Corporate Crime & Compliance UK

  • February 16, 2024

    Rusal Drags Abramovich Into Potanin Mining Dispute

    Aluminum giant Rusal has successfully dragged Roman Abramovich into its legal action against another oligarch over alleged breaches of an agreement setting out the governance of a Russian mining company, with a London judge ruling Friday that the claims should be heard together.

  • February 16, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen a legal battle erupt between JPMorgan and the founder of a Greek payments company following a dispute over the valuation of their jointly owned fintech business, the children of late Russian oligarch Vladimir Scherbakov face a claim by Fieldfisher LLP, the Director of Education and Training at the Solicitors Regulation Authority tackle a claim by two solicitors, and train operator First MTR South Western Trains file a claim against a security company. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • February 16, 2024

    Ex-Petrofac Execs Charged With Bribery Over $3.3B Contracts

    The Serious Fraud Office has charged two former senior executives at the oilfield services provider Petrofac Ltd. with bribery for their alleged role in making more than $30 million in corrupt payments in exchange for contracts worth $3.3 billion. 

  • February 16, 2024

    Illegal Lender Imprisoned For Refusing To Pay Back Victims

    An illegal moneylender has been sentenced to almost eight years in prison for failing to pay a £5.1 million ($6.4 million) confiscation order to compensate victims he charged exorbitant interest rates for small loans, the finance watchdog said on Friday.

  • February 16, 2024

    Claims Managers Are Clouding Regulatory Status, FCA Warns

    Claims management companies are failing to distinguish between regulated and unregulated activity, which can mislead consumers into thinking that it all enjoys the same protection, according to a review by the Financial Conduct Authority.

  • February 16, 2024

    Ex-Goldman Sachs Banker Gets 22 Months For Insider Dealing

    A former Goldman Sachs banker was sentenced at a London court on Friday to 22 months in prison for insider dealing after he was convicted of using price-sensitive information gleaned from his job at the investment bank to trade in company shares.

  • February 15, 2024

    Facebook Users Win Class Status For £2.3B Data Claim

    One year after sending a £2.3 billion ($2.9 billion) proposed class action against Meta Platforms Inc. back to the drawing board, the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal has agreed to certify a 44 million-strong class of U.K. consumers who say that the social media titan exploited their data.

  • February 15, 2024

    EUIPO Helps Crack Down On €64M In Fake Medicine Sales

    The European Union Intellectual Property Office said Wednesday it helped charge over 1,200 people for crimes relating to illegal medicine between April and October as part of a Europe-wide crackdown on fake and trafficked substances.

  • February 15, 2024

    Collapsed Pension Fund Claws Back £1.9M Lost In Fraud

    The liquidators of a pension fund said they have clawed back £1.9 million ($2.4 million) as part of their long-running quest to recover many millions of pounds of investors' pension savings lost to an elaborate fraud.

  • February 15, 2024

    SFO Says Directing Mind Reforms Were A 'Christmas Present'

    Reforms that make it easier to hold companies criminally liable for their employees were a "Christmas present" for the Serious Fraud Office and will have a "huge" effect on its work, the general counsel for the anti-corruption agency said Thursday.

  • February 15, 2024

    Utility Bills Biz Seeks £4M Over Fraudulent Gas Supply Deals

    A utility bills company is seeking to claw back £4.1 million ($5.1 million) it paid to an energy trader it alleges deceived it into believing it would supply gas to customers, when in reality fraudulent contracts had been set up with other suppliers.

  • February 15, 2024

    Bitcoin 'Inventor' Mentioned Blockchain in 2008, Witness Says

    A former business associate of Craig Wright told a London court Thursday that he believes Wright's claim to be the inventor of bitcoin is "feasible" based on conversations he remembers dating back to the 2000s.

  • February 15, 2024

    FCA Quizzes Top Firms On Advice Services Fees

    The Financial Conduct Authority said Thursday it has written to 20 of the largest financial adviser firms to gauge how those businesses charge clients after giving advice amid its broader focus on ensuring customers are treated fairly.

  • February 15, 2024

    UK Gov't Asks Financial Regulators To Review AI Policing

    The government said on Thursday that it has told financial markets regulators to publish an update by April 30 on how they will police artificial intelligence.

  • February 15, 2024

    Ex-Goldman Sachs Banker Guilty Of Insider Dealing

    A former Goldman Sachs banker was convicted of insider dealing by a London jury on Thursday, over allegations he used his price-sensitive information gleaned from his job at the investment bank to trade in company shares.

  • February 14, 2024

    Deputy AG Warns Of Harsher Penalties For Crimes Aided By AI

    Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco on Wednesday said the U.S. Department of Justice will seek harsher penalties for crimes committed with the aid of artificial intelligence, calling the technology a "double-edged sword" that can be exploited by criminals but utilized by prosecutors with the right controls in place.

  • February 14, 2024

    Orrick Hit By Exodus To Hogan Lovells, BonelliErede In Italy

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP's Italian arm this week has seen nearly 40 lawyers — around half its Italian cohort — jump ship to rival firms Hogan Lovells and BonelliErede, in a blow to the U.S. firm's European presence.

  • February 14, 2024

    5 Key Takeaways From The SFO Director's Maiden Speech

    Serious Fraud Office director Nick Ephgrave has signaled his desire to carry out more dawn raids, use more intelligence and pay whistleblowers to carry out swifter investigations. Here, lawyers tell Law360 that it is a return to an old-fashioned approach to enforcement.

  • February 14, 2024

    Madagascar Official 'Never' Sought Bribes For Gem Deal

    A former top aide to Madagascar's president denied asking for bribes to secure mining rights for a U.K. company, saying at her London trial Wednesday that she wanted to "deploy all her energy" to ensure the deal happened.

  • February 14, 2024

    SRA Refuses To Lift Suspension Of Former Axiom Manager

    The Solicitors Regulation Authority has refused to reinstate one of the Axiom Ince managers it suspended in August over nearly £65 million ($82 million) of client funds that went missing, saying it would not be in the public interest.

  • February 14, 2024

    Visa, Mastercard Accused Of Anticompetitive 'Floor' In Fees

    A group of merchants argued on Wednesday that Visa and Mastercard breach antitrust laws when they charge interchange fees and impose rules on some card schemes, saying that they are anticompetitive because there is no fair negotiation.

  • February 14, 2024

    FCA Arrests Insider Dealing Suspects At London Homes

    U.K. investigators arrested three individuals in London on suspicion of insider dealing, conspiracy to insider deal and money laundering linked to organized crime, the financial watchdog said Wednesday.

  • February 14, 2024

    Barrister Convicted Of Fraud In £1.8M Legal Aid Case

    A barrister accused of pocketing legal fees that he did not earn was convicted of fraud at a London court on Wednesday for his role in attempting to con a public legal aid fund out of £1.8 million ($2.3 million). 

  • February 14, 2024

    Prosecution Deflected From MoD Saudi Bribes, Briton Says

    A businessman accused of bribing Saudi Arabian officials under a major British defense contract is being prosecuted only to deflect attention from the U.K. government's decades of corrupt payments in the region, his lawyer told a London court in closing submissions Wednesday.

  • February 14, 2024

    HMRC Warns Self-Employed Taxpayers Of Scammers

    Fraudsters are likely to target people who fill in self-assessment tax returns with phishing scams promising a tax refund now that the Jan. 31 filing deadline has passed, HM Revenue and Customs warned Wednesday.

Expert Analysis

  • Recent Trends In European ESG-Related Shareholder Activism

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    New ESG reporting standards in the European Union, as well as recent climate change, board diversity and human rights cases, illustrate how shareholder activism may become more prominent in years to come as regulation and investor engagement continues to strengthen, say lawyers at Debevoise.

  • Audit Regulator Review Has Tips On Climate Metric Reporting

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    The U.K. Financial Reporting Council’s recent review of climate-related metrics and targets in listed companies’ annual reports is an extremely useful guide for issuers considering the quality of their disclosure reporting, with a number of key areas identified as central to further improvement, say lawyers at Bryan Cave.

  • What Russia Case Reveals About UK Sanctions Enforcement

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    The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation recently issued its first enforcement action under the U.K.'s expanded Russia sanctions against a relatively small company for a moderately severe breach — a decision that highlights several questions about the watchdog’s purpose and methods, say Maia Cohen-Lask and Tasha Benkhadra at Corker Binning.

  • Breaking Down The UK's Draft Updates To Prospectus Regime

    While there still may be changes, the U.K.'s near-final draft statutory instrument to update and in some parts replace the current on-shored EU prospectus regime is likely to represent a significant overhaul of the existing regime and may make U.K. capital markets a more attractive venue for listings for issuers, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Italy's Bank-Profits Tax Plan May Become Model For Eurozone

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    If Italy's recently proposed 40% bank-profits tax helps keep its populist coalition government in power, notwithstanding the European Central Bank's legal challenges, the passage could spark a windfall tax trend across the eurozone and even in the U.K., says Cris Cicala at Stinson.

  • Accountability Is Key To Preventing Miscarriages Of Justice

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    The wrongful conviction of Andrew Malkinson and other recent cases show that in order to avoid future miscarriages of justice, there needs to be a fundamental reevaluation of how investigators, prosecutors and the Criminal Cases Review Commission operate, prioritizing stronger penalties and increased funding, say Thomas Walford at Expert Evidence International and policy analyst Gerald Frost.

  • 4 Compliance Considerations Under FCA Consumer Duty

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    Following the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority's recent introduction of the new consumer duty regime, firms will need to be mindful of data protection implications when managing their compliance with the duty and data protection legislation, say lawyers at Bird & Bird.

  • Unpacking The Govt.'s Definition Of 'Professional Enablers'

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    A new U.K task force, which pursues lawyers who knowingly facilitate illegal immigration, may provide a preview of how the government intends to answer whether merely negligent legal professionals can also be charged as professional enablers of organized crime, says Kathryn Westmore at RUSI.

  • 6 Key Factors For Successful Cross-Border Dispute Mediation

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    The European landscape of cross-border disputes diverges markedly from the U.S. experience and presents unique challenges, including the amalgamation of diverse cultures and legal systems, but there are several practical steps that practitioners can take to effectively navigate the process, says Peter Kamminga at JAMS.

  • Understanding EU's AI Act And Its Enforcement Mechanisms

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    Companies wishing to use or market AI technology in the EU will need to become familiar with the risk-based regulatory framework and strict enforcement mechanisms of the draft EU Artificial Intelligence Act, which may be effective as early as next year, say Matthew Justus at AT&T and Wade Barron at Kilpatrick Townsend.

  • Operational Resilience Considerations In Financial Services

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    A recent letter from the Financial Conduct Authority reminds CEOs of U.K. wholesale banks of their role in the safety and soundness of markets, but all firms can draw lessons and consider their own operational resilience for longer-term security and commercial benefit, says Richard Tall at Faegre Drinker.

  • UK Tech Cases Warn Of Liability Clause Drafting Pitfalls

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    The recent U.K. High Court cases Drax Energy Solutions v. Wipro and EE v. Virgin Mobile Telecoms indicate a more literal judicial approach to construing limitations of liability, even when this significantly limits a claimant's recoverable damages, highlighting the importance of carefully drafted liability provisions, say Helen Armstrong and Tania Williams at RPC.

  • UK Report Clear On Pro-Innovation Approach To AI Regulation

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    A recent U.K. government report focuses on the benefits and challenges of artificial intelligence, highlighting an opportunity for the U.K. to be an international leader, but unless it acts soon the EU will dominate and flexibility is likely to be helpful only at the margin, say Caroline Raul, Patrick O’Connell and Greg Palmer at Linklaters.

  • How The UK Investment Screening Regime Is Taking Shape

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    A recent order imposing remedies on an acquisition by EDF Energy highlights emerging trends in the U.K. government's national security reviews of transactions under the U.K. National Security and Investment Act, and shows how the U.K. remedy landscape compares to the U.S. regime, say lawyers at Arnold & Porter.

  • Consultations Underpin Mandatory Fraud Victim Repayment

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    The U.K. Payment Systems Regulator’s recent consultations on authorized push payment fraud reinforce its June policy expectation, which said that unless there is evidence of gross negligence and the consumer standard of caution has not been followed, providers must reimburse fraud victims, say lawyers at Hogan Lovells.

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