The private investigator who was embroiled in a controversy over his suspected embezzlement of funds raised to help find Madeline McCann has been found dead.
Kevin Halligen was found at the home he shares with his long-term girlfriend in Surrey.
According to MailOnline, it has been speculated that alcohol may have played a part in his death, and it has also been alleged that he was discovered surrounded by a pool of blood. Police are currently investigating the matter.
Halligen was hired by the missing toddler’s parents in 2008, and it has been alleged that he conned £300,000 out of Maddie’s search fund to finance a lavish lifestyle of luxury travel, top hotel suites, and chauffeur driven cars.
Madeline (second from left) on her last trip to Dungloe before she disappeared n 2007.
Halligen (56) had been the CEO of Oakley International when he met the McCanns, and they settled on a contract worth £500,000.
Initially, the couple was impressed with his work, boasting a workforce made up of ex-FBI, CIA and Special forces officers. He also claimed he could access phone logs and source satellite imagery from the night of Madeline’s disappearance. However, it was then claimed that the firm never investigated calls made to the special hotline, and the satellite images were from Google Earth.
They terminated the contract with Halligen 6 months later, after paying him £300,000.
Just after his contract ended with the McCanns, Halligen plead guilty to defrauding Trafigura, a company based in the Netherlands who asked him to help free two company executives in the Ivory Coast in 2006. He was given $12 million initially, and a further $2.1 million to hire lobbyists in the US.
The following day, Halligen splashed $1.7 million on a luxury home with a swimming pool.
In 2014, Halligen was the subject of Channel 5 documentary “The McCanns and The Conman”, where he argued that the funds are fully accounted for.
Tags: