A whistleblower claims that he was fired from Zurich insurance after exposing frauds worth millions of pounds.
Artiom Borism, a 40-year-old software developer, claims that he discovered a multimillion-pound case of internal fraud while working at the Zurich Insurance Group London branch.
After he notified the company’s fraud prevention & investigations unit that he believed their new IT project to be a scam, he claims that his accusations were not pursued.
The software developer claims his former employer intimidated, cut him off all IT systems, and tried to cover-up the fraud. He was eventually fired in April 2019.
Borisov represents himself and is bringing a claim against the Swiss company for unfair dismissal at the Central London Employment Tribunal.
Zurich says Borisov was fired after he failed to follow management’s orders not to contact underwriters concerning the contested UW 360 IT project. This was supposed to replace the Plum Z former system.
Borisov was also accused of trying to undermine the project. He also requested access to a database which he was not authorized to.
Artiom Borisov, a software developer, claims that he discovered a multimillion-pound internal fraud case while working at Swiss insurance giant Zurich. He is representing himself in his tribunal hearing
Judge Emma Burns outlined what Borisov, a Zurich employee of five and a quarter years, claimed: “You claim that you have internally reported an IT-project to be a multi-million pound fraud.
“You say it was a cover-up scheme, instead of an investigation.”
“Then you will say that you were intimidated and threatened not to contact anybody, accused of absurd offenses, and cut off access from all Zurich IT system.
“You were dismissed because of gross misconduct.”
Borisov had been involved in an IT project called Plum Z. According to the tribunal, this project was being decommissioned and replaced with UW 360.
He reached out to Zurich’s underwriters for assistance. Zurich’s internal ethic team was contacted to discuss the possible criminal ramifications of the UW 360 Project. He was then warned that he was at serious risk of being fired in February 2019.
Senior staff had reached out to Mr Borisov, warning him that any action that would undermine UW 360 would be ‘considered misconduct’.
Zurich stated that an extensive internal investigation of the project took over 40 days and found no evidence for fraud.
Catherine Casserley from Zurich said: “Your view is that Plum Z should instead be the solution than this project.”
Borisov agreed, saying: “It is my opinion that what works best and in the case of Plum Z it is best.
They don’t show where there is added value. The project is a bunch lies.
Mr Borisov was working at the London branch of the Zurich Insurance Group when he alleges the multi-million fraud began
Borisov claimed that UW 360 was an improvement of only “one single functionality” which he could integrate into the existing Plum Z systems.
The tribunal heard from Mr Borisov that his manager, when the claimant raised his concerns, told him not advance Plum Z.
“I took note of what he said. It was just that he didn’t make sense of what he said.
“I felt that my line manger was not acting in Zurich’s interest.”
Mr Borisov did make steps to promote Plum Z to show that the UW 360 wasn’t necessary.
“I built that functionality to demonstrate that it is possible and better than what UW 360 was trying.
Mr Borisov also alleges that UW 360 was ‘lies and fraud’ as Zurich claims it saved one million dollars (£740,000) in savings when there were no savings in reality, he argued.
Borisov stated that the Plum Z system’s operation cost the company nothing except his salary. Therefore, the UW 360 cannot be compared as a savings.
He said, “The project claims one-million dollars of savings per year and as an In-depth Specialist I know that this is a lie.”
Borisov has filed his allegations against the insurance company to support his claim for unfair dismissal based upon protected disclosure.
Ms Casserley told Mr Borisov: “The defendant accepts that you had the right of raising concerns about the project, but it doesn’t accept that you made any legally-protected disclosures.”
Zurich’s largest insurance provider is the financial services company.
The tribunal continues.