Corporate Crime & Compliance UK

American and Russian flags fly together in a breeze.

From Russia With Love? UK Lawyers Mull Sanctions U-Turn

Finance companies are enlisting white-collar lawyers to draw up plans for tapping back into Russia if the U.S. breaks with its Western allies and eases sanctions, although experts warn that unpredictable political winds mean there are as many risks as opportunities.

A red warning sign over a laptop indicating the system has been hacked.

UK Ransomware Ban Could Boost Cost Of Cyber-Insurance

The cost of buying cyber-insurance for the public sector and critical infrastructure could rise significantly because of a proposed ban on paying ransomware demands, experts warn, as the U.K. government looks at ways to disrupt the income of online criminals.

Thames Water Fine Signals Growing Enviro Risk For Business

The historical fine imposed on Thames Water for environmental failings and improper payments to shareholders is a novel use of new legal powers given to the waste and water regulator — and a warning about growing regulatory risks, lawyers say.

Entrance to the UK Supreme Court in London

UK Supreme Court Boosts Creditor Protection In Fraud Cases

Britain's highest court has handed administrators more power to pursue businesses that turn a blind eye to fraud, with a ruling on Wednesday that will bolster protection for creditors and could raise the stakes for companies flying too close to the wind, lawyers say.

June 09, 2025
German Court Convicts 1 In €23M Platinum Coin VAT Fraud

A German court has convicted one of the leaders of a criminal organization responsible for more than €23 million ($26.3 million) in evaded value-added taxes through its trade of platinum coins, the European Public Prosecutor's Office said.
June 09, 2025
CPS Launches Plan To Return Lawyers To Criminal Practice

The Crown Prosecution Service is offering to support criminal lawyers to return to the workforce following a career break, as problems with recruitment and retention of solicitors and barristers continue to blight the justice system after decades of underinvestment.
June 09, 2025
Lex Greensill Claims SoftBank Hid Deal With 'Code Of Silence'

Lex Greensill testified in a $440 million London trial Monday that SoftBank, a Japanese investment company, had designed a restructuring agreement involving his firm to avoid putting potential losses on its accounts in his first public appearance since his eponymous firm's collapse.
June 09, 2025
Ex-Commerzbank Analyst Denies Faking Sex Assault Claims

A former Commerzbank analyst on Monday fought claims that he lied to a court by making false sexual assault allegations in his failed harassment case against the bank, telling a London court he was being truthful.
June 09, 2025
Six Men Deny Tax Fraud Charges Over Payroll Outsourcing

Six individuals pleaded not guilty to tax fraud and money laundering charges at a criminal court in London on Monday as part of a sprawling multimillion-pound prosecution brought by HM Revenue and Customs into a payroll outsourcing business.
June 07, 2025
Minister Calls For Bold Action To Tackle Court Backlogs

The government must take "bold" steps to implement lasting reforms to tackle persistent backlogs in the criminal courts and deteriorating court conditions, a minister warned on Saturday.
June 06, 2025
Chancery Pauses Meta Privacy Suit For EU, Ireland Actions

A Delaware court on Friday paused a pension fund stockholder suit seeking documents on data privacy violations made by Meta Platforms Inc. that led to a €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) fine from European authorities.
June 06, 2025
Reality TV Gallery Owner Gets 2½ Years On Terrorism Charges

An art gallery owner and reality TV art expert was sentenced to over two years' imprisonment at a London criminal court on Friday for failing to report his suspicions when selling around £140,000 ($189,400) worth of art to a suspected terrorist financier.
June 06, 2025
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

The past week in London has seen MGM and the owners of the "Addams Family" trademark sue a private equity firm, two Cambridge colleges file for injunctions against Pro-Palestine student protest groups and a former NBA player brings a claim against Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.
June 06, 2025
Poor Productivity Driving Crown Court Backlog, Study Says

Poor productivity has been a "major factor" in the growth of the Crown Court's case backlog since the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic think tank said in a study published Friday.
June 06, 2025
Darts Champ Banned As Director Over Unpaid £450K Tax Bill

A former darts world champion has been banned from running companies for five years after his business failed to pay more than £450,000 ($610,000) in tax, the Insolvency Service has revealed.
June 06, 2025
EPPO Searches Portuguese City In Industrial Zone Probe

The European Public Prosecutor's Office has said it has carried out searches with local police as part of an ongoing fraud and corruption probe into the construction of the industrial zone of a city in northeastern Portugal.
June 06, 2025
Switzerland Plans Tax Data Reporting For Crypto

The Swiss government said Friday that it has approved a plan to extend the automatic exchange of information for tax matters to apply to crypto-assets.
June 05, 2025
Meta Pressed By MPs Over Slow Removal Of Harmful Content

A group of influential MPs said Friday that they have written to Meta asking the Facebook-owner to explain its tardy responses to requests by the City watchdog for the removal of harmful content from financial influencers appearing on its platforms.
June 05, 2025
UK Needs Modern Sanctions Rules, Ex-Lord Chancellor Warns

The U.K.'s sanctions regime is increasingly unfit for its purpose and must be reformed to tackle complex new forms of aggression such as cyberattacks and economic sabotage, the former lord chancellor urged Thursday.
June 05, 2025
HMRC Loses £47M To Phishing Targeting PAYE Accounts

HM Revenue & Customs has detected phishing attacks on 100,000 taxpayer accounts, costing the revenue service £47 million ($64 million), the tax authority's new chief executive told members of Parliament.
June 05, 2025
Trading Biz Can't Short Circuit Trial Against Former GC

A London judge said Thursday that a trading services company must go to trial to prove that its former general counsel misused confidential information, citing a possibility that the business abused the lawyer-client relationship.
June 05, 2025
BHP Tries To Block Criminal Contempt Bid In £36B Dam Case

BHP urged a London judge on Thursday to throw out contempt proceedings that it has called "extraordinary" in a £36 billion ($50 billion) case over Brazil's worst environmental disaster, arguing that it would relitigate issues that had already been resolved.
June 05, 2025
Credit Suisse Says Greensill Deals Left $440M Debt Unpaid

Greensill Capital coordinated with SoftBank to enter into "improper" transactions which caused Credit Suisse investors to lose $440 million in debt, a lawyer for a sub-fund for the collapsed Swiss bank told the first day of trial Thursday.
June 05, 2025
Oligarch Can't Appeal Tossed $14B Asset-Stripping Claim

Imprisoned oligarch Ziyavudin Magomedov cannot challenge a decision to dismiss his $14 billion claim against Transneft, Rostatom, a private equity firm and other entities over an alleged Russian state-led conspiracy to strip his assets in two major port operators, a London appeals court has ordered.
June 05, 2025
Ex-Solicitor Charged With Defrauding Clients Out Of £137K

A former solicitor and part-time judge appeared at a London criminal court on Thursday accused of defrauding more than a dozen clients by appropriating at least £137,000 ($186,000) in payments to himself.
June 05, 2025
JPMorgan Blocks VTB's Russian Case Over Frozen $156M

JPMorgan won its fight on Thursday to block VTB Bank from bringing a $156 million case in Russia over frozen funds, as a London court ruled that the Russian lender's claims were "vexatious and oppressive."
June 04, 2025
DWF Argues Privacy Claim A Litigation Ploy At Trial

DWF Law LLP argued at trial Wednesday that a claim by three people that the law firm unlawfully shared their health data was only brought to "secure an advantage" for their lawyers in separate proceedings against insurers.
June 04, 2025
VTB Bank Unit Beats 'Thinnest Possible' Corporate Raid Case

A British unit of Russian state-owned VTB Bank has beaten claims in a London court that it was part of a Kremlin-approved corporate raid, with a judge ruling that a steel businessman's evidence against the lender was "the thinnest possible gruel."
June 04, 2025
SFO Reveals £21M Spent On Lawyers In ENRC Court Battles

The Serious Fraud Office has spent more than £21 million ($28 million) on lawyers fighting its legal battle against Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. over the prosecutor's alleged abuse of its authority during an ill-fated criminal probe of the mining giant.

Editor's Picks

6 Bombshell Moments From Staley's Bid To Clear His Name

Jes Staley has suffered a bruising week as he testified about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, culminating in an admission by the former banker that he had sex with a member of the disgraced financier's staff.
5 Questions For Spencer West Partner Karl Foster

The Financial Conduct Authority's approach to enforcement and consumer protection has come up against government economic growth priorities and resistance from the sector to its proposals to "name and shame" companies early on during regulatory probes.
UK Russia Sanctions Face Landmark Test At Supreme Court

The U.K.'s sanctions regime faces a major test on Wednesday as billionaire Eugene Shvidler seeks to have his financial restrictions cast off — the first case to challenge Russian sanctions that has reached the country's highest court.

Expert Analysis

Industry Input Is Key As EU Weighs New Tariffs On US Trade

The European Commission’s ongoing consultation, which seeks feedback on a proposed expansion of products subject to tariffs and restrictions in retaliation to U.S. tariffs, opens an important opportunity for industry stakeholders to highlight why a scope exclusion is warranted, say lawyers at Crowell & Moring.
What End of Payment Systems Regulator Means For Biz

The U.K. government’s plan to abolish the Payment Systems Regulator and absorb its functions into the Financial Conduct Authority should eventually lighten the compliance burden for businesses under the PSR’s remit, which may in turn encourage growth, but the proposed changes will roll out slowly, say lawyers at Farrer & Co.
Compliance Lessons From Art Dealer's Terror Financing Plea

Regulated businesses can learn from the missteps of a recently convicted London art dealer, who failed to disclose sales to a suspected Hezbollah financier, by implementing compliance measures like anti-terrorism financing screenings as robust as their anti-money laundering policies and training staff to spot red flags, say lawyers at White & Case.
UK Capital Reforms May Help Startup Founders, VC Investors

Hidden in the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority's recent proposals on the definition of capital for investment firms are changes to the eligibility requirements for instruments to be included in a firm's regulatory capital — changes that may reduce the risk of investing, especially in early-stage fintech firms, says Andrew Henderson at Goodwin.
EU Watchdog's ESG Dashboard Raises Transparency Bar

The European Banking Authority’s recently introduced ESG dashboard is a key tool in aligning financial institutions with the European Union's sustainability policies, and fundamentally alters the risk environment by transitioning climate-related data from a compliance afterthought to a core component of strategic decision-making, says Kristýna Tupá at Schönherr.
Whistleblower Rewards May Soon Materialize In UK

Recent government and Serious Fraud Office announcements indicate that the U.K.’s long-standing aversion to rewarding whistleblowers is reversing, underlining the importance for organizations to consider managing misconduct risk and prepare for a potentially significant uptick in tipoffs, says Tom Grodecki at Cadwalader.
High Court Ruling Shows Firm Stance On Procedural Integrity

The recent High Court decision in Qatar Investment v. Phoenix Ancient Art demonstrates its zero tolerance of procedural failure, serving as a reminder that the financial burden associated with document disclosure will not excuse a party’s failure to comply with court orders, say lawyers at Quillon Law.
UK May Play Major Role In Corporate Misconduct Regulation

In light of the U.S.' pause in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, the U.K. Serious Fraud Office has released new guidance showing it may seize the opportunity to play a heightened role in regulating corporate misconduct by U.S. companies with a global presence, particularly over the next few years, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.
A Shifting Landscape Of Greater Scrutiny After Data Breaches

Recent Information Commissioner's Office fines for personal data breaches and a Home Office consultation signal a shift in the U.K. regulatory landscape, and with an increase in mass actions and resulting exposure, organizations should prepare for potential third-party claims from those incurring consequential losses, say lawyers at Atheria.
What To Note As HM Treasury, FCA Plan New Crypto Regs

Taken together, HM Treasury’s recently proposed crypto-asset regulations and the Financial Conduct Authority’s new discussion paper on regulating crypto-asset activities provide key insights into the government's planned regime, which represents significant changes that will affect all firms providing related services, says Mark Chalmers at Davis Polk.
Tools For Effective Asset Tracking In Offshore Jurisdictions

In light of a technology company's recent allegations that its former CEO maintained an undisclosed interest in offshore companies, practitioners may want to refresh their knowledge of the tool kit available for tracing and recovering allegedly misappropriated assets from both onshore and offshore jurisdictions, say lawyers at Walkers Global.
Guidance Offers Clarity On UK Foreign Influence Registration

The Home Office's recently released guidance on the new Foreign Influence Registration Scheme provides important context for different industries and sectors, highlighting that careful assessment of interactions with foreign entities and governments is needed to determine whether registration is required, say lawyers at Skadden.
FCA Review Highlights Valuation Standards For Private Funds

The Financial Conduct Authority’s recent review of private funds valuation practices underscores the increasing importance of conducting robust and independent procedures, offering an opportunity for fund managers to strengthen their current valuation frameworks and improve investor confidence, say lawyers at Greenberg Traurig.
UK Data Disputes Could Become Competition Class Actions

While mass data protection claims have chafed against the procedural restrictions that apply to class actions under U.K. law, it is possible these claims will be brought into the fold of the rapidly growing Competition Appeal Tribunal scene, says Aislinn Kelly-Lyth at Blackstone Chambers.
What Cos. Need To Know About EU's AI Action Plan

The European Commission’s recently unveiled artificial intelligence continent action plan aims to position the European Union as a global AI leader, but with tension surrounding the EU AI Act’s compliance obligations, organizations should prepare for potential regulatory divergence between the plan's pro-innovation approach and the act's more prescriptive regime, says Marc Martin at Perkins Coie.