White Collar Crime and Regulatory Disputes

At Seladore, we have lawyers with many decades of experience of dealing with complex, commercial disputes, often with an international flavour. One of our areas of specialism is civil fraud: dealing with the recoveries of assets and/or damages arising from bribery, corruption and other forms of misappropriation of assets and the secret diversion of corporate opportunities.  Cases of this sort often overlap with criminal and regulatory issues.

We set out below some examples of the work we do in the white collar crime and regulatory disputes area:

• Sanctions issues – We advise law firms, accountancy, insolvency, trusts services and other professionals, and their underlying clients in relation to sanctions issues, with a particular focus on Russia related designations and sanctions laws as they affect individuals’ or companies’ assets – for example including where designated UK companies’ Russian located assets are relevant to a civil dispute.
• Overlap of criminal and civil proceedings – Our white collar crime capability enables us better to manage the overlap and interplay and navigate the potentially competing civil and criminal processes and deal with the relevant criminal investigatory and prosecution authorities. Genuine experience in how those processes interact (and the potential tensions which can arise) will often be critical when looking:
  • To assist victims of fraud and misappropriation in arriving at the best overall outcome;
  • To secure the best evidence including, where possible, with the co-operation of various (overseas’) authorities;
  • Ultimately to recover assets/losses through civil and/or criminal proceedings; and
  • To support any criminal proceedings which are initiated.

• Involvement of foreign state/governments – At times, we represent clients who are subject to criminal allegations levelled against them by overseas governments as a means of attempting to coerce them into relinquishing their assets.
  • We are regularly approached by overseas’ prosecutors trying to identify evidence in the UK for use in criminal prosecutions abroad against allegedly corrupt government officials.
  • We represent and advise foreign governments, heads of state and state-owned companies in relation to court/tribunal claims to recover allegedly misappropriated assets or about other forms of alleged corruption.
• Market manipulation and abuse issues – We represent and advise shareholders who suspect they have been the victim of market manipulation or who have dealt in publicly traded shares or bond instruments where the issuer company may have engaged in market abuse.
  • We advise shareholders and other stakeholders in relation to potential FCA investigations or other financial market issues over which the FCA has jurisdiction.
• Bribery and corruption – We assist overseas’ companies in understanding the UK Bribery Act and other legislation and in developing appropriate compliance functions and better to facilitate their business dealings with UK corporates who are sensitive to third parties’ ability to expose them to liability for “failure to prevent” offences.