Now, the brothers -- plus a sister, who is Hope Group's chief accountant -- want to parlay their enterprise into a global company, with holdings in banking, property and electronics.

CNN: Hope Takes On the World

For Mintz, a 39-year-old accountant and former chief executive of a cooperage (wine-barrel-making business) and Twelftree, 38, with a background in construction and small-scale wine exporting, the change is music to their ears.

FORBES: Magazine Article

In an interview with the BBC, Marta Andreasen - who was ditched from her post as chief accountant at the European Commission in May - says the Commission's numbers fail even to meet minimum accounting standards.

BBC: EU hit by accounting allegations

On Monday TransTec's former chief accountant, Max Ayriss, told the BBC that a five-figure sum had been involved in several different applications for DTI grants by Mr Robinson's businesses.

BBC: You are in: UK Politics

While a keyword job search for "certified public accountant" might turn up ads seeking a small-business chief financial officer who is also a CPA, semantic-search software would intuit that the user is looking for accounting jobs and list only those openings.

WSJ: Seeking Software Fix for Job-Search Game