover says "How did a conman help uncover the most important piece of information so far in the case?" Will be interesting to watch.

Surely Dave the Rave Edgar is as big, if not bigger a conman than Halligen... According to his highly developed sleuthing prowess, Madeleine was alive and well in a wild rural area of Portugal.

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2010/01/rent-cop-dave-edgar-maddie-is-alive-and.html...

malena stool wrote:Surely Dave the Rave Edgar is as big, if not bigger a conman than Halligen... According to his highly developed sleuthing prowess, Madeleine was alive and well in a wild rural area of Portugal.

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2010/01/rent-cop-dave-edgar-maddie-is-alive-and.html...

Yes, they kept her down a hole covered with a bit of metal, á la Saddam Hussein. Obvious, innit.

I m not sure that was meant to be funny Malena Stool, but it so made me laugh.  Yes where was the evidence for that little crock .... seems any good lead was apparently put away under threat of legal action if revealed.  wonder if theres anymore hidden under that pretext.  Ill bet that was another unexpected find by SY.  wonder how many more there will be in different countries and locations,  just wondering.... imo

quickfingers wrote:Channel 5 are running ads for the show tonight and the voiceover says "How did a conman help uncover the most important piece of information so far in the case?"   Will be interesting to watch.

To be honest it will only really be of interest if they question why the report was quashed in favour of Tannerman still promoted on the official website despite Redwood saying he has been eliminated. The fact Helligen "helped uncovered the most important piece of information" already known to the PJ and stated by GA to be significant is just hyperbole.

so far not impressed with any of them. its odd that the narrator once starred in Silent Witness, investigating bodies, how they died, finding what killed them and then going on to find the killer. bit of weird symmetry going on there

They discredited Tanner after listening to her voice recording

quickfingers wrote:They discredited Tanner after listening to her voice recording

Wow!! Thanks - do keep us informed.

interested wrote:

quickfingers wrote:They discredited Tanner after listening to her voice recording

Wow!!  Thanks - do keep us informed.

Seems like the world is caving in on Rothley Towers, The digs, the WOC issue and now this.
Karma, Karma !!!!

Still waiting for the "most important bit of information". 20 mins to go.

me too on about the photofit on crimewatch

what have I missed the programme is finished. yes it appears he was a conman but it also appears that the work was done by Henry Exxton et al. I do like that the narrator consistently referred to the publicy raised funds.

So Smithman gets a 15 second mention.