The recent judgement of the Royal Court of Jersey in Nolan and others v Minerva Trust Company and others [2014] JRC078A is a wake-up call to offshore fiduciaries and corporate service providers: slavish loyalty to client requests can be a very costly mistake, if your client turns out to be a fraudster and the Court […]

The Sentencing Council’s new Sentencing Guidelines for how people convicted of fraud, money laundering and bribery offences should be sentenced came into force in October 2014.  The new guidelines apply to all offenders and organisations who are sentenced, regardless of the date of the offence. In respect of corporate offenders, all three offences, namely, fraud, […]

The Jersey Financial Services Commission (the “Commission”) issued a public statement pursuant to Article 25(a) of the Financial Services Law with respect to directions issued to Mr. Garraway under Article 23 of the Financial Services Law. http://bit.ly/1x9h7y4 The possible reason for this public statement is reported in the AG-V-Garraway and Hamon case: http://bit.ly/1rqrokX    

Afghanistan’s new leader is resuming the investigation into a banking fraud said to be one of the world’s largest. Ashraf Ghani said reopening the Kabul Bank inquiry was the first step in a fight against corruption. The bank collapsed in 2010 after losing almost $1bn (£600m), mostly deposited by international donors. Many of the bank’s […]

The Sentencing Council’s Guideline for sentencing individuals and corporate offenders convicted of fraud, bribery and money laundering offences comes into effect on 1 October 2014 as part of a package to support the introduction of Deferred Prosecution Agreements (“DPAs”). DPAs are an alternative to criminal prosecution, and are intended to address the commission of “economic […]

Joshua Vandyk, an investment advisor, was sentenced today to serve 30 months in prison for conspiring to launder monetary instruments, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Vandyk, a U.S. citizen, and Eric St-Cyr and Patrick Poulin, Canadian citizens, were indicted by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern […]

There seems an increased use of undercover agents by the IRS and other tax authorities in offshore jurisdictions. US v. Robert Bandfield, et al. The indictment in September 2014 of a Belize corporate service provider (CSP) and investment management company in the US is evidence of this trend. In the case US v. Robert Bandfield, […]

Former JJB boss in court accused of £1m fraud A former chief executive of JJB Sports allegedly orchestrated a massive fraud when he was £11m in debt to an Icelandic bank, a court heard yesterday. Chris Ronnie, 52, failed to declare three secret deals between December 2007 and April 2008 while at the helm of […]