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Corporate Crime & Compliance UK
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May 16, 2024
Nationwide Cited For Compliance Breaches In PPI Market
The competition watchdog said on Thursday it has written to Nationwide Building Society, telling the lender that it had breached the rules by giving clients incorrect information about insurance covering mortgage repayments.
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May 15, 2024
Uyghur Group Fights To Revive Bid For Chinese Cotton Probe
Campaigners for the Uyghurs told an appellate court Wednesday that Britain was wrong to refuse to launch a broad investigation into imported cotton produced in China with forced labor rather than specific shipments, arguing that the decision could create a market for criminal property.
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May 15, 2024
Food Supplier's £1.1M Suit Alleges Ex-Director Inflated Price
A food product company has alleged its former director owes it over £1.1 million ($1.4 million) for devising a scheme to artificially inflate suppliers' costs and pocketing the difference between the real price.
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May 15, 2024
Crypto 'Academy' Closed After Probe Into False Assurances
A cryptocurrency firm that "recklessly" persuaded customers to put money into investment plans has been wound up after the government's insolvency agency found that the company had given false assurances and traded without regulatory approval.
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May 15, 2024
Watchdog Warns Bank CEOs Of Inadequate Recovery Plans
The Prudential Regulation Authority told the chief executives of smaller U.K. banks and building societies in a letter on Wednesday that their companies should improve recovery plans, saying that they use insufficiently severe scenarios in testing.
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May 15, 2024
Ex-Candey Partner Did Not Think Client Funds Were Criminal
A former Candey partner who is accused of not adequately checking the source of almost £24 million ($30 million) in client funds earmarked for a property purchase told a tribunal on Wednesday that he did not believe the money was the proceeds of crime.
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May 15, 2024
Fired Judge Loses Appeal Over Deleting Data During Probe
A former judge who was removed from office for deleting data relevant to a police investigation had his bid to appeal his dismissal rejected by the High Court on Wednesday as a judge ruled that his removal from the bench was "clearly justified."
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May 15, 2024
FCA Charges 3 For Alleged £8M Pension Fraud
The Financial Conduct Authority said Wednesday it has charged three consultants over an alleged fraudulent investment scheme in which victims lost £8 million ($10.1 million) of their pension savings.
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May 15, 2024
Lloyd's Further Tightens 'Cyberwar' Insurance Cover
Lloyd's of London has tightened rules on members of the specialist insurance market over cover for state-backed cyberattacks.
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May 15, 2024
Sanctions Give Shipper Force Majeure Escape From Contract
Britain's highest court ruled Wednesday that a shipowner should not be forced to vary the payment terms of a freight contract to overcome a potential force majeure event amid concerns about U.S. sanctions.
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May 15, 2024
Experts See Risks In FCA's Soft-Touch Response To AI
The Financial Conduct Authority has so far failed to detail its rules on artificial intelligence and is moving toward a reliance on companies to self-report, putting it at risk of deferring excessively to the sector it regulates, legal experts say.
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May 14, 2024
Autonomy Overstated Revenue Before HP Sale, Jury Hears
Autonomy's reported revenue was overstated by a combined $300 million in the two-and-a-half years before HP acquired it, an accounting expert testified Tuesday in a California criminal trial over claims that Autonomy founder Michael Lynch duped HP into buying his software company for an inflated $11.7 billion price.
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May 14, 2024
Billionaire's Pilot Cops To Tax Count, Avoids Insider Trial
A pilot from Virginia accused of profiting from stock tips fed to him by British billionaire Joe Lewis on Tuesday copped to dodging taxes on $500,000 of income from Lewis' company, in a plea deal that avoids an insider trading trial.
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May 14, 2024
Communications Panel Seeks Stiffer Fines On SLAPP Suits
The chair of a House of Lords committee on Tuesday urged the government to increase the Solicitors Regulation Authority's fining powers to crack down on litigation designed to silence reporting about wealthy and powerful individuals.
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May 14, 2024
SFO Boss Suggests Paying Whistleblowers From Plea Deals
The U.K. should pay whistleblowers for providing smoking gun evidence of wrongdoing from any corporate settlement they help bring about, to compensate them for the risk of coming forward, the director of the Serious Fraud Office told lawmakers on Tuesday.
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May 14, 2024
Fuel Trader Did Not Hide £5M Commissions From Employer
A former biodiesel trader accused of pocketing the equivalent of £5.2 million ($6.5 million) in secret commissions never hid the payments and worked hard to negotiate the best price for his employer, his lawyer told a jury Tuesday.
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May 14, 2024
UniCredit Bids To Toss $69M Plane Payment Sanctions Ruling
UniCredit urged an appeals court on Tuesday to overturn a ruling that it was not reasonable for its London branch to believe it was prohibited from making $69.3 million in payments to three Irish lessors tied to aircraft held in Russia because of Western sanctions.
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May 14, 2024
EU Watchdog Sets Anti-Greenwashing Guidelines For Funds
The European Union's markets regulator on Tuesday published its final guidelines for firms using ESG terms in fund names, requiring 80% of the fund's investments to match the claimed criteria to combat greenwashing risk.
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May 14, 2024
Gov't To Add Legal Powers, Staff To Stop Benefits Fraud
The Department for Work and Pensions said Tuesday it will support new legislation to expand its powers to make arrests and conduct searches in its crackdown on benefits fraud.
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May 14, 2024
Taxpayers Could Face Bill For 'Shadow Fleet' Oil Spill
British taxpayers could be on the hook for the cleanup if oil leaks from a ship operating without full insurance as a result of sanctions imposed on Russia, a senior figure at Lloyd's of London warned a panel of MPs on Tuesday.
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May 13, 2024
Irked Autonomy Judge Vents On HP Fraud Trial's Slow Pace
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer on Monday blasted lawyers for the government and two former Autonomy Corp. PLC executives in a criminal fraud case over the trial's slow progress, saying he's "annoyed," but also "complicit" because he "did not take more of a controlling posture."
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May 13, 2024
EU Designates Booking.com As Gatekeeper, X Ads Escape
The Dutch company that owns popular travel site Booking.com is the latest company to be hit with the gatekeeper designation by the European Commission, and the social media platform X may be next.
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May 13, 2024
Candey, Ex-Partner Face Tribunal Over Alleged AML Breach
Candey Ltd. and a former partner breached money laundering regulations by not adequately checking the source of nearly £24 million ($30 million) of client funds earmarked for a property purchase, the Solicitors Regulation Authority told a tribunal Monday.
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May 13, 2024
Barclays Can Keep $148M Russian Swaps Dispute In London
Barclays has secured a permanent London court order preventing sanctioned Russian state investment company VEB from taking its $147.7 million swaps dispute with the bank away from the U.K. to an arbitration court in Moscow.
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May 13, 2024
Law Firm Beats Paralegal's COVID Whistleblower Claim
An employment tribunal has dismissed a former paralegal's claim alleging she was unfairly dismissed for raising complaints about her mentor's behavior and COVID-19 practices, finding the disclosures didn't play a part in the firm's decision to fire her.
Expert Analysis
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Revised OECD Guidelines Key In Shaping Business Standards
The OECD’s recent revised guidelines on responsible business conduct, supported by a domestic government agencies’ grievance referral mechanism, have already influenced EU due diligence standards, and enterprises engaging in the unique procedure will benefit from case-specific nuances, parallel proceedings and the availability of confidentiality protections, say lawyers at Debevoise.
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Takeaways From CMA's Grocery Sector Unit Pricing Report
The Competition and Markets Authority’s recently published report identifying grocery retailers' problematic and inconsistent behaviors in their use of unit pricing signals that retailers will want to take care to use all pricing structures in a clear and transparent way, and that the CMA's soft approach is ending and enforcement is becoming a costly reality, says Michael Cordeaux at Walker Morris.
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Report Can Aid With Sustainable Finance Disclosure Filings
The European Supervisory Authorities recently issued a report on companies' consideration of the principal adverse impacts of their investment decisions on sustainability factors, providing examples of good and bad disclosure practices under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, which firms should note in their future reporting, say lawyers at Debevoise.
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Protecting The Arbitral Process In Russia-Related Disputes
Four recent High Court and Court of Appeal rulings concerning anti-suit injunction claims illustrate that companies exposed to litigation risk in Russia may need to carefully consider how to best protect their interests and the arbitral process with regard to a Russian counterparty, say lawyers at Linklaters.
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Audit Reform Takeaways After Record KPMG Fine
The Financial Reporting Council’s recent £21 million fine against KPMG for its Carillion audit work failures is representative of the agency’s increasing proactivity in policing audit quality, and brings to light the U.K. government’s slow-moving but ongoing efforts to majorly reform audit sector regulations, says Paul Brehony at Signature Litigation.
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Takeaways From The CMA's Green Collaboration Guidance
Recently published Competition and Markets Authority guidance on the application of competition law to environmental sustainability agreements should remove barriers for businesses that want to collaborate on environmental sustainability without breaking the law, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.
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RSA Insurance Ruling Clarifies Definition Of 'Insured Loss'
A London appeals court's recent ruling in Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance v. Tughans, that the insurer must provide coverage for a liability that included the law firm's fees, shows that a claim for the recovery of fees paid to a firm can constitute an insured loss, say James Roberts and Sophia Hanif at Clyde & Co.
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Putin Ruling May Have Unintended Sanctions Consequences
By widening the scope of control, the Court of Appeal's recent judgment in Mints v. PJSC opens the possibility that everything in Russia could be deemed to be controlled by President Vladimir Putin, which would significantly expand the U.K.'s sanctions regime in unintended ways, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.
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Navigating The New Framework On Nature-Related Reporting
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures’ recently published disclosure framework represents a significant step toward the coalescence of nature-related disclosure standards for corporates and financial institutions, and has the potential to influence investor expectations and future regulation, say lawyers at Kirkland.
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FCA Engagement Signals New Direction In ESG Disclosures
The Financial Conduct Authority recently published a response to a consultation on sustainability-related standards, highlighting the regulator's priorities for the U.K.'s green transition, including an early indication that it may turn its attention to nature-based disclosures, say Ferdisha Snagg and Andreas Wildner at Cleary.
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New Policies Will Aid UK Cos. Accessing US Capital Markets
The U.K. government's recent adoption of regulations permitting the use of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, and announcement of measures to remove a 1.5% tax on certain share issues and transfers, should help ensure that England remains an attractive holding company jurisdiction for companies seeking a listing on U.S. stock exchanges, say lawyers at Davis Polk.
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Key Takeaways From ICO Report On Workforce Monitoring
The Information Commissioner's Office recently published guidance on workplace monitoring, highlighting that employers must strike a balance between their business needs and workers' privacy rights to avoid falling afoul of U.K. data protection law requirements, say lawyers at MoFo.
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Creating A Safe Workplace Goes Beyond DEI Compliance
The Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority recently proposed a new diversity and inclusion regulatory framework to combat sexual harassment in the workplace, and companies should take this opportunity to holistically transform their culture to ensure zero tolerance for misconduct, says Vivek Dodd at Skillcast.
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How UK AI Agency Will Affect Regulatory Landscape
The U.K. government recently unveiled plans for its new Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum AI and Digital Hub, which is poised to be influential in the U.K.’s emerging artificial intelligence landscape through effective collaboration and synchronization between regulators, says Ludovico Lugnani at BDB Pitmans.
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Asset Managers Should Prepare For Nature-Related Reporting
Although it is doubtful that the U.K. nature-related task force’s recent recommendations for mandatory nature reporting will come into effect imminently, it is likely that investors will begin to use them to assess risks and will request asset managers to shift capital flows to more sustainable outcomes, say lawyers at Macfarlanes.