Civil recovery investigation meaning

In this issue: Investigating criminal conduct Criminal procedure and evidence Proceeds of crime Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Consumer protection and cartels Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Food safety and hygiene offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences International Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Investigating criminal conduct Home Office issues guidance on Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act The Home Office has released guidance on the information-sharing measures in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA 2023). It outlines provisions to help ensure businesses comply with the new measures, together with practical points for organisations, including arrangements for cross-sector sharing, obligations for law enforcement reporting, UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance, and customer redress. See: LNB News 04/10/2024 39. Criminal procedure and evidence...

In this issue: Proceeds of crime Sentencing Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Food safety and hygiene offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Insolvency offences and Companies Act offences Local authority prosecutions International Other corporate crime news Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Proceeds of crime CPS announces UWO and freezing order over £81 million London property portfolio The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed it has secured an unexplained wealth order (UWO) alongside an interim freezing order (IFO) concerning a London property portfolio valued at more than £81 million, made up of flats across central and south London. The orders apply to a Chinese national and connected UK companies suspected of using illicitly obtained funds to purchase the properties, which remain...

On 27 June 2024, the Court of Appeal held that the NCA acted unlawfully by declining to probe imports of cotton linked to forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region. Reversing a 2023 High Court decision, the appeal judges found the agency had misapplied its own investigative framework under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA 2002) when dealing with suspected illicit assets. ‘It’s a game changer’, said Matthew Banham of Seyfarth Shaw (UK) LLP. ‘Corporations now have an obligation to make sure they are not committing money laundering offences through their supply chains.’ Crucially, the court ruled the NCA does not need hard proof of criminal conduct before commencing a proceeds-of-crime inquiry. It further determined that criminal property—here, cotton produced through forced labour—is not invariably purified or legitimised by later payment of market price. Lloyd Firth of WilmerHale noted the judgment is a clear alert that businesses operating in the UK ‘face a clear risk of criminal and civil investigation should forced labour and other human rights abuses occur...

What is a disclosure order? In broad terms, a disclosure order is a directive permitting a formal demand for information, and the recipient is under a duty to comply. Non-compliance is typically enforceable by penal sanctions, reflecting the seriousness of the obligation imposed. The making of such orders, specifically for investigations concerned with the proceeds of crime, is governed by section 357 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA 2002). Under this section, the court may grant a disclosure order which, in turn, empowers an ‘appropriate officer’ to serve a written notice (an information notice) on any individual believed to hold material relevant to the inquiry, obliging that person to: either answer questions at a specified time or immediately, at a place identified in the notice supply the information set out in the notice, by the stated time and in the stated manner produce documents, or categories of documents, named in the notice, either at or by the specified time or forthwith, and...

Sections 444 and 445 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA 2002) Sections 444 and 445 of POCA 2002 confer authority to make secondary legislation so as to give effect to requests from overseas authorities seeking assistance with the identification, recovery, investigation, freezing, confiscation, forfeiture and other handling of the proceeds of crime. For an overview of the power to make secondary legislation under these provisions, and the secondary legislation brought into effect pursuant to them, see Practice Note: POCA 2002—external investigations, requests and orders—introduction. This Practice Note focuses on the secondary legislation made under POCA 2002, s 445. For detailed information on mutual legal assistance available under POCA 2002, s 444 in specific contexts, see Practice Notes: Mutual legal assistance—civil recovery and Mutual legal assistance—restraint and confiscation. See also Practice Note: Mutual legal assistance—forms of assistance...

This Practice Note sets out: This Practice Note explains the criminal offences that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is able to bring before the criminal courts. The FCA’s overarching policy on criminal prosecutions—together with its stated treatment of financial services offences arising from market abuse, and crimes under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, SI 2017/692 (MLRs) and the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (CCA 1974)—is contained in its Enforcement Guide. For prosecutions stemming from investigations begun before 3 June 2025, Chapter 12 of the Enforcement Guide (EG 12)—Prosecution of Criminal Offences—remains the point of reference. This Practice Note also outlines the FCA’s approach under the updated Enforcement Guide (ENFG) that applies to FCA investigations commenced on or after 3 June 2025 through the statutory appointment of investigators, under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 or otherwise. This Practice Note covers: the criminal offences the FCA has power to prosecute via the criminal courts ...