Posts by Jess Smith

On the 21 February 2024, in a hearing widely reported in the legal press, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal ordered that solicitor Matthew Nester should be struck off the roll for recording administrative (non-billable) time against client files when no such work had been carried out. The matter had been reported to the SRA by his…

Recent media reports have revealed that Entain, the UK corporate which owns well-known betting chains Ladbrokes and Corals, will pay £585 million as part of an agreement with HM Revenue & Customs to settle criminal allegations of bribery in relation to a Turkish betting subsidiary. The penalty comes as part of a Deferred Prosecution Agreement…

The illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 prompted a swift and powerful response from governments around the world. Without wishing to engage in direct military conflict with Russia, many opted to attempt to impact the funding of the military operation via a varied and frequently co-ordinated set of sanctions. Although a range of sanctions…

Last Thursday (15 June) the government announced that new provisions are to be added to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, already at the Report Stage in the House of Lords, to extend the “identification doctrine” to senior managers of “legal persons” (such as corporations and partnerships) in respect of economic offences. Established in…

One could reasonably argue that 21st century cultural history is reflected as much by financial crime legislation as it is by pop music or cinema. In much the same way as John Lennon supplied the soundtrack to the end of the Vietnam war, with a million people marching on Washington singing “Give Peace A Chance”,…