By Barry Vitou, Anne-Marie Ottaway and Gareth R. Hall on Posted in cannabis,criminal law,Proceeds of Crime Act,White collarWith the U.S. cannabis market reported to be worth around $10 billion, sales in Canada expected to reach $6.5 billion by 2020, and the UK having recently decriminalised the use of the drug for medicinal purposes, UK-based investors are eyeing the potential for profit from this new business area. Click here to read the full GT… Continue Reading
By Anne-Marie Ottaway, Barry Vitou and Gareth R. Hall on Posted in criminal law,GT Alert,Proceeds of Crime Act,White collarIt is widely thought that proceedings under the Proceeds of ‘Crime’ Act, such as confiscation, are intended to obtain the money someone makes from committing a crime. So, the thinking goes, if a person is convicted of fraud having made £100,000 from the crime, then those funds can be confiscated by the courts. While this… Continue Reading
By Anne-Marie Ottaway, Barry Vitou and Gareth R. Hall on Posted in GT Alert,White collarSpeaking on 4 April 2019, the head of enforcement for the UK FCA, Mark Steward, warned those subject to the UK’s anti-money laundering regulations that ‘it is time that the FCA gave effect to the full intention of the Money-Laundering Regulations which provides for criminal prosecutions’. He added: ‘[The FCA is] now conducting ‘dual track’ AML investigations,… Continue Reading
By Anne-Marie Ottaway, Barry Vitou and Gareth R. Hall on Posted in insider dealing,White collarFigures provided by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) show that in spite of the thousands of tip-offs on insider dealing it receives from banks and other financial services firms, it rarely opens an investigation. In a response to a freedom of information (FOI) request made by Greenberg Traurig’s White Collar Defence and Special Investigations… Continue Reading
By Anne-Marie Ottaway on Posted in Bribery Act 2010,Compliance Programs,Corporate,criminal law,Government,White collarIn 2018 the House of Lords announced it would set up an ad hoc Select Committee to conduct a post-legislative review of the Bribery Act 2010. Greenberg Traurig Shareholder Anne-Marie Ottaway was appointed Specialist Advisor to the Committee, which today published the report of its findings. The review confirms that the Bribery Act 2010 is “an… Continue Reading
By Gareth R. Hall, Barry Vitou and Anne-Marie Ottaway on Posted in criminal law,White collarLisa Osofsky, the new director of the UK Serious Fraud Office, says her agency should use insiders and co-operators to bring to life by way of live evidence the document-heavy cases it prosecutes. Speaking to the Commons Justice Committee in December 2018, Ms Osofsky alluded to the slow pace of SFO investigations as one of… Continue Reading
By Anne-Marie Ottaway, Barry Vitou and Gareth R. Hall on Posted in criminal law,Tax,tax evasion,White collarThe new offences introduced by the Criminal Finances Act 2017 (the Act), although widely publicised in the months leading up to its commencement, have received little attention since from commentators and, seemingly, the enforcement authorities. The two new offences govern U.K. and non-U.K. tax and are targeted at criminalising a corporate entity or partnership’s (broadly,… Continue Reading
By Anne-Marie Ottaway, Barry Vitou and Gareth R. Hall on Posted in criminal law,White collarPart III of our series on asset recovery powers available to UK law enforcement authorities focuses on new powers under the Criminal Finances Act 2017 to obtain orders to freeze bank accounts and apply for forfeiture orders, permanently depriving the account holder of the funds contained in the account. These draconian new powers have received little publicity… Continue Reading
By Anne-Marie Ottaway, Barry Vitou and Gareth R. Hall on Posted in White collarIn the first of our two-part series, we looked at Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs). To summarize, UWOs require the recipient to explain how they obtained their wealth/assets, which authorities have reasonable grounds to suspect could not have been with the recipient’s known sources of income. The UWO is the beginning of a journey that can result… Continue Reading
By Anne-Marie Ottaway, Barry Vitou and Gareth R. Hall on Posted in White collarUnexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) have recently been in the news. They extend the powers available to UK law enforcement authorities under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA). A UWO enables investigators to ask people who are holding assets, which based on their legitimate income they would not be able to afford, to prove that… Continue Reading
