Restraint Orders: Is Complexity of Financial Structures an Indicator of Dishonesty? – Doughty Street Chambers
‘Solicitors dealing with complex fraud, money-laundering and corruption cases are very well used to having clients who are particularly vexed about their assets being restrained by a law-enforcement agency at a without notice hearing, the application perhaps being made without a charging decision even being in sight. This article focuses on the reliance, arguably the over-reliance by investigators and prosecutors, of complex financial arrangements uncovered by the financial investigators which are then labelled as, e.g. a ‘complex web’, ‘designed to obfuscate’ or to keep the world in the dark about true beneficial ownership etc. In a challenge to the Restraint Order are these complex arrangements a difficult hurdle to clear for defenders?’
Doughty Street Chambers, 22nd April 2024
Source: insights.doughtystreet.co.uk
