On 7 March 2022, the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill (the “Economic Crime Bill”) was rushed through the House of Commons. This is in response to growing calls to prevent money laundering and illicitly acquired money entering the United Kingdom from Russia, in response to the Ukraine Crisis. The case in point In brief the Economic Crime Bill is intended to make it more difficult for individuals based overseas to hide their wealth in the UK. Contained in the Economic Crime Bill are numerous measures targeted at overseas individuals including oligarchs and companies associated ..read more

With the first month of 2022 already at an end, we thought we would look at 3 key areas in which we expect to see an increase in litigation activity over the next 12 months. In the face of increasingly difficult trading conditions for businesses caused by uncertainty over supply chains, cash flow and considering Covid-19 and Brexit, we anticipate insolvency issues and fraudulent activity to rise. Consequently, we expect to advise companies, directors, shareholders, and other stakeholders in relation to unfair prejudice petitions, fraud claims and the Quincecare duty. 1) Unfair prejudice petiti ..read more

Under the Money Laundering Regulations, institutions must have systems in place to stop suspected money laundering from their customers. On 13 December 2021, NatWest was fined £265 million after it pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to properly monitor £365 million deposited into the account of a Bradford jeweller, Fowler Oldfield. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) alleged that NatWest committed offences under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 by failing to adequately monitor customer accounts between the period of 2011 to 2016. The case in point In our earlier article, we discu ..read more

Private Prosecutions brought by the Animal Protection Services (APS) and specialist law firm Parry & Welch, have been ruled as an abuse of the court’s process by Manchester Crown Court. Proceedings brought by the animal rights charity and Parry & Welch, against Alex-Kaye Carrigan and Elisha Brown, have been stayed. The case in point Ms Carrigan and Ms Brown were charged separately by the APS and Parry & Welch for the alleged unlawful selling of pets. APS brought between 80 and 100 private prosecutions this year, many of which were conducted by Parry & Welch. Other prosecutions ..read more

Regulatory requirements placed on corporates in the UK have steadily been increasing. Following on from obligations imposed upon corporates by various statutes including the Bribery Act 2010, Modern Slavery Act 2015, Senior Managers & Certification Regime, and Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Regulations 2020, next in the wave of regulations are climate change reporting obligations. It is likely that companies will need to re-assess their current reporting measures to meet the tightening of reporting requirements. The Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) were released in a ..read more

A developer only known as ‘Evil Ape’ has disappeared with $2.7 million in funds raised by the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The NFTs were paid by investors for primate characters in a proposed fighting game. NFT | Rosenblatt’s Financial Crime Team Evolved Apes was launched as a project in late September offering a ‘collection of 10,000 unique NFTs trapped inside a lawless land’. The project promised buyers the use of the purchased NFTs in the fighting game, with winners awarded Ethereum as prizes. A NFT is a non-exchangeable distinct digital token with a unique ID. NFTs use the same bloc ..read more

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a significant rise in fraud to the point that it now arguably poses a national security threat. The Banking and Finance industry is calling for Government-coordinated action across all sectors to tackle the issue and request that all economic crime is brought within the scope of the Online Safety Bill. Fraud | Rosenblatt’s Financial Crime Team On 22 September 2021, UK Finance released its latest fraud report covering the first half of 2021. The report noted that £753.9 million was stolen through fraud, being a rise of 30% compared to the same period in 2020. T ..read more

On 9 September 2021 Richard Faithfull was sentenced to 5 years and 10 months’ imprisonment for money laundering offences. Mr Faithfull was also disqualified from acting as a company director for a period of 10 years. The case in point Mr Faithfull was charged under section 327 of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) which makes it an offence to conceal, disguise, convert or transfer criminal property. Mr Faithfull laundered £2.5 million as part of a trans-national organised crime group for more than 12 months. During this period, Mr Faithfull laundered the proceeds of at least 7 professionally run ..read more

Two men convicted in 2010 for fixing further education and training contracts have received increased confiscation orders from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) last month. The SFO identified additional assets worth £140,000 from their operation and ordered the pair to repay this gain. The case in point The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 gives the SFO the power to continue investigations into criminal assets even after conviction. Should additional assets be identified, the SFO can seek for an uplift confiscating these assets. Silinder Singh Sidhu and Paul Kent rigged contracts to local training prov ..read more

With the first month of 2022 already at an end, we thought we would look at 3 key areas in which we expect to see an increase in litigation activity over the next 12 months. In the face of increasingly difficult trading conditions for businesses caused by uncertainty over supply chains, cash flow and considering Covid-19 and Brexit, we anticipate insolvency issues and fraudulent activity to rise. Consequently, we expect to advise companies, directors, shareholders, and other stakeholders in relation to unfair prejudice petitions, fraud claims and the Quincecare duty. 1) Unfair prejudice petiti ..read more