In August 2023, then Home Secretary Suella Braverman wrote to all senior policing officials in England and Wales, commending them for their “agreement to a national commitment to follow all reasonable lines of enquiry [sic] for all crime types”. The letter, covering a wide range of topics, was clearly focussed on trying to encourage the […]
Late 2023 brought a welcome development in the fight against fraud, as the UK government concluded the Online Fraud Charter with various industry representatives. The Charter represents a practical step by which online giants can move towards countering the extremely high proportion of online fraud. To take on the current fraud epidemic, however, it will […]
Several spectacular recent debacles have left the crypto world reeling, including the collapse of the FTX exchange over a year ago or the current unfolding of Binance, not to mention the legal actions against the founder of the first and the co-founder of the second. In this article for The Times, Keith Oliver and Amalia […]
Anna Bradshaw and Alistair Jones publish in-depth analysis of the current state of play of the UK’s ownership and control test in leading industry publication WorldECR, the Journal of Export Controls and Sanctions (see issue #125). They assess the combined impact of the Court of Appeal’s comments in Mints on 6 October, the High Court’s […]
Have you ever clicked on a link in an email that appeared genuine only to find out you had just failed a phishing attempt test set out by your IT department? These tests may look like they are meant to embarrass the unwary, but they are really a crucial element of a wider cyber protection […]
Last month, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, together with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), issued joint guidance on their approach to the ‘ownership and control test’, which determines the scope of UK asset freeze sanctions. Guidance alone is, however, unlikely to address the problems caused by the UK’s ownership and control […]
Between 2022 to 2023, civil forfeiture and recovery powers under Part 5 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) contributed £160.1 million to the public purse. With criminal confiscation powers bringing in £179 million, the amount recouped using civil rather than criminal asset recovery powers equates to just under half of the total asset […]
Earlier this month, the UK government announced the creation of a new agency to crack down on companies dodging trade sanctions. The Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation (OTSI) will be responsible for the civil enforcement of trade sanctions, including those that have been imposed on Russia since the war in Ukraine started. The new unit […]
Peters & Peters acts for a prominent Russian businessman who has been pursued by the authorities of the Russian Federation in connection with flawed and politically motivated criminal charges in proceedings spanning several years and multiple jurisdictions. We made detailed submissions to the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files (CCF) for the deletion of […]
This week, our client – a senior professional within a regulated services firm and a man of good character – was exonerated as the prosecution finally offered no evidence against him for allegations of non-fatal strangulation, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault. The case centred on an incident where our client says he […]
