Tim Harris Appeared on a Panel at the Open Text White Collar Crime and Investigations Forum

On 26 April 2023, Tim Harris, appeared on a panel at the Open Text White Collar Crime and Investigations Forum. The panel discussed the changes made by the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (the “ECA”) and the proposed measures in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill including the introduction of a corporate failure to prevent fraud offence and reforms to UK Companies House. The panel was chaired by Neill Blundell (Macfarlanes), with Jonathan Ashley-Norman KC (3 Raymond Buildings) and Sarnjit Lal (Armstrong Teasdale) speaking alongside Tim.

Tim spoke about the changes that had been made to strengthen the Unexplained Wealth Order and financial sanctions regimes by way of the ECA and the likelihood of these reforms leading to more UK enforcement activity concerning: a) the recovery of assets frozen in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine; and b) breaches of financial sanctions obligations.