Fraud Newsletter 6 - April 2017

August 23, 2018

CASES

Ivey v Genting Casinos UK Ltd (t/a Crockfords) [2016] EWCA Civ 1093, [2017] 1 Cr.App.R.16 (“edge-sorting” case reported in last month’s newsletter), has been granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Malins v SRA [2017] EWHC 835 (Admin), [2017] 4 W.L.R. 85, want of integrity and dishonesty are the same thing and must be proved to the same standard, disapproving SRA v Wingate and another [2016] EWHC 3455 (Admin), [2018] PNLR 22 which sought to distinguish those terms.

National Crime Agency v N [2017] EWCA Civ 253, mandatory injunction should not have been granted. The injunction had ordered a bank to make payments out of frozen accounts suspected of investment fraud and reported to NCA, the judge stating that in doing so the Bank “will not commit any criminal offence” under POCA or otherwise.

SENTENCING AND CONFISCATION

Conspiracy to defraud: Consecutive sentences are appropriate where the appellant’s role and the collateral victims are different: Hussain (Anzar) [2017] EWCA Crim 304 (Westlaw).

BILLS, STATUTES & STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS

Election: As a result on the snap election some bills, including the Prisons and Courts Bill, will be abandoned for lack of time. However, the Criminal Finances Bill is likely to scrape through.

Criminal Finances Bill which will amend POCA and create corporate offences of assisting the commission by another of tax evasion received the royal assent, 27 Apr 2017. Its principal provisions include:

Unexplained wealth orders (UWOs).
2 new corporate offences of failing to prevent employees from facilitating tax evaison here or abroad.
Empowering seizure of proceeds of crime/terrorist monies and personal property.
Legal protection for sharing of information between regulated companies.
Extension of moratorium to investigate suspicious transactions.
Extension of money laundering/terrorist disclosure orders.
Extension of POCA recovery to include human rights abuses overseas.

Draft Money Laundering Regulations 2017 published to implement 4MLD (Directive 2015/849 on use of financial system for money laundering and financing terrorism), currently proposed to come into force on 26 June 2017.

CONSULTATIONS, GUIDANCE, CIRCULARS AND REPORTS

Corporate Beneficial Ownership Register: evidence for the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) consultation on introducing a beneficial ownership register for overseas companies owning UK property or involved in UK government procurement ends on 15 May 2017.

Corporate Economic Crime: Bribery And Corruption: House of Commons Briefing Paper No. 7359: 22 Mar 17.

NEWS

Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2017 published by DCMS (Dept for Culture, Media & Sports) 19 April 2017.

DPAs: 2 April 17 David Green spoke to the Observer about Barclays, corporate co-operation and the use of DPAs. 10 Apr 17 SFO agree DPA agreed with Tesco.

FCA Business Plan 2017-2018 published 18 Apr 2017.

LME fines Glencore £1.1m for falsifying documents about zinc movements from New Orleans, 31 Mar 2017.

Companies House: anti-money laundering provisions strengthened: as from 26 June 2017 every change in people with significant control (PSC) of a company must be registered within 14 days of a change and Companies House informed within 14 days thereafter. Some present exemptions will no longer apply.

Personality Profile of Fraudulent Employees: article by Lee Adendorf, Fraud Intelligence 2017, Apr/May, 9-11.

Whistleblowers: separate and parallel investigations by the FCA and the PRA into Barclays are a test case for the whistleblowing provisions (Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998) introduced in response to the recommendations of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, and for whether the newly introduced Senior Managers’ and Certification Regimes are capable of providing meaningful scrutiny and accountability. Treasury Committee Chairman, 11 Apr 17.

Sanctions: as of 1 April 2017 all new UN financial sanctions have immediate effect in the UK following United Nations and European Union Financial Sanctions (Linking) Regulations 2017 (SI 2017/478).