On 14 April three individuals and three companies were sentenced for their role in a bribery scheme spanning nine years. The prosecution merits consideration because, as well as securing convictions for corruption and...more
Regulation of cryptoassets has long been near the top of the UK’s regulatory agenda. Despite only being a few weeks in, 2022 has already seen what are, perhaps, the most drastic proposals for regulation yet: a three-fold...more
On 16 February 2022, in its judgment in Bloomberg LP v ZXC, the UK Supreme Court unanimously held that in general, and as a legitimate starting point, a person under criminal investigation has, prior to being charged, a...more
On 3 December 2020, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) opened a consultation on its draft annual plan for 2021 to 2022 (the “Draft Plan”). The Draft Plan sets out the key themes on which the CMA hopes to focus...more
The Advancement of Digital Assets and Addressing Financial Crime Risk at New York University School of Law about tackling financial crime and imposing anti-money laundering (“AML”) regulation on the emerging market for...more
On 6 February 2020, Mark Steward, Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), spoke at the 19th Annual Institute on Securities Regulation in Europe. His speech,...more
3/12/2020
/ Commodities ,
Derivatives ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU MAR) ,
Financial Markets Authority (FMA) ,
Market Abuse ,
Market Manipulation ,
MiFID II ,
Securities ,
UK
The year 2019 has been something of a mixed bag for the UK’s criminal and regulatory authorities. While the Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) and Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) appear to have taken involuntary sabbaticals...more
12/23/2019
/ Alstom ,
Bribery ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Statistics ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Forfeiture ,
Freezing Order ,
GlaxoSmithKline ,
Insider Trading ,
Rolls-Royce ,
Serious Fraud Office (SFO) ,
Tesco ,
UK ,
UK Criminal Finances Act 2017 ,
Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) ,
White Collar Crimes
The UK and the US signed a new data-sharing agreement on 3 October designed to facilitate the exchange of evidence and enhance co-operation between the two countries and their respective investigatory authorities. The first...more
10/30/2019
/ Bilateral Agreements ,
Corporate Investigations ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Cross-Border ,
Data-Sharing ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Evidence ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLAT) ,
Personal Data ,
Serious Fraud Office (SFO) ,
UK
On 9 July 2019, the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) released its Enforcement Annual Performance Report for 2018/19 (the “Report”). Complementing the wider FCA Annual Report, it provides an overview of the FCA’s...more
How do you police the internet? That is the question that the government sought to answer with the launch of last month’s online harms white paper. The white paper, a cross-departmental collaboration between the home...more
On 7 February 2019, the UK National Crime Agency (“NCA”) announced that it had, for the first time, successfully used its powers of account freezing orders (“AFOs”) to forfeit over £400,000 from three UK bank accounts...more
The UK is scheduled to leave the EU in less than two months. It is unclear whether this will happen under the terms of a deal negotiated with the EU (a “deal-based” Brexit) or without a deal (“no-deal” Brexit).
Under a...more
2/13/2019
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Jurisdiction ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
No-Deal Brexit ,
UK ,
UK Brexit ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
Speaking at The Lawyer’s Managing Risk and Litigation 2018 Conference recently, Matthew Wagstaff, Joint Head of Bribery and Corruption at the Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”), outlined the agency’s current priorities and future...more
On 24 July 2018, the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) released its Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2018 (the “2017/18 Report”). As part of its overall objective in promoting competition for the...more
On 22 May 2018, Megan Butler, Executive Director of Supervision – Investment, Wholesale and Specialists at the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), delivered a speech on the use of technology to detect and counteract criminal...more
On 21 March 2018, the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) published a consultation document setting out its approach to enforcement for 2018. The paper aims to provide clarity and transparency on how the FCA exercises its...more
On 22 February 2018, the Treasury Committee launched a new inquiry into digital currencies and distributed ledger technology. Digital currencies such as Bitcoin – often known as cryptocurrencies – are digital tokens which...more
In recent years, the rise of multi-jurisdictional investigations and corresponding multi-jurisdictional settlements has changed the enforcement landscape. Notable examples include the tri-lateral settlements of Odebrecht and...more
2/12/2018
/ Cooperation ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Cross-Border ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EU ,
Financial Crimes ,
France ,
International Litigation ,
Multi-Jurisdictional Litigation ,
Serious Fraud Office (SFO) ,
Settlement ,
UK ,
UK Brexit ,
UK Criminal Finances Act 2017
Since a 1971 dispute over the pricing of washing powder, English law has required that for acts to be attributable to a corporation they must represent the directing mind and will of that organisation. The “identification...more
Speaking on 20 September 2017, Jonathan Davidson—Director of Supervision for Retail and Authorisations at the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”)—addressed the issue of culture and conduct in financial services, in light of...more