Corporate Crime & Compliance UK

  • July 29, 2024

    News Group Agrees To Seek 'Fake Security Threat' Evidence

    The U.K. arm of Rupert Murdoch's news empire agreed in a London court Monday to search for more information related to an alleged "fake security threat" used to destroy evidence of unlawful information gathering techniques by journalists in a disclosure battle with two senior politicians.

  • July 29, 2024

    Top Corporate Crime Cases To Watch For The Rest Of 2024

    The Serious Fraud Office's intention to charge individuals with bribery over Glencore's dealings in Nigeria, a major bitcoin money laundering trial and the ongoing legal battles between ENRC and the SFO are some of the major white-collar crime cases on the horizon.

  • July 29, 2024

    Bahrain Revives Immunity Bid In Dissident Spyware Case

    Bahrain told an appeals court Monday that state immunity prevents two dissidents from suing the Gulf state in England to claim it infected their computers with malware to spy on them, because not all the alleged acts took place in the U.K.

  • July 29, 2024

    Saudi Investor Revives $5M Legal Costs Claim Against RLS

    A London court has revived a negligence claim brought by a Saudi Arabian property investor against a law firm for the costs of investigating and litigating an alleged £35 million ($45 million) fraud, finding that an earlier settlement does not block him bringing the allegations.

  • July 29, 2024

    Zurich Invests $60M In Cyber Insurance Provider For SMEs

    Swiss insurance giant Zurich has invested $60 million in Cowbell, a provider of cyberinsurance for small businesses, the digital risk company said, amid growing industry concerns over cyberthreats.

  • July 29, 2024

    FCA Weighs Taking Protection From Some Insurance Clients

    The Financial Conduct Authority proposed on Monday a change to the criteria of classifying a small business as a commercial insurance client by removing consumer protection rules from some firms when they buy insurance products. 

  • July 29, 2024

    NCA Seizes Assets As Russian Oligarch Ends Sanctions Fight

    The National Crime Agency seized more than £768,000 ($986,000) belonging to Russian oligarch Petr Aven on Monday after reaching a settlement in its first attempt to recover frozen assets linked to suspected sanctions evasion since sweeping restrictions came into force.

  • July 29, 2024

    Mozambique Claims Victory In UK Tuna Bond Scandal Case

    Mozambique largely won its mammoth corruption claim against a shipbuilding company on Monday over a bribery scheme used to pay kickbacks to public officials to tie it into a financing package for a tuna fishing fleet that wrecked the southern African country's economy.

  • July 26, 2024

    SFO Probed ENRC Investigator For Separate Media Disclosure

    A former Serious Fraud Office investigator accused of leaking information about a corruption investigation into mining company Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. was subject to disciplinary proceedings for making disclosures about another matter to the media, the SFO confirmed Friday.

  • July 26, 2024

    Funders Face Battles Over Returns A Year On From PACCAR

    A year on from the Supreme Court's landmark decision that upended the financing of class actions, and failing any immediate legislative solution, lawyers say litigation funding agreements will continue to face scrutiny with new challenges to the returns funders can expect to earn.

  • July 26, 2024

    UK Gov't Denies Leaked Greensill Probe Caused Him Harm

    The Insolvency Service leaked private details of an investigation into Lex Greensill, the founder of collapsed finance company Greensill Capital, to the national press, the government has admitted in court filings — but denied it caused him any harm.

  • July 26, 2024

    NCA Data Project Set To Catch Financial Criminals

    The National Crime Agency and seven U.K. banks have forged a major public-private partnership to use account data to help catch financial criminals and prevent fraud and money laundering, the agency said Friday.

  • July 26, 2024

    EU Banks Must Improve Cyberattack Protection, ECB Says

    Lenders in the eurozone still suffer from "shortcomings" in fighting against and recovering from a severe — but plausible — cyberattack, the European Central Bank said Friday after it conducted a resilience stress test.

  • July 26, 2024

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

    This past week in London has seen U.K. band The 1975 face action by Future Sound Asia after its performance in Malaysia resulted in a festival's cancelation, Spectrum Insurance hit by The Motoring Organization following their dispute over information misuse, and a former police constable pursue defamation against a colleague for allegedly instigating a campaign of harassment against her. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • July 26, 2024

    Fraudster Sentenced For Instagram Motor Insurance Scam

    A man who made almost £18,000 by operating as a "ghost broker" and selling invalid car insurance policies on Instagram has been handed a suspended prison sentence of 24 months at a London court, City Police has said.

  • July 26, 2024

    Israeli Investigator Faces Jan. Hearing On Hacking Extradition

    Israeli private investigator Amit Forlit will face a hearing in January to determine whether he will be extradited to the United States for allegedly conducting illegal hacking campaigns aimed at tarnishing organizations involved in environmental litigation, a London judge said Friday.

  • July 25, 2024

    Vince Cable Missed Shoosmiths' Warning Over Post Office IT

    Shoosmiths LLP warned the government about problems with the IT accounting software which incorrectly showed shortfalls that the Post Office used to prosecute innocent people in 2012, documents disclosed to the inquiry into the scandal on Thursday showed.

  • July 25, 2024

    Audit Watchdog Sanctioned Firms £48M Last Year

    The Financial Reporting Council revealed Thursday that it fined firms a total of £48.2 million ($62 million) in the financial year ended March 31, including a £21 million fine against auditor KPMG related to its accounting for construction giant Carillion prior to its collapse in 2018.

  • July 25, 2024

    Hayes Can Appeal Rate Rigging Conviction At Top UK Court

    Two traders convicted of manipulating benchmark interest rates have been granted permission to appeal their cases to the U.K.'s highest court, their representatives said on Thursday.

  • July 25, 2024

    Plan To Return WealthTek Clients' Money Gets Green Light

    The Financial Conduct Authority said Thursday that the High Court has approved a plan by the joint special administrators of collapsed regulated wealth manager WealthTek LLP to return money and investments it held for clients.

  • July 25, 2024

    4 Banks Ordered To Comply With UK Retail Competition Rules

    HSBC, Lloyds, TSB and Allied Irish Banks have broken rules designed to help customers find the best deals, Britain's antitrust authority said Thursday, adding that it has ordered the lenders to comply with competition regulation. 

  • July 25, 2024

    FCA Consumer Duty Deadline May Spark Clash With UK Gov't

    The new Labour government and the Financial Conduct Authority could be heading for a clash over what constitutes a vulnerable consumer and how the laws protecting them from abuse should be enforced.

  • July 25, 2024

    Coinbase Unit Fined £3.5M For Crypto-Related Breaches

    The Financial Conduct Authority said Thursday it has fined a payments company £3.5 million ($4.5 million) for "repeatedly breaching" restrictions against enabling crypto-asset trading, the first time the watchdog has taken enforcement action under regulations governing electronic money.

  • July 24, 2024

    Ex-Barclays CEO Told To Testify In Appeal Of Qatar Fees Fine

    Former Barclays CEO John Varley was ordered by a London tribunal Wednesday to give evidence in the bank's appeal against a £50 million ($64.6 million) fine over its emergency fundraising with Qatar during the 2008 financial crash.

  • July 24, 2024

    Gas Plant Subcontractor Can't Ax £165M Fraud Claims

    A London appeals court refused to block an engineering company's £165 million ($213 million) fraud claims Wednesday, ruling that although the action should have been brought earlier, it is genuine, and the delay has caused little difference to the case's progression.

Expert Analysis

  • EU GDPR Ruling Reiterates Relative Nature Of 'Personal Data'

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    The Court of Justice of the European Union recently confirmed in Gesamtverband v. Scania that vehicle identification number data can be processed under the General Data Protection Regulation, illustrating that the same dataset may be considered "personal data" for one party, but not another, which suggests a less expansive definition of the term, say lawyers at Van Bael.

  • How The UK Smart Regulatory Strategy Fuels AI Innovation

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    Eight months after the U.K. government published its artificial intelligence white paper, the Communications and Digital Lords Committee considered regulators' role regarding large language models, illustrating that the government is ramping up efforts toward solidifying the U.K.'s position as a global leader in AI regulation and development, say attorneys at Akin Gump.

  • How 'Copyleft' Licenses May Affect Generative AI Output

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    Open-source software and the copyleft licenses that support it, whereby derivative works must be made available for others to use and modify, have been a boon to the development of artificial intelligence, but could lead to issues for coders who use AI to help write code and may find their resulting work exposed, says William Dearn at HLK.

  • Russia Ruling Shows UK's Robust Jurisdiction Approach

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    An English High Court's recent decision to grant an anti-suit injunction in the Russia-related dispute Renaissance Securities v. Chlodwig Enterprises clearly illustrates that obtaining an injunction will likely be more straightforward when the seat is in England compared to when it is abroad, say lawyers at Linklaters.

  • How New Loan Origination Regime Will Affect Fund Managers

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    Although the recent publication of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive II represents more of an evolution than a revolution, the leverage limitations applicable to loan-originating funds are likely to present practical challenges for European credit fund managers, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

  • How EU Sustainability Directive Will Improve Co. Reporting

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    The need for organizations to make nonfinancial disclosures under the recently adopted EU Sustainability Reporting Standards will significantly change workforce and human rights reporting, and with the objective of fostering transparency, should bring about an increased focus on risks, policies and action plans, say Philip Spyropoulos and Thomas Player at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • PPI Ruling Spells Trouble For Financial Services Firms

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    The Supreme Court's recent decision in Canada Square v. Potter, which found that the claimant's missold payment protection insurance claim was not time-barred, is bad news for affected financial services firms, as there is now certainty over the law on the postponement of limitation periods, rendering hidden commission claims viable, say Ian Skinner and Chris Webber at Squire Patton.

  • Extradition Ruling Hints At Ways Around High Burden Of Proof

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    The U.K. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Popoviciu v. Curtea De Apel Bucharest confirmed that, in a conviction extradition case, the requested person must establish a flagrant violation of their right to a fair trial, but the court's reasoning reveals creative opportunities to test this boundary in the U.K. and Strasbourg alike, says Rebecca Hughes at Corker Binning.

  • What Lawyers Can Learn From FDI Screening Report Findings

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    The recent European Commission report on the screening of foreign direct investments into the EU reveals how member states need to balance national security concerns with openness, and with more cross-border transactions subject to screening, lawyers must be alert to jurisdictional variances, says Jonathon Gunn at Faegre Drinker.

  • Why Law Firms Should Heed Calls To Put ESG Over Profit

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    According to Deloitte’s recent survey, the majority of Gen Z and millennials remain unimpressed with businesses’ societal impact, and junior lawyers in particular are increasingly expecting the legal profession to shift to a business model that prioritizes sustainability above profitability, says Dana Denis-Smith at Obelisk Support.

  • UK Review May Lead To Lower Investment Screening Burden

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    The government’s current review of national security investment screening rules aims to refine the scope of mandatory notifications required for unproblematic deals, and is likely to result in much-needed modifications to minimize the administrative burden on businesses and investors, say lawyers at Simpson Thacher.

  • What Prince Harry Privacy Case May Mean For Media Ethics

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    An English High Court recently allowed the privacy case brought by Prince Harry and six other claimants against the Daily Mail publisher to proceed, which, if successful, could embolden other high-profile individuals to bring claims and lead to renewed calls for a judicial public inquiry into British press ethics, says Philippa Dempster at Freeths.

  • Economic Crime Act Exposure: What Companies Can Expect

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    The intention of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act is to make it easier to attribute criminal liability to companies if a senior manager has committed an offense, but the impact on corporate criminal convictions depends on who qualifies as a senior manager and the evidential challenges in showing it, say Hayley Ichilcik and Julius Handler at MoFo.

  • How European Authorities Are Foiling Anti-Competitive Hiring

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    Lawyers at Squire Patton discuss key labor practice antitrust concerns and notable regulation trends in several European countries following recent enforcement actions brought by the European Commission and U.K. Competition and Markets Authority.

  • FCA Promotions Review Sends A Strong Message To Firms

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    The recent FCA review into firms' compliance with the rules on promoting high-risk investments to retail clients clarifies that it expects the letter and the spirit of the rules to be followed, and given the interplay with the consumer duty, there are wider implications at stake, say Marina Reason and Chris Hurn at Herbert Smith.

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