News & Events
News & Events
Last Monday, Al Jazeera interviewed Robert Rhodes QC about the Serious Fraud Office’s charging of Barclays Bank Ltd for unlawful financial assistance relating to transactions with Qatar in October 2008. The holding company, Barclays Bank plc, was also charged last summer, along with four former senior executives (Robert had an article published about that in Times). The charge relates to Barclays’ October 2008 loan of £2.3bn to Qatar Holdings, its payment to Qatar Holdings of £323m for advisory services, and the purchase by Qatar Holdings of c. £12bn Barclays shares. Robert pointed out that, during the banking crisis a decade ago, the British government had to invest over £1tn into UK banks. He said that Barclays managed to avoid going…
News 16 Feb, 2018
Michael Bowes QC is due to speak at an upcoming conference discussing the effects of Brexit on the fight against economic crimes. The fully-booked event, run by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, takes place on Wednesday, 31st January 2018, in London, UK. The organisers announce that the conference seeks to address a number of topical issues, “including the kind of challenges Brexit poses for the UK in terms of tackling economic crimes domestically and internationally; the kind of tools that the UK will have at its disposal after Brexit; how the UK’s legal framework will be impacted by Brexit; the EU’s stance on judicial cooperation in criminal matters with the UK after Brexit; whether Brexit will require…
Events 26 Jan, 2018
We are delighted to have been shortlisted in Legal Week’s British Legal Awards 2017 – Chambers of the Year category. The British Legal Awards hosted by Legal Week in association with The City of London Law Society, takes place at the end of the LegalWeek Connect, and is due to be attended by 1,000 lawyers. All 29 categories have been carefully chosen to reflect the ever-complex and challenging work of business lawyers at law firms, within legal departments and at the Bar. Key awards this year include The City of London Law Society Lifetime Achievement Award, Chambers of the Year, Law Firm of the Year, General Counsel of the Year, Editor’s Award: Law Firm Leader of the Year and the Legal…
News 20 Oct, 2017
Robert Rhodes QC, Outer Temple Chambers business crime specialist, questions the SFO’s decision to prosecute both Barclays Bank and various directors. He points out that Barclays did not have to turn to the taxpayer for the support that it received during the financial crisis. He asserts that “the events are too far in the past and the consequences too dire for small shareholders”, doubts whether the individual defendants can receive a fair trial if Barclays pleads guilty, and suggests that prosecuting Barclays directors so long after the event “is inhumane”. Robert emphasises that “(s)erious fraud must be prosecuted and punished if the evidence is available, and it is in the public interest to prosecute”, but queries whether there is any…
External Publications 20 Jul, 2017
On 8 May 2017 Mrs Justice Andrews DBE handed down judgment in SFO v ENRC [2017] EWHC 1017 (QB), which has significant implications for claims to legal professional privilege in the context of internal investigations. The case was listed as one of The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases of 2017. The judgment is available to read here. Saaman Pourghadiri was junior counsel for the Defendant company resisting a claim by the SFO that documents, including notes of interviews taken by lawyers, were not privileged. The judge found that the documents (save for one category) were subject to neither legal advice privilege nor litigation privilege. In respect of litigation privilege the court found that (i) anticipation of an SFO raid, and the…
News 10 May, 2017
A new French law for transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernisation of the economy (referred to as “Sapin II”), has been in force since 10 December 2016. Christophe Jolk takes a look at some of the provisions and their longer-term implications for corporations: 1. New centralised French anti-corruption agency The Sapin II law has created a new anti-corruption agency, which aims amongst other things, to: centralise and diffuse information relating to the fight against corruption issue recommendations to prevent and detect corruption control and monitor Hindering the agency in its work can incur a fine of up to 30,000 euros. 2. Legal status of whistleblowers clarified The law defines a whistleblower as someone who reports in good faith…
News 30 Jan, 2017
We were delighted to support Michael Bowes QC, our joint Head of Chambers, at the launch of the Global Investigations Review (GIR) – The Practitioner’s Guide to International Investigations. The launch event took place at Somerset House and was attended by a high number of key influencers within this rapidly growing sector. Michael Bowes QC and his fellow co-editors (Judith Seddon, Eleanor Davison, Christopher Morvillo and Luke Tolaini) have produced the essential desktop reference for navigating complex corporate investigations, Michael’s role as co-editor demonstrates firmly his place as a leading silk in this area. GIR has published The Practitioner’s Guide to International Investigations in response to the ever increasing likelihood that a company and its key people will become embroiled…
News 25 Jan, 2017
Panama Papers and Investigative Journalism at the heart of the agenda The 17th International Anti-Corruption Conference will take place from 1st – 4th December in Panama City. Leading experts from a wide variety of disciplines will discuss how to best take the fight against corruption forward under the theme Time for Justice: Equity, Security, Trust. The four-day event will be opened by the President of the Republic of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela Rodríguez. With more than 1,500 participants from all over the world, this edition of the conference will have a particular focus on the enablers of corruption and investigative journalism with in-depth discussions of the Panama Papers. Michael Bowes’ panel session is entitled “Integrity Pioneers and Community Solutions to…
News 28 Nov, 2016
Michael Bowes QC, David Russell QC, Teresa Rosen Peacocke and Christophe Jolk participated in the New York State Bar Association’s Season Meeting in Paris last week (October 19-21). Chambers has a close association with the Chair of the NYSBA International Section, Neil Quartaro (Wilson, Farley and Williams LLP), through David Russell QC. This prestigious event took place on the Ile de la Cité, next to the Palais de Justice. It was attended by a high calibre group of lawyers from many different jurisdictions. David and Christophe participated in a panel which discussed the Common Reporting Standard and Automatic Exchange of Information, with particular reference to the wealth industry. This is highly topical across the world at present and its importance is reflected in some…
News 25 Oct, 2016
The National Crime Agency estimates that billions of pounds of illicit wealth is laundered through the UK each year, that asset recovery levels are low and there are insufficient resources for law enforcement. In these circumstances, Transparency International has called for the introduction of Unexplained Wealth Orders to help the fight against corrupt money coming into the UK; the organisation held a breakfast briefing to address this on Tuesday, 27 September 2016, at Outer Temple Chambers. The briefing was provided by Eva Anderson, TI-UK Senior Legal Adviser, Robert Barrington, TI-UK Executive Director, James Maton, Partner at Cooley LLP, and Michael Bowes QC, Head of Outer Temple Chambers and Trustee of TI-UK. During the lively and informative session, the four panellists…
News 19 Oct, 2016
David Russell QC has recently co-written an article for Trusts & Trustees on the topic of the Panama Papers in which he analyses some of the implications that this data leak has for the role of confidentiality in today’s world. The article draws attention on the fact that ‘(c)orruption is a crime of the powerful’ and, consequently, it has to be treated as such. David suggests therefore, that ‘courts and legislators should be astute to ensure the availability of appropriate remedies’. When speaking about the regulatory remedies against corruption, David shows that it is not obvious what are their effects on corruption, apart from the one ‘on the availability of banking services through the so-called de-risking process’. In these circumstances,…
News 6 Jul, 2016
Oliver Powell, led by Senior Treasury Counsel, was instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service in confiscation proceedings that emanated from convictions in relation to the sale of fake bomb detectors. On 23 April 2013 Mr McCormick was convicted of three counts of fraud contrary to s.7(1) FA 2006 and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Owing to the fact that Mr McCormick had benefitted from his criminal conduct the Court directed that there be confiscation proceedings. At the hearing this week, HHJ Hone QC ordered that the benefit of Mr McCormick’s offending amounted to a sum in excess of £21 million and that Mr McCormick had realisable assets totalling nearly £8 million. The realisable assets included a number of properties, motor…
News 17 Jun, 2016
