Legal News

In this issue: General election 2024 Criminal Procedure and evidence Appeal and judicial review Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Cybercrime and data protection offences Environmental 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 General election 2024 General election announced for 4 July 2024 Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has sought and obtained the King’s consent to dissolve Parliament and has announced a general election for 4 July 2024. Parliament was prorogued on 24 May 2024, and dissolved on 30 May 2024 in accordance with the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 ( DCPA 2022). This analysis reviews what the announcement means for Bills currently before...

The share of upheld complaints climbed to 36% in the latest year, having been 27% or lower across each of the preceding three years overall. Complaints about closures linked to financial crime concerns or politically exposed persons have nearly trebled since 2020–2021 period. The committee is worried about the effects of account closures (debanking) on individuals and businesses. To deal with the issue properly, it needs to understand and remedy certain unhelpful and counterproductive aspects of anti-money laundering ( AML) laws. This article will set out the principal questions around crimes and immunities, the risks facing banks and the choices available to them, and, lastly, the potential for genuine change. Crimes and Immunities The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 ( POCA 2002) bars banks from handling funds that contain any proceeds of any criminal conduct, where they know or suspect that this is the case. It also...

At Southwark Crown Court, Judge Sally- Ann Hales KC jailed 42-year-old Jian Wen for six years and ten months for washing money linked to an alleged scam targeting Chinese investors, remarking indeed the ex-restaurant employee 'knew what [she was] dealing with'. Hales J explained the jury needed only to be satisfied Wen suspected she was handling criminal proceeds to convict with a guilty verdict by the jury. However, she herself was absolutely certain Wen understood how the funds were produced and came about. ' They had only to be sure that you suspected this to be the case', Hales J told Wen as she passed sentence. ' I am in no doubt that you knew this was what you were dealing with.' Hales J said there was 'no degree of exploitation' in Wen's participation in the laundering scheme in this case, although she...

HM Solicitor General v Trudi Ann Warner [2024] EWHC 918 ( KB) What are the practical implications of this case? There are numerous global issues driving sizeable demonstrations. Climate change is one such concern, prompting controversial protests across the world. These movements are likely to continue and may, in some instances, lead to criminal convictions. However, when protest activity is directed at, or situated around, criminal proceedings, it cannot simply be assumed to amount to contempt of court. The position depends entirely on the evidence of what, in fact, the protestors were doing during the protest. In this matter, Mr Justice Saini determined that the claim rested on a mischaracterisation of Ms Warner’s conduct that morning and failed to recognise that her placard conveyed essentially the same message commonly read by jurors on the Old Bailey plaque—something acknowledged by our highest courts as part of the...

David Lammy, Labour’s lead on foreign affairs, vowed today that the party will financially reward whistleblowers who expose sanctioned organisations that are stashing hidden funds. Payouts would be a share of any penalty issued by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, which can impose fines of one million pounds. Speaking at an event in London, Lammy said that 'toxic corruption and money laundering' was flourishing on Britain’s streets and in the nation’s 'darkest corners'. He added that around 40% of the world’s dirty money is washed through the UK, totalling billions of pounds......

What has happened? The Prime Minister ( PM) has confirmed that the next UK general election will take place on 4 July 2024. This is the first such announcement since DCPA 2022 reinstated the Sovereign’s prerogative to dissolve Parliament on the PM’s advice. What follows is guided mainly by parliamentary convention rather than statute. The headline timetable is: 22 May — PM asked the King to dissolve Parliament 22 May — King Charles agreed; the election was announced to the country 23 May — ‘ Wash-up’ period starts 24 May — Parliament prorogued 25 May — Pre-election period of sensitivity begins (formerly ‘purdah’) 30 May — Parliament dissolved 30 May — Pre-election period begins 4 July — General Election What does ‘wash-up’ mean? ‘ Wash-up’ is the stretch between calling a general election and...

In this issue: General election announced for 4 July 2024 Cross border criminal investigations Criminal procedure and evidence Proceeds of crime 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 International Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information General election announced for 4 July 2024 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has sought and secured the King’s approval to dissolve Parliament, and has set a general election for 4 July 2024. Consequently, Parliament will be prorogued on 24 May 2024 and dissolved on 30 May 2024, in accordance with the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022. This...

Roughly 65% of the 1,500 people questioned said they had witnessed fraud or suspected the offence was occurring. However, 77% confessed they kept quiet for fear of reprisals, according to data released by the fraud detection software firm Medius. These results came from research conducted between April 2024 and May 2024 by Medius. The poll further found that 47% of respondents in this survey felt the UK legal system fails to sufficiently protect whistleblowers. In an online statement, Jim Lucier, Medius’s chief executive, warned that no organisation is immune to white-collar crime. He also noted that employees form the final line of defence against fraud, yet confidence to report suspicious activity is ebbing......

Criminal law, confiscation, time limits ( R v Haden, Smith, Blair & Rohelsaar and Mann) R v Haden, Smith, Blair & Rohelsaar and Mann [2024] EWCA Crim 344 What are the practical implications of this case? Across most of the appeals, advocates and, at times, the trial judge had relied on the Court of Appeal’s ruling in Iqbal [2010] EWCA Crim 376—now confirmed to have been wrongly decided. Read together, the judgments indicate a deliberate move by the Court of Appeal to foreclose attempts in the lower courts to argue that confiscation proceedings are out of time, or that extensions should be refused because of delay. In that shift, the purpose of POCA 2002, s 14(5) appears to have been overlooked. The court reached its conclusion by applying the principles taken from the House of Lords’ leading decision in Soneji [2005] UKHL 49 and the...

The Serious Fraud Office ( SFO) seized funds from the bank account of Emmanuel Okoyomon, a former executive of Nigerian Security Printing & Minting Plc, as part of a continuing illicit cash probe, following a brief hearing on 20 May 2024 at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, the SFO said. The agency says Okoyomon allegedly obtained the money from Peter Chapman, whom the SFO convicted during a corruption inquiry into overseas contracts for polymer banknotes. Chapman is alleged to have paid more than US$200,000 in kickbacks across Asia and Africa to win work for the Australian banknote paper supplier, Securrency......

The Court of Appeal has certified a point of law for Tom Hayes, a former trader at Citigroup and UBS, and Carlo Palombo, an ex- Barclays banker, to take to the UK Supreme Court, while refusing them permission to appeal directly. Delivering the judgment, Justice David Bean identified an issue of general public importance: whether traders gave a 'genuine or honest answer' when submitting Libor or Euribor rates whilst bearing in mind their own commercial interests. The court also certified the related question of whether any submission must reflect an assessment of the single cheapest rate at which the banks could borrow, rather than a choice made from within a range of borrowing rates. Justice Bean said it should be for the Supreme Court to determine whether this point of law is one it ought to consider, given the Court of Appeal’s...

A combined jail term of five-and-a-half years imposed on Romy Andrianarisoa, once a senior aide to Madagascar’s president, and her French partner on 10 May 2024 drew a dramatic, high-profile London trial to a close, one that included secret footage of the pair covertly asking an undercover officer for bribes. The convictions—marking the first bribery case against a foreign official in the UK—were secured after the National Crime Agency received a tip-off from Gemfields, the British mining company that owns Faberge. That alert enabled NCA officers to gather vital evidence and to set up a carefully planned sting at a five-star London hotel. According to Zulfi Meerza of Rahman Ravelli, a former senior investigator at the Serious Fraud Office ( SFO), the matter was 'uniquely placed' because it rested on 'smoking gun' material that secured the guilty verdicts. ' It is hardly surprising we have not...

The rule obliges firms to ensure that any mention of a product or service’s sustainability features is consistent, fair, clear, and not misleading. It applies whenever a firm communicates directly in the UK, including the following specific situations: with clients in the UK about a product or service or when it issues a financial promotion, or signs off a financial promotion for communication, to a person in the UK Its arrival currently coincides with greenwashing being a leading enforcement focus for many regulators. Branding offerings as green or sustainable is widespread and viewed as a particularly key way to draw the attention of environmentally minded customers. In 2023, the European Commission found that 53% of sustainability claims were misleading or vague, and 40% lacked substantiation. These so-called green claims are increasingly facing ever growing scrutiny from regulatory authorities, activist shareholders, and...

Within the existing regulatory framework, the authority says it cannot caution consumers that they might be dealing with a firm under a fraud investigation, Nikhil Rathi told lawmakers. The FCA currently has powers to name companies under inquiry only in exceptional public-interest cases, yet Rathi argued this still does not do enough to protect consumers from fraud. ‘ Sadly, investment fraud is not exceptional. We are investigating a large number of those situations at any one time’, he told lawmakers on parliament’s Treasury Committee. The authority set out its proposal in February. Under the plan, any decision to publicise an investigation would be made on a case-by-case basis and hinge on whether doing so serves the public interest. The idea has been widely and strongly criticised by industry, lawmakers and the government. FCA chair Ashley Alder told the committee, ‘we weren’t...

In this issue: Investigating criminal conduct Criminal procedure and evidence Proceeds of crime Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Cybercrime and data protection offences 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 Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers New Q& As Useful information Investigating criminal conduct The art of corporate apologies: crafting an effective strategy Within the complex theatre of courtroom contests, saying sorry sits in a disputed and often contradictory position. See News Analysis: The art of corporate apologies: crafting an effective strategy. Criminal procedure and evidence Serious Fraud Office Disclosure report Nick Murphy of 25 Bedford Row reviews the report’s scope,...

Corporate insiders could be spurred to blow the whistle on fraud, corruption and bribery if the financial incentives matched the potential reputational damage caused by informing on their company, SFO Director Nick Ephgrave said in his first hearing before the House of Commons' Justice Committee. In his inaugural appearance before the House of Commons’ Justice Committee, SFO Director Nick Ephgrave suggested that employees might be more willing to report bribery, corruption and fraud if rewards reflected the reputational risks of exposing their employer. He framed it as aligning payments with the potential reputational harm that can follow naming one’s own company, especially where the conduct involves fraud, corruption or bribery. He noted many would-be whistleblowers feel 'caught' between principle and practicality, worrying that careers and livelihoods could be derailed; balancing the wish to reveal wrongdoing with such practical concerns is, he said, a...

The criminal courts quarterly statistics for the fourth quarter of 2023 Published at the end of March 2024, the latest Q4 2023 release shows 18,045 criminal cases have been waiting a year or longer—an astonishing tally. That accounts for 28% of the pending caseload (just under the record 29%), underlining the steep struggle practitioners face to get matters listed. Earlier this year, Law Society president Nick Emmerson said years of cuts and underinvestment have produced a courts crisis: there are simply too few judges, lawyers and staff to tackle the mounting queue, causing unacceptable delays for victims, witnesses and defendants. Civil court data from October to December 2023 also paint a bleak picture, with the average time to reach trial rising by 4.3 weeks for small claims and 6.9 weeks for multi- or fast-track cases compared with the same quarter in 2022,...

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 ( ECCTA 2023) Enacted in October 2023, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 ( ECCTA 2023) introduces a new requirement for large companies and businesses to establish 'reasonable procedures' to shield themselves from prosecution for a failure to prevent fraud. This closely aligns with the UK's Bribery Act 2010, under which organisations can face charges for not preventing bribery. Junior Home Office minister Andrew Sharpe told the House of Lords, Parliament’s upper chamber, that guidance might arrive within weeks. ' The government......

What is this report about? HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate ( HMCPSI) has completed an inspection into how the Serious Fraud Office ( SFO) manages disclosure. Although planned in advance, the exercise was expedited after the SFO’s well‑publicised decision to present no evidence in its case against three former G4S executives. The SFO had earlier obtained approval for a Deferred Prosecution Agreement ( DPA) against G4S. Significantly, the report traverses similar territory to two 2022 reports by Sir David Calvert‑ Smith and Brian Altman KC, which examined disclosure failings stemming from the Unaoil and G4S matters, as well as an HMCPSI case progression inspection in May 2023. To evaluate the SFO’s fulfilment of its disclosure duties, inspectors scrutinised the SFO’s handling of two matters – the successful prosecution of the Balli Group Companies and the unsuccessful prosecution of the G4S...

In this issue: Cross border criminal investigation 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 Money laundering Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Cross border criminal investigation Duty of candour and requests for mutual legal assistance ( R (on the application of MCML Ltd (formerly ED& F Man Capital Markets Ltd) and another v Southwark Crown Court) The High Court reviewed objections to search warrants sought by HMRC following mutual legal assistance requests from the German and Danish authorities. The claimants said HMRC withheld significant matters when applying for the warrants, and disputed the...