Our Financial Crime Team provides a broad suite of financial crime legal services to both businesses and private individuals.

Andy Harris Law Firm’s specialist financial crime team is renowned for their expertise, having assisted companies with large compliance projects and successfully represented clients in some of the most significant investigations and prosecutions ever brought in the United Kingdom.

• Corporate Crime & Investigations
• Tax Litigation & Investigations
• Private Prosecutions

Andy Harris Law Firm’s Financial Crime team has acted for individuals in some of the highest-profile financial crime cases and has in-depth knowledge of defending and advising individuals facing investigations and prosecutions by the following agencies.

• Architects Registration Board (ARB)
• Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)
• Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
• Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS)
• Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
• Environment Agency (EA)
• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• National Health Service (NHS)
• Royal Mail Serious Fraud Office (SFO)
• Trading Standards Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI)
• and other relevant UK Governmental bodies

We recognise that criminal investigations and proceedings can be highly stressful, particularly given the stakes are high as your liberty and reputation are at risk.

The members of Andy Harris Law Firm’s Financial Crime team have extensive experience of attending interviews under caution at police stations and the offices of other investigating agencies. In addition to interviews conducted under caution we also represent clients who are required to attend and be interviewed pursuant to the exercise of compulsory powers. These include powers of the SFO under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1987 and of the FCA under sections 171 and 172 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 whereby individuals and companies may be compelled to answer questions, provide information, or produce documents to assist in the investigation of fraud or regulatory breaches.

Our strategic approach, keen eye for detail and meticulous case preparation from the outset ensures that you have the best outcome possible with many of our clients being refused charge, avoiding prosecution by way of civil settlement; having prosecutions terminated through abuse of process arguments, applications to dismiss or being acquitted following trial.

We have access to the most experienced barristers in the UK, a network of law firms in the UK and other jurisdictions and other experts such as forensic accountants and tax advisers with whom we work closely depending on the nature of your case.

Our Financial Crime team is regularly instructed in relation to the following types of cases:

• Account Freezing Orders
• Boiler room fraud
• Bribery and corruption
• Courier Fraud
• Cryptocurrency
• Cyber crime
• Directors disqualification
• Environmental crime
• Extradition
• Insider dealing
• Insurance fraud
• Interpol notices
• Investment fraud
• Market abuse
• Money laundering
• Mortgage fraud
• Pension fraud
• Ponzi fraud
• Romance Fraud
• Search and seizure (dawn raids)
• Tax and duty evasion (including Missing Trader Intra Community (MTIC) fraud)
• VAT fraud
• Vishing & Phishing Fraud
• Unexplained Wealth Orders
• UK sanctions issues
• Members of our team have expertise in advising and representing clients in non-financial related criminal offences. We also advise clients in relation to confiscation, civil recovery, production orders, restraint orders and cash seizures.

Our team also advises both individuals and companies on a range of UK sanctions issues including compliance with the sanctions regime, ensuring that any transactions do not result economic resources being transferred to a designated /sanctioned person or entity, the identification of a designated person and their ownership of a corporate entity, and general asset freezes under various sanctions legislation.

• Represented senior figures of an international pharmaceutical company interviewed under section 2 by the SFO.
• Represented senior figures for an international oil company interviewed under section 2 by the SFO.
• Operation Ipswich: FCA investigation into a multi-million pound, multi-jurisdictional investment scheme resulting in no further action being taken against our client.
• Represented banking professionals alleged to have manipulated the LIBOR. Following responses to the FCA’s Preliminary Investigation Report and section 2 interviews with the SFO our clients were refused criminal charges.
• Operation Tidworth: Southwark Crown Court, multi-million-pound international boiler room fraud prosecuted by the FCA which was recognised as one of the biggest FCA prosecutions in history.
• Operation Wintergreen: Southwark Crown Court, multi-million-pound carbon credit fraud, investigation by the City of London Police.
• Operation Foremark: High value insurance and mortgage fraud in which we represented an Orthopaedic Surgeon as featured on Channel 4s “24 Hours in Police Custody”.
• Operation Greenking: Wood Green Crown Court, £44 million payroll service fraud prosecuted by HMRC, Essex Police and Kent Police.
• Operation Heteredon – National Crime Agency investigation into a multi-million-pound, cross jurisdiction money laundering operation, resulting in no further action against all suspects.
• Operation Spallation: Central Criminal Court, a multi handed HMRC corruption case involving allegations of misconduct in public office.
• Operation Tulipbox: Southwark Crown Court, £38 million European Union Allowances (carbon credits) MTIC fraud, the first ever to be prosecuted in the UK.
• Operation Carp: Southwark Crown Court, £11 million carbon credit MTIC fraud.
• Operation Vex: Kingston Crown Court, £85 million mobile phone MTIC fraud.
• R v Ahmed and Umerji: Court of Appeal (Criminal Division), client alleged to have been responsible for leading MTIC VAT fraud which caused losses exceeding £56 million to the revenue resulting in convictions that were quashed on appeal.
• R v Akram & Others: Ipswich Crown Court, £1.9 million duty evasion on cigarettes. CPS offered no evidence two weeks prior to trial following abuse of process arguments.
• Private Prosecution: Southwark Crown Court, complex trade mark infringement and fraud case brought by an international company. Our client was acquitted following a jury trial.
• Cash seizure proceedings: secured the release of over £250,000 cash seized by Thames Valley Police to our client.
• Cash seizure proceedings: secured the release of over £220,000 cash seized by the Serious Organised Crime Command to our client.