Dark Money: Going After the Proceeds & Those Involved in the “London Laundromat” & Further Afield

To comply with the Corporate Sustainability and Due Diligence Directive (EU) 2024/1760, companies across the EU are cleaning up their supply chains.  In England and Wales, profits made in breach of environmental and social laws, both here and abroad, are increasingly being treated as the proceeds of crime liable to forfeiture. Registers of beneficial ownership, combined with new Companies House powers to remove companies furthering frauds, aim to tackle what some call “Dark Money” in the “London Laundromat”. But with shell companies being used prolifically, after the money has long gone, uncovering frauds and holding corporate controllers personally liable for wrongdoing can be difficult, as witnessed in Alpha v Barclay-Watt [2022] EWCA Civ 1169.  With these developments in mind, there is no better time to re-visit the conversation about tackling the misuse of companies for money laundering and other frauds.

Come join us at this free-to-attend panel discussion event and hear from our panel of speakers in person or virtually.  There will be a drinks reception after the event.

To join by Zoom please register here

Our Panel

Jamas Hodivala KC, barrister at Matrix Chambers, is a specialist in business and regulatory crime cases, and he has particular expertise in cases involving money laundering including through environmental and supply chain crimes. He works for both prosecutors and defendants particularly large multinationals and his cases often involve an overlap with public law for example making challenges for corporate clients against regulators and prosecutors for misusing their investigatory powers. He will be discussing capturing corporate profits as the proceeds of crime.

Graham Barrow is the co-producer of the Dark Money Files, an innovative podcast about money laundering and wider financial crime issues. His work has recently focused on exposing the proliferation of sham companies being too easily incorporated by bad actors. He is an expert in regulatory technology and works for banks, MFIs and regulators across the world unravelling complex money laundering webs. He is regularly also called upon by journalists in both print and the broadcast media, to help identify and write about organised crime and corruption – specifically in their use of legal entities to launder the proceeds of crime. He will be discussing widespread misuse of incorporation and the recent regulatory response.

Franz Wild, editor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, is an award-winning journalist whose articles on corruption have been published all over the world. As well as being the subject of debate in the House of Commons, they have been followed up, in several jurisdictions, by criminal investigations and prosecutions being brought. And closer to home they have also led to a protracted SLAPP being issued against him and the Bureau by disgruntled power brokers in Kazakhstan’s regime (only recently dismissed at not insignificant cost). His reporting has covered money laundering in London, and tracked how the proceeds of crime come the east into the EU through Cyprus and other gateway states.  He will be discussing the “London Laundromat”.

Mike Wilkinson, barrister at 18 St John Street Chambers in Manchester, is a specialist in business and property law with particular expertise in civil fraud and economic tort cases, including claims made against company directors by victims of corporate wrongdoing. He has a PhD in corporate governance in the context of banking reform and has written a book on ‘The limits of separate legal personality: when those running a company can be held personally liable for losses caused to third parties outside of the company’. he will be discussing discussing director personal responsibility in criminal and civil law.
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