Legal Guidance and Research / Experts / Ben Cooper
Ben Cooper#13296

Ben Cooper

TLT
Ben leads TLT's economic crime team and has over 20 years' experience advising governments, financial institutions, corporates and individuals on all aspects of economic crime. This includes advice on money laundering, sanctions, tax evasion, bribery and corruption, terrorist proliferation financing, corporate ethics, asset tracing, fraud, complex investigations and criminal proceedings. 

Ben also has extensive experience assisting clients to develop, implement and operate global economic crime compliance programmes utilising his experience in senior compliance roles for HSBC, Global Head of Financial Crime Functions and Global Head of AB&C.

Ben also worked for the Asset Recovery Agency and Serious Organised Crime Agency (now the National Crime Agency) and so is uniquely placed to advise clients on handling enquiries and investigations from law enforcement agencies.

Practice Area

Panel

  • Contributing Author

Qualified Year

  • 2003

Qualifications

  • LLB (2000)
  • LPC (2001)

Education

  • Essex University (1997-2000)
  • College of Law (2000-2001)

2 Contributions by Ben Cooper

Advising and representing whistleblowers in corporate and criminal investigations: reporting options, SOCPA immunity, SARs obligations, conflicts, privilege and interview strategy
PRACTICE NOTES
Advising and representing whistleblowers in corporate and criminal investigations: reporting options, SOCPA immunity, SARs obligations, conflicts, privilege and interview strategy
This Practice Note offers guidance for lawyers acting for whistleblowers in criminal investigations. For employment law aspects of whistleblowing, see: Whistleblowing—overview and, in particular, the Practice Notes: Entitlement to claim whistleblowing, Whistleblowing—protected disclosures, and Whistleblowing defences and exceptions. Advice on responding to a whistleblower when representing a company or organisation is set out in Practice Note: Dealing with a whistleblower in internal criminal investigations. To blow the whistle or not to blow the whistle? Employees who choose to speak up are protected under the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996) where the disclosure is a ‘protected disclosure’. For further detail on the statutory regime and what amounts to a ‘protected disclosure’, see Practice Note: Whistleblowing—protected disclosures. For those working in financial services, safeguards exist to ensure individuals raising ‘reportable concerns’ are not victimised. For more, see Practice Note: Whistleblowing—UK regulatory issues. Preliminary considerations Whistleblowing can be a key means of reducing potential risk for employers, which is why many have formal whistleblowing policies and procedures. By way of example, and prompted by criminal legislation such as the Bribery Act 2010, Criminal Finances Act 2017 and Economic Crime...
Corporate Crime
Handling whistleblowers in corporate internal criminal investigations: UK lawyers’ practical guide on policy, privilege, investigations and self-reporting
PRACTICE NOTES
Handling whistleblowers in corporate internal criminal investigations: UK lawyers’ practical guide on policy, privilege, investigations and self-reporting
This Practice Note outlines the practical issues that can follow receipt of a whistleblower report from the viewpoint of the corporate entity receiving it (including limited companies, partnerships and LLPs). For guidance aimed at those representing whistleblowers, see Practice Note: Representing whistleblowers in internal criminal investigations. Reports may cover a broad range of suspected wrongdoing, from breaches of internal policy and employment matters such as discrimination, to allegations of serious criminality. The focus here is the latter, though some principles have wider relevance... Whistleblowing policy Benefits of implementing a whistleblowing policy While whistleblowing legislation does not generally require companies to maintain a whistleblowing policy (with specific rules applying to listed companies and those in the financial services sector), creating and publicising clear, robust policies and procedures for dealing with whistleblowing is regarded as best practice and delivers several benefits: It signals a psychologically safe corporate culture; promoting use of internal reporting routes and safeguarding those who speak up through them It encourages the early reporting of issues...
Corporate Crime
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