The Four Faces of Fraud Disputes – 12th March 2024

Four specialist panels, consisting of Outer Temple’s fraud team and an esteemed line up of external expert speakers discussed various topics concerning fraud at a breakfast seminar hosted at the Reform Club on Tuesday, 12th March 2024.

Outer Temple Chambers’ fraud team specialists John McKendrick KC, Oliver Powell, Alex Haines, Nicholas Hill, Helen Pugh, Justina Stewart, Sophie O’Sullivan and Lucian Ilie alongside Natalie Todd of Cooke Young & Keidan, Romilly Holland of McDermott Will & Emery, Dan Wyatt of RPC, Nathan Capone of Fieldfisher and Neill Blundell of White & Case spoke at the breakfast seminar discussing all things fraud.

The event kicked off with an opening speech from John McKendrick KC.

Across four specialist panels, the speakers discussed various fraud-related topics including:

• The expanding landscape of corporate liability in criminal fraud offences: key implications and insights;
• Strategic thinking in civil fraud litigation in 2024;
• International perspectives: from fraud in the context of International Financial Institutions (e.g., the World Bank) to tales from the Middle East; and
• Key issues when faced with fraud allegations in international arbitration.

Panel 1 – The expanding landscape of corporate liability in criminal fraud offences: key implications and insights

The first panel discussed the changing landscape of corporate criminal liability in the UK following the recent enactment of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, and section 196 in particular, which expanded the circumstances in which corporates can be attributed with criminal liability for economic crimes.

The panel, comprising of Oliver Powell and Sophie O’Sullivan of Outer Temple Chambers, and Neill Blundell, partner at White & Case, discussed what the legal changes were; what approach the UK authorities may take in investigating and prosecuting fraud offences going forward; and to what extent key cases in the last few years, such as SFO v Barclays (2018), might have been determined differently under the new laws.

Panel 2 – Strategic thinking in civil fraud litigation in 2024

The Civil Fraud panel discussed ‘Strategic thinking in civil fraud litigation in 2024’ through the lens of a case study. In a fast paced and engaging discussion Helen Pugh (Outer Temple), Natalie Todd (Cooke, Young & Keidan), Nathan Capone (Fieldfisher) and Nick Hill (Outer Temple) spoke about injunctive relief and disclosure orders, contempt, transactions at an undervalue, Quincecare, disclosure issues in crypto litigation, and privilege (with a focus on the ‘iniquity exception’).

Panel 3 – International perspectives: from fraud in the context of International Financial Institutions (e.g., the World Bank) to tales from the Middle East

Alex Haines and Justina Stewart of Outer Temple Chambers were the speakers in this panel session, chaired by Dan Wyatt of RPC.

Alex Haines addressed the Sanctions and Debarment Frameworks of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and – using the example of the World Bank Group – set out the two-tier adjudicative process available to Respondent companies following accusations by the Integrity Vice Presidency (INT). He set out the MDB and International Financial Institution landscape and the sources of law. The key takeaways include (1) the wide definition of fraud as per the Sanctions Procedures, (2) cross debarment and (3) the risk of criminal referrals.

Justina Stewart’s talk was titled ‘Tales from the UAE’. She considered the implications of the recent removal of the UAE from the FATF’s greylist, recent developments in the DIFC Courts concerning the granting of injunctive relief in support of foreign proceedings and interim relief more broadly, and the potential pitfalls for common law lawyers working in the UAE due to the application of the UAE criminal legislation. Finally, she touched on the potential relevance of the forthcoming decision of the DIFC Court of Appeal in Gate Mena DMCC & anr v Tabarak & anr to providers of custody and escrow services.

Panel 4 – Key issues when faced with fraud allegations in international arbitration

John McKendrick KC and Lucian Ilie of Outer Temple alongside with Romilly Holland of McDermott Will & Emery addressed the main challenges when dealing with fraud in International Arbitration.

Amongst other aspects, they addressed (i) the universally accepted definition of fraud, (ii) the standard, burden and methods of proof, (ii) whether a fraud argument is a question of Jurisdiction, Admissibility or Merits, (iii) the role of the arbitral tribunal and the local courts when dealing with fraud allegations, and (iv) the challenge and enforcement of arbitral awards in this context.

The event was a huge success thanks to our line up of expert speakers and those who attended.

Find out more

To find out more about our Fraud team, contact  Sam Carter on +44 (0)203 989 6669 or  George Bennett on +44 (0)207 427 0807.

Events 15 Mar, 2024