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Anorak News | Madeleine McCann And The Wanted ‘James Bond’ Spy

Madeleine McCann And The Wanted ‘James Bond’ Spy

by | 22nd, November 2009

oakley-international1MADDIE WATCH Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann: The “secret agent con man”, Oakley International and detectives seek detectives…

For three summers, the hunt has been on for the media’s Our Maddie. She has yet to be found. What happend to her has yet to be established. All we know is that she missing.

The detectives have failed.

The Guardian: “FBI searches for detective who worked on Madeleine McCann case”

He’s gone missing? Is foul play suspected? What say the detectives who aren’t missing?

A British security consultant who was paid £300,000 to assist efforts by Kate and Gerry McCann to find their daughter Madeleine is being sought by the FBI over an alleged £1.3m fraud.

A £500,000 contract given to Kevin Halligen’s private detective agency, Oakley International, to help with the search for the missing child was terminated last year after a major benefactor of the McCanns expressed concerns about the quality of the firm’s work.

Oakley international are the Belgian paedo hunters? And isn’t £500,000 the same sum the Daily Express paid in libel damages to the McCanns?

US-based firm Oakley International was taken on by the Find Madeleine Fund earlier this year on a £500,000 six-month contract to monitor a telephone hotline, carry out detective work and review CCTV footage from around the world of possible sightings of the missing girl.

And now?

However, Halligen is now wanted by the FBI following an indictment issued by US authorities in connection with allegations that he defrauded a London law firm of money that was supposed to be used to lobby for the release of two executives from the Dutch company Trafigura, arrested in the Ivory Coast.

It’s all alleged. If you can’t trust your private detectives, who can you trust? By the way, if the private dicks find Madeleine McCann do they get the reward?

The McCanns’ spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said: “Oakley International was contracted to help with the search for Madeleine. Due diligence was carried out at every stage and payment was only made for work properly carried out. It was only towards the end of the six-month contract that question marks were raised about delivery in some areas and the contract was terminated.”

Did they find the missing child? No. But get this from the Guardian:

The McCanns did not contact the police about Halligen, who visited their home, but his behaviour aroused suspicions at an early stage among the couple and their advisers.

His behaviour aroused suspicions so they hired him and paid his firm £500,000?

Oakley International secured the contract from the Find Madeleine Fund to monitor the phone hotline, sift through CCTV footage of possible sightings and carry out investigative work.

The Sunday Times: “Madeleine McCann fund hired ‘secret agent’ conman”

“He had this sense of cloak and dagger, acting as if he were a James Bond-style spy,” said the friend. “He promised the earth but it came to nothing.”

It would seem so. What are the facts?

The Madeleine fund was provided with further reports from teams of investigators who found it increasingly difficult to obtain their fees from Halligen. One of them, Henri Exton, a former national head of undercover operations for the British police, is owed more than £100,000 by Halligen for work he did on the Madeleine case.

Documents show that while Halligen’s company was receiving the fund’s cash, he was withdrawing large amounts of money for his personal use. He had been using company funds to finance first-class flights, expensive hotels and chauffeur-driven cars.

Nothing proven. No hard facts. Just allegations and sensation about adults. It’s the Madeleine McCann case – in which an innocent child went missing…

Madeleine McCann: The Story In Pictures

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Robbie Williams wears a Maddie t-shirt while watching England's Ricky Hatton bout against Mexico's Jose Luis Castillo at the Thomas & Mack Centre Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.



Posted: 22nd, November 2009 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann Comments (4) | TrackBack | Permalink