Money launderer jailed for nine years over scheme to smuggle £104m to Dubai July 28, 2022 The head of a money laundering operation, that saw millions smuggled out of Heathrow airport in suitcases and sent to Dubai, has been jailed for nine years. Emirati national Abdullah Mohammed Ali Bin Beyat Alfalasi, 47, ran a scheme that saw cash believed to be profits from drug dealing, collected from criminal groups across Britain [...]
UK’s financial watchdog fines three Carillion executives over misleading statements July 28, 2022 The UK’s financial watchdog today fined three former Carillion executives for “recklessly” publishing misleading statements prior to the construction firm’s collapse in 2018. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it would have also fined the company itself a sum of £37.8m if it were not for the firm’s 2018 bankruptcy. The FCA’s sanctions saw Carillion’s [...]
Legal history: First-ever televised sentencing at Old Bailey hailed a ‘landmark moment’ as Ben Oliver gets life July 28, 2022 Judge Sarah Munro QC made legal history today as she sentenced 25-year-old Ben Oliver to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 10 years and eight months. It was the first televised sentencing to take place at the Old Bailey ever. The footage was being broadcast on news channels and being made available online through [...]
High profile scandals saw UK’s audit watchdog hand out record £46.5m in fines last year July 28, 2022 The UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) issued a record £46.5m in fines over the past year, after the audit watchdog handed out a series of huge fines to Britain’s top accounting firms in the wake of a series of high-profile accounting scandals. The value of fines issued by the UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) [...]
Court security guards call off strike after OCS offers pay deal July 28, 2022 Court security guards have called off plans to strike after outsourcing firm OCS offered to up their pay by up to 8.3 per cent and hand over a raft of other benefits. Workers employed by Crawley contractor OCS on the Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Services (HMCTS) contract have suspended plans to strike while they [...]
Trade unions challenge government’s strike breaking law July 27, 2022 A COALITION of trade unions have launched a legal challenge against the government, over claims its new law, allowing companies to bring in agency workers as strikebreakers, breaches the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and violates the UK’s Brexit trade deal. The challenge comes after the government last week overturned laws forbidding companies from hiring angency [...]
Litigation funder Therium poaches lawyers from top firms as it seeks to build up record lawsuit war chest July 27, 2022 Litigation funder Therium Capital today said it had recruited four new lawyers from some of London and New York’s top firms, as it prepares to raise its largest war chest yet. The firm has brought on board two new London lawyers – ex-Slaughter and May associate Chris Wilkins and ex-Michelmores associate Charlie Temperley – [...]
News channels to be given new freedoms to broadcast sentencing hearings July 27, 2022 Broadcasters will be given new freedoms to film and broadcast Crown Court judges’ sentencing remarks, after a new law comes into force tomorrow morning. The UK’s biggest broadcasters will be given the right to broadcast statements made by Crown Court judges during sentencing hearings, both online and on TV. Under the new rules, TV news [...]
Freshfields outstrips Magic Circle rivals with record partner payouts of more than £2m July 27, 2022 The sums paid out to partners at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have surged to record highs of more than £2m, after the Magic Circle law firm’s revenues jumped 10 per cent year on year. The centuries old law firm saw its profits increase for the sixth year in a row, after revenues surged to heights of [...]
Staff cuts in crime agencies would ‘completely undermine’ UK’s fight against oligarchs, campaigners warn July 26, 2022 Campaigners have called on the UK government to rule out plans to slash headcounts in the enforcement agencies tasked with fighting economic crime, after warning any cuts would “completely undermine” Britain’s bid to crack down on the kleptocrats, criminals, and oligarchs that seek to launder dirty money in the UK. UK government plans to cut [...]