The Attorney General has today published in full the report of an Independent Review of the SFO’s handling of the Unaoil case led by Sir David Calvert-Smith. The Attorney General commissioned the Review following the critical judgement of the Court of Appeal in R v Akle & Ors. In three separate appeals the Court of […]
Gavin Irwin and Merry van Woodenberg contribute to the June edition of the Journal of International Banking and Financial Law. Gavin and Merry explore recent developments in the financial sanctions deployed against Russia with a particular focus on the expanded scope of those measures and the meaning of “connected with” Russia in the context of […]
Not guilty verdicts were recorded against Gavin’s client at Southwark Crown Court when the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence after considering an application to dismiss two charges of cheating the public revenue. The case focused on the proper deployment of an ‘option to tax’. The sale of property is ordinarily exempt from VAT but […]
The prosecution was brought against three former employees of Redcentric Plc. Following a three month trial at Southwark Crown Court, the former Chief Financial Officer, Tim Coleman, was found guilty of knowingly making false and misleading statements to the market and of false accounting. The former Finance Director, Estelle Croft, pleaded guilty to charges of […]
In December 2021 the Court of Appeal in R v Akle & Anor [2021] EWCA Crim 1879 quashed the conviction of Ziad Akle for conspiracy to bribe an Iraqi oil official. The Court of Appeal found that there had been disclosure failings in the case, in particular in relation to contact between SFO employees, including the Director […]
