A whistleblower claims he was fired by insurance giants Zurich after 'exposing a multi-million pound fraud', a tribunal has heard. Software developer Artiom Borisov, 40, alleges he discovered a multi-million pound internal fraud case while working for the London branch of the Zurich Insurance Group. But after alerting the company's fraud prevention and investigations unit of his belief their new IT project was a scam, he claims his allegations were not followed up on. The software developer alleges his former employer intimidated him, cut him off from all IT systems and tried to cover up the fraud, eventually dismissing him in April 2019. Representing himself, Mr Borisov is bringing a claim of unfair dismissal based on protected disclosure against the Swiss company at the Central London Employment Tribunal. But Zurich says Mr Borisov was fired for ignoring management orders to not contact underwriters about the contested UW 360 IT project, which was due to replace the former system called Plum Z. Two further alleged disciplinary violations include Mr Borisov trying to undermine the project and requesting access to a database he was not authorised to access. Software developer Artiom Borisov (above) alleges he discovered a multi-million pound internal fraud case while working for Swiss insurance giant Zurich. He is representing himself at his tribunal hearing Judge Emma Burns set out what Borisov, a Zurich employee for five and a half years, claimed: 'You say you have internally reported an IT project to be multi-million pound fraud. 'You say instead of an investigation it became a cover up scheme. 'Then you say you were intimidated, threatened not to contact anyone, accused of absurd offences and cut off from all Zurich IT systems. 'You were dismissed for gross misconduct.' Mr Borisov had already been working on another IT project Plum Z, which the tribunal heard was going to be decommissioned and replaced by UW 360. He contacted underwriters to establish and spoke with Zurich's internal ethics team to allege there were potential criminal ramifications with the UW 360 project, but was warned he was being placed at risk of redundancy in February 2019. Mr Borisov had been contacted by senior staff and warned any action he took that undermined the UW 360 project would be 'regarded as misconduct'. Zurich said an internal investigation that took more than 40 days found no evidence of fraud with the new IT project. A spokesperson said: 'Artiom Borisov was dismissed by Zurich on grounds of gross misconduct after a full and thorough investigation. 'These disciplinary proceedings followed extensive actions by Mr Borisov to undermine the replacement of an underwriting tool, which he was employed to work on as a software developer. 'As there are ongoing legal proceedings, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.' Catherine Casserley, representing Zurich, said: 'Your view is that Plum Z should be the solution rather than this project.' Mr Borisov agreed and said: 'It is my opinion about what works best and in this case it is Plum Z that works best. 'They do not show where the added value is. The project is a bunch of lies.' Mr Borisov was working at the London branch of the Zurich Insurance Group when he alleges the multi-million fraud began Mr Borisov alleges that UW 360 was an improvement in only 'one single functionality' which he could himself incorporate into the existing Plum Z system. The tribunal heard that Mr Borisov's manager, when the claimant brought his concerns to him, told him not to advance Plum Z. 'I took notice of what he said. It's just that what he said did not make sense. 'I thought that my line manager was not acting in the interest of Zurich.' Mr Borisov did go on to make steps to advance Plum Z in an effort to show that the new UW 360 was an unnecessary endeavour. 'I built that functionality to show that it is possible and works better than what UW 360 was trying to do.' 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 said the then running of the Plum Z system cost the company nothing but his own salary and therefore the new UW 360 could not be making savings in comparison. He added: 'The project claims one million dollars of savings a year and as an in-depth specialist I know that that is a lie.' Mr Borisov has made his allegations against the insurance giant in support of his claim for unfair dismissal based on protected disclosure. Ms Casserley said to Mr Borisov: 'The defendant accepts that obviously you had the right to raise your concerns with the project but what it does not accept is that you made any legally protected disclosures.' The financial services company headquartered in Zurich is Switzerland's largest insurer. Zurich is due to call on four witnesses today to set out their arguments in response to Borisov's allegations as the tribunal continues. All rights reserved for this news site (dailymail) and under his responsibility