Ex-Dechert solicitor leaked ENRC’s confidential documents to media, London judge rules May 16, 2022 A London judge has said a senior partner at corporate law firm Dechert LLP breached his duties to Kazakhstani mining conglomerate ENRC by leaking information about the company to three British newspapers and the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO). High Court judge Mr Justice Waksman said Neil Gerrard, the former head of white-collar crime at [...]
KPMG faces record £14.4m fine after auditors misled watchdog during Carillion inspection May 12, 2022 KPMG is set to be hit with a record £14.4m fine after a tribunal found five of its former staff deliberately misled the UK’s audit watchdog by forging documents during routine inspections of their work. The tribunal heard the UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) had agreed to reduce KPMG’s fine from a sum of £20m, [...]
UK’s accountancy sector turnovers soar to record highs May 12, 2022 The UK’s accountancy firms generated more cash in March than in any other month on record, new Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures show. Turnover in Britain’s accountancy sector jumped 14 per cent from February to March to record highs of £4.13bn. The multi-billion sum comes as a new high for the UK’s accountancy industry, [...]
Top City bosses should face jail over failures to prevent economic crime, cross-party MPs say May 12, 2022 MPs today called for a crack down on “dirty money” as they argued City bosses should face jail if they fail to prevent illicit cash from flowing through the UK’s financial system. In launching an Economic Crime manifesto, the cross-party MPs said the UK and its overseas territories have played a key role in enabling [...]
Lawyers slam government’s plans to replace Human Rights Act with new ‘Bill of Rights’ May 11, 2022 Lawyers have slammed the UK government’s plans to dismantle the Human Rights Act and replace it with a new “Bill of Rights”. The plan, set out in the Queen’s Speech, is set to see the government tear up the UK’s Human Rights Act of 1998, which enshrines the rights guaranteed by the European Convention on [...]
Aviva chief Amanda Blanc speaks out against City sexism following ‘inappropriate’ comments at AGM May 11, 2022 Aviva chief Amanda Blanc has spoken out against sexism in the City, after she was subjected to a barrage of “sexist and derogatory” comments at Aviva’s annual general meeting (AGM). The insurance industry veteran said she had observed an increase in incidents of overt sexism during her 30+ years in the financial services sector, as [...]
Government vows to ‘drive dirty money’ out of the UK economy through new Economic Crime bill May 10, 2022 The UK government has vowed crack down on “kleptocrats, criminals, and terrorists” by driving “dirty money” out of the UK economy through its new Economic Crime Bill. The new bill is set to boost transparency, strengthen powers to seize and recover crypto assets, and bolster the investigative powers held by Companies House. Anti-corruption campaigners [...]
Surveillance tech firm Clearview AI agrees to block businesses from using facial recognition database May 10, 2022 Facial recognition startup Clearview AI has agreed to limit customers from using its database of billions of facial images scraped from social media platforms including Facebook and Linkedin. The New York software developer agreed to block the bulk of all commercial customers from using its database, in order to settle a lawsuit brought forward by [...]
Tinder owner sues Google in bid to avoid 30 per cent in-app purchase fees May 10, 2022 Dating app conglomerate Match Group has sued Google in a bid to block it from charging hundreds of millions in fees on purchases made through the Google Play Store. The Tinder owner said it had filed its lawsuit as a “last resort” in its bid to block Google from charging a 15 per cent “tax” [...]
Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance faces bankruptcy fight after Credit Suisse leaves the table May 10, 2022 Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance faces the prospect of bankruptcy after its main creditor, Credit Suisse, exited negotiations with the steel business over repayment of its debts. GFG Alliance is set to face an insolvency hearing next week after Credit Suisse, pulled out of settlement negotiations, the Financial Times first reported. Under UK laws, creditors can [...]