Legal News

To conclude, the court firmly held that both judges and the jury applied the law and evidence properly and fairly, confirming the convictions of the two named defendants ( Ibid, (paras [151] et seq). The ruling is contentious and diverges from more recent international legal rulings concerning Libor. This piece examines the court’s reasoning in depth, the ways it jars with overseas judgments and learned commentary, the disputed one-true-rate theory, and the possible consequences for the reputation of the British justice system. The judgment In an extensive ruling, reliance was placed on Hayes’ admissions given during interviews about Libor manipulation. Regarding Palombo, the court pursued an intricate inquiry into whether Belgian contract law applies to the Euribor Code and, as a result, bears upon International Swap and Derivatives Association master agreements. Such agreements underpin international swap trading and are subject to the laws of England and Wales or,...

In this issue: Criminal procedure and evidence Sentencing Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Local authority prosecutions Money laundering Corporate Crime in Scotland Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers New Q& As Useful information Criminal procedure and evidence CJI unveils a strategic policy paper, ‘ Systems shift’, setting out a ten-point programme to reshape the criminal justice system. It calls on the next government to avert overload and rethink how the system functions. Proposals include emergency measures to relieve pressures from prison numbers, rapid steps to reduce the Crown Court backlog, a priority on early intervention, and the establishment of an independent commission on drugs policy. See: LNB News 17/06/2024 23. Sentencing Mo J updates home detention curfew guidance: the Ministry of Justice has refreshed its guidance for the home detention curfew policy...

FINMA on HSBC Private Bank ( Suisse) SA The Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority ( FINMA) reported that HSBC Private Bank ( Suisse) SA maintained risky business relationships with two politically exposed persons, meaning publicly prominent figures. According to the regulator, the bank did not carry out proper checks on the assets involved — the due diligence process — nor did it adequately record transactions. In its review, FINMA stated the bank failed to recognise signs of money laundering evident in these dealings. It also did not meet the requirements for starting and maintaining customer relationships with politically exposed persons, constituting a serious breach of its due diligence duties. HSBC Private Bank ( Suisse) SA, operating in Zurich and Geneva, is owned by UK-based HSBC Bank Plc, a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings Plc. FINMA has consequently prohibited the bank from entering into new...

Labour — tipped to take office — alongside the ruling Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, rolled out glossy policy brochures chiefly centred on the economy, tax and immigration. For anyone seeking momentum in tackling dirty cash, the offerings were thin... Before Labour’s manifesto on 13 June 2024, prospects seemed brighter. Last month David Lammy, the party’s foreign affairs lead, pledged payments to whistleblowers who expose sanctioned entities hiding money. He branded corruption and money laundering in the UK as ‘toxic’, and vowed action against professional enablers — lawyers and accountants — who conceal illicit wealth for the affluent, a stance that would have galvanised campaigners. Yet those ambitions did not survive into the final document. Labour did promise to refresh the UK’s fraud strategy and involve tech platforms to reduce online fraud, but the current strategy, published in May 2023, already commits to...

The proposed watchdog would claw back taxpayers’ funds to confront the way confidence in politics has been shattered by those in office handing lucrative coronavirus deals to associates and donors, as set out in Labour’s 133-page manifesto. It pledges to sever the link between access to ministers and any privileged route to public contracts, to appoint a time-limited coronavirus Corruption Commissioner, and to deploy every available measure to retrieve public money lost to pandemic-related fraud or to contracts that failed to deliver, the document states. The commissioner is expected to probe how hundreds of millions of pounds of government-issued Personal Protective Equipment ( PPE) contracts were allocated. Intense public scrutiny prompted claims that numerous awards went to suppliers chosen for their ties to senior ministers. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor of the exchequer, told a Labour conference in October 2023 that the...

In this issue: Cross border criminal investigations Criminal procedure and evidence 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 Money laundering Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Cross border criminal investigations Ex- Goldman Sachs banker loses bribery extradition dispute A former Goldman Sachs employee has failed in his bid to block extradition to the US over alleged payments to Ghanaian officials, after a London court found on 7 June 2024 that the suspected offences were sufficiently tied to America to be tried there. See News Analysis: Ex- Goldman Sachs banker loses bribery...

The High Court rejected an application by Asante Berko, who was an executive director in Goldman's natural-resources group, to avoid standing trial in the US. He is accused of corrupting officials over plans for a power station in the West African nation. Judge Charles Bourne concluded the purported offences were closely connected to alleged damage to Goldman Sachs, a US-based financial institution, and to more widespread detriment to the American financial system—even if the bulk of the impact would have been felt in Ghana and some in the United Kingdom. Some harm from the alleged wrongdoing would have taken place in the United States, Judge Bourne noted in his written judgment......

The EU legacy and Brexit autonomy For decades, the UK operated within the EU’s rigorous and comprehensive food safety framework. Following Brexit, however, the country secured the freedom to design its own food safety rules, particularly around innovation and emerging technologies. Stepping away from the EU’s regulatory machinery has created space for faster, more agile progress. Challenges in the route to market Despite swift advances in science and food development, routes to market have been slowed by regulation. Industry has viewed these procedures as complex, lengthy, and obstructive to innovation, with companies often calling approval pathways opaque, resource-intensive, and hard to navigate. With its renewed independence, the UK plans to quicken growth at pace, from cultivated meat through to insect protein. As part of the government’s Vision for Engineering Biology, last year brought the Genetic Technology Act, intended to stimulate scientific innovation via a...

David Kennedy, 71, remained impassive as Judge Gregory Perrins imposed a period of imprisonment after a brief hearing at Southwark Crown Court in London. In May, the jury found Kennedy guilty on a single charge of defrauding investors in the Axiom Legal Financing Fund, which collapsed in 2012 with debts of £107m. As he delivered sentence, Judge Perrins said Kennedy and a co‑defendant had set up the fund to deceive investors, calling it “rotten to the core”. Prosecutors from the Serious Fraud Office ( SFO) alleged Kennedy pocketed management fees, which were not revealed to investors, by fraudulently diverting Axiom payments that were meant to fund law firms pursuing low‑value, high‑volume litigation. He showed no reaction. The fund’s collapse left debts of £107m......

More than a dozen lawyers have gone on to become prime minister Among them are Clement Attlee, a Labour premier after World War Two, as well as Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. Yet Starmer, director of public prosecutions from 2008 to 2013, would rank as one of the most senior legal figures ever to take the keys to Number 10. Two former heads of the Crown Prosecution Service who followed him told Law360 that, if he wins on 4 July 2024, his toughest legal task will be juggling competing priorities for scarce resources across the criminal justice system. Alison Saunders — a partner at Linklaters LLP who succeeded Starmer as DPP in 2013 — said the system should benefit: he understands the issues, has an exceptional legal track record and will surround himself with the right people. Before leading the CPS, Starmer...

After two days of deliberation, a 12-strong jury returned a unanimous decision acquitting both men of conspiring to commit wire fraud and of 15 associated wire fraud counts. Prosecutors had linked the alleged fraud to particular Autonomy emails, press releases and earnings reports, as well as to due diligence conference calls between Autonomy leaders and HP counterparts in the months before the takeover. The felony conspiracy and fraud allegations each carried potential sentences exceeding 20 years. The 6 June 2024 verdict closes an eleven-week trial centred on claims that Lynch and Chamberlain, alongside colleagues at the British software firm, misled HP—formerly Hewlett Packard—about Autonomy’s operations and financial condition ahead of the Silicon Valley giant’s 2011 purchase of the company for US$11.7bn. As the decision was delivered, Lynch briefly covered his face and eyes before his wife hurried over to hug him....

The Bill passed two years after the government first unveiled the reforms, and over a year after it was brought before Parliament. The legislation is set to take effect in the autumn. The DMCC Act 2024 ( DMCCA 2024) ushers in the most far-reaching overhaul of competition and consumer protection rules since merger control was introduced over 20 years ago. Broad in scope, the DMCCA 2024 delivers major updates to digital markets, merger control and antitrust provisions, along with consumer law. We outline some of the principal points below. The strategic market status regime A central feature of the DMCCA 2024 is the creation of the strategic market status, or SMS, regime. Although the regime drew significant debate during its passage through Parliament, the core features have remained unchanged since the Bill was introduced......

In this issue: Investigating criminal conduct Cross border criminal investigations Criminal procedure and evidence Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Local authority prosecutions Corporate Crime in Scotland International Lex Talk® Corporate Crime: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Investigating criminal conduct Police to expand criminal probe into Post Office scandal. On 28 May 2024, the Metropolitan Police confirmed its criminal investigation into the Post Office IT scandal will be broadened to assess whether senior executives should face charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice—marking the latest development in a major...

The challenger bank has faced scrutiny since 2021, when the Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA) began investigating its anti-money laundering and financial crime controls and systems in that year. The watchdog is reviewing matters spanning October 2018 to June 2022. In its annual report released today, Monzo noted the FCA has narrowed the scope of the ongoing investigation. In November 2023, the FCA told Monzo it was no longer pursuing criminal liability in relation to Monzo’s compliance with the......

The consultation stemmed from a 27 February 2024 address delivered by Therese Chambers, the FCA’s joint executive director for enforcement and market oversight, unveiling the proposal—widely dubbed a plan to name and shame. It has triggered a pronounced pushback from the market, the influential financial services trade body UK Finance, the House of Lords and, most unusually, the UK chancellor. More extraordinary still, on 2 May 2024, FCA Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi was called before a House of Lords committee to explain and justify why the regulator had not halted the proposal in response to these objections. Proposal At present, those under investigation are generally not named until the FCA finishes its investigation and determines misconduct. The FCA now proposes to release details about investigations at an early point, including progress updates, as well as also announcing the closure of...

In 2010, Wiki Leaks published a vast trove of secret files taken from US military systems and passed to Julian Assange by Chelsea Manning. To Mr Assange and his backers, the intrusion and release amounted to journalism that uncovered serious wrongdoing by the US. For US authorities, it was a rash criminal enterprise that endangered numerous individuals. The political and legal aftershocks have echoed ever since, leading to extradition action that began soon after Mr Assange was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in April 2019. Five years later, the result may hinge on the High Court’s reading of the US Constitution. On 26 March 2024, the High Court refused Mr Assange permission to appeal on nearly all grounds, including his claim that his actions were bona fide journalism, that prosecutors were driven by politics, and that he would be deprived of a fair trial...

The act ushered in a series of reforms, with some measures commencing at once in October 2024 and others still awaiting implementation. Why did these reforms come about? Fraud is the most prevalent offence in the UK. As set out in the government’s 2023 Fraud Strategy, fraud accounts for over 40% of all crime yet attracts less than 1% of police resource......

Police forces nationwide will work together to probe senior personnel at the Post Office and at Fujitsu, the multinational whose flawed Horizon IT platform resulted in devastating prosecutions of blameless sub-postmasters, to determine whether any offences were committed, the Met said. Detectives have been trawling millions of files with support from specialist software, in a probe running alongside the public inquiry, which is scheduled to release its conclusions in late 2025. The operation will be headed by the country’s largest police force, in line with an agreement by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, a national coordination body for law enforcement in Britain. No charges are anticipated to be filed before 2026, the Met indicated......

EU General Court annuls sanctions on Azerbaijan-born businessman The EU’s General Court has overturned sanctions applied to the businessman during 2022–2023, ruling that the EU body overseeing sanctions lacked a credible foundation for the restrictive measures. Although the EU delisted Akhmedov in September 2023, he, having made his fortune by selling his shares in a Russian gas producer in 2012, pursued legal action to show he should never have been targeted. The court found that the Council — which had drawn on Wikipedia and press reports — failed to demonstrate that Akhmedov, who lives in Azerbaijan, is presently engaged in significant areas of the Russian economy. It held that the Council did not furnish ‘sufficiently specific, precise and consistent’ evidence establishing that Akhmedov was a ‘leading businessperson involved in economic sectors which provided a substantial source of revenue to the Government of the Russian...

In its judgment, the court held that the European Council rightly froze the assets of Belavia Belarusian Airline AAT, as the state-owned carrier had flown services from Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey into Minsk. It added that these routes bolstered Lukashenko’s autocratic rule. The carrier also derived a 'concrete benefit' from the dictator’s public remarks that Belavia would receive 'all possible support' after the EU moved to bar Belarusian airlines from its airspace. That, the court concluded, justified maintaining the sanctions. According to the judgment, the council froze Belavia’s assets from December 2021 and stated then that 'it will not accept any attempt by third countries to instrumentalise migrants for political purposes'. The judgment said as recorded there......