Fraud Newsletter No. 72 October 2022

Company directors only owe a duty to creditors when they know, or ought to know, that the company is insolvent or bordering on insolvency: BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA and others [2022] UKSC 25

Reconsideration of the available amount in a confiscation order applies not only to new assets, but also an increase in value of an asset in the original order: Wood [2022] EWCA Crim. 1234.

Restraint orders do not prohibit the payment of legal expenses for a civil action (e.g. tort or equitable wrong) founded on the same alleged facts as the criminal matter: Luckhurst [2022] UKSC 23

No power to make a compensation order based on value of D’s occupational pension: Sharif [2022] 2 Cr.App.R. S 22.

Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (Commencement No. 4) Regulations 2022 bringing into force remainder of Part 1 of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 re registration of overseas entities.

• Putting a stop to the tax fraud game: All-Party Parliamentary Group and TaxWatch joint policy paper: 26 Oct 22 re serious HMRC enforcement gap in dealing with criminal behaviour through civil channels.

• Tackling Authorised Push Payment Fraud: Santander: 24 Oct 22. Summary

• Anti-money laundering supervision: high value dealers: HMRC Guidance: 21 Oct 22.

• OFAC (US: Office of Foreign Assets Control) & OFSI Enhanced Partnership announced: HM Treasury: 17 Oct 21.

• Fraud and the Justice System: HC Justice Committee: HC12: 18 Oct 22. [50 pp]: FT news summary: 18 Oct 22

• Half Year Fraud Report 2022: UK Finance 13 Oct 22. Summary and Comment – UK Finance calls for urgent action from all sectors as fraud continues to threaten UK

• Exporting Corruption 2022: Enforcement against Foreign Bribery hist historic low: Transp. Int: 11 Oct 22

• Basel AML Index 2022 – Global snapshot of Money laundering trends: 4 Oct 22: Map, State Rankings and 11th Annual Report.

•Barclays to be fined £50m re failure to disclose fees paid to certain Qatari investors re 2008 capital raisings: Decision notices
re Barclays Plc and Barclays Bank 23 Sep 22. FCA summary: 21 Oct 22

•Criminal proceedings begin against 5 individuals with Worthington Group: 20 Oct 22

•Gatehouse Bank fined £1.5m for poor AML checks between June 2014 and July 2017: 14 Oct 22.

•Sigma Broking fined £530k and ex-directors fined total £200k for reporting failures: 6 Oct 22

•SFO head apologises for role in Unaoil case fiasco to Commons Justice Select Committee: FT 19 Oct 22. Video of proceedings with Brian
Altman KC, Sir David Calvert Smith; Michelle Crotty, and Lisa Osofsky SFO.

•Nigeria loses compensation bid over Glencore Bribery: Reuters 27 Oct 22.

•11 Glencore employees implicated in bribery Probe: Mining.com 24 Oct 22.

•Bluu Solutions Bribery Trial Commences: Law 360 (Paywall) 25 Oct 22.

•8 held over R & D tax credit fraud: The Times: 31 Oct 22 (paywall). HMRC investigating £16m sham claims

•ENRC seeks up to $46m damages from Dechert and SFO: Reuters 20 Oct 22

•Abrdn suspends access to high value clients after finding AML failures in Luxembourg: over 20 high risk accounts found: (Abrdn =   merger of Aberdeen Asset Management and Standard Life): Sunday Times (paywall): 9 Oct 22

•British investors report £36m of Binance crypto frauds: Fin News: 5 Oct 22.

•Ex-F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone to stand trial over £400m fraud charge: trial set for 9 Oct 23: ESPN: 4 Oct 22.

•Credit Suisse

CS to cut 9k jobs and seek billions from Saudis in new investment to help recover from $3.5b loss & following series of scandals: Guardian: 27 Oct 22.

CS pays £208m to settle French probe re tax fraud and ML enquiries re “legacy” cross-border private-banking services: City A.M. 24 Oct 22.

US jury finds CS did not rig forex markets between 2007 & 2013: 15 other banks settled for $2.31B. Regulatory probes against several banks resulted in $10B fines: CNBC: 20 Oct 22

CS reaches $495m settlement in securities fraud lawsuit: New Jersey Globe: 17 Oct 22 re NJ A-G’s action fraudulent and deceptive practices re sale of mortgage-backed securities in lead up to US 2008 financial crisis.

•OLAF, EU Member States and neighbouring countries meet to fight fraud: European Anti-Fraud Office: 6 Oct 22.

•Cryptocurrency Investment scams: FBI and US agencies warn of “Pig Butchering” crypto scams: FBI: 3 Oct 22.

•Deutsche Bank raided for second time over multibillion tax fraud: F.T. 18 Oct 22