Mr Baldwin was sentenced in his absence after he absconded from justice during his trial for money laundering in July 2017. The sentence also includes punishment for separate contempts of court that he admitted in November 2015 for breaching a Restraint Order made in June 2011. The Restraint Order prevented Mr Baldwin from in any way disposing of, dealing with or diminishing the value of any of his assets within or outside of England & Wales.

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With 8 weeks to go until the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union on 31 October 2019, the Commission has today – in its 6th Brexit preparedness Communication – reiterated its call on all stakeholders in the EU27 to prepare for a ‘no-deal’ scenario. In light of the continued uncertainty in the United Kingdom regarding the ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement – as agreed with the UK government in November 2018 – and the overall domestic political situation, a ‘no-deal’ scenario on 1 November 2019, remains a possible, although undesirable, outcome.

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Sara Lawson QC, General Counsel of the Serious Fraud Office, speaking at the Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime 2019. She startes here speech as follows: “I am delighted to be here, for the first time, speaking on behalf of the Serious Fraud Office. You have heard from our Director about what we have been doing; building on the work of Sir David and his team who, amongst other things, pioneered the use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements and, importantly, made the case for the survival of the SFO so eloquently, not only in words but in deeds. That is to say, by taking on the formidable cases which could only be pursued with the tools and the structure of the SFO.”

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In 1787, during the debates on adopting the US Constitution, James Madison stated that “[t]he circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money”. It’s telling that Madison chose to use public trust in money as the yardstick for trust in public institutions – money and trust are as inextricably intertwined as money and the state. Money is an “indispensable social convention” that can only work if the public trusts in its stability and acceptability and, no less importantly, if the public has confidence in the resolve of its issuing authorities to stand behind it, in bad times as well as in good.

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The European Court of Auditors (ECA) and the European Central Bank (ECB) have agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that establishes practical information-sharing arrangements between the two institutions. These arrangements will allow the ECA to seek and obtain all the documents and information that it needs to audit ECB Banking Supervision. Highly confidential documentation will be fully protected, and access to sensitive bank-specific information will be granted in a controlled environment on-site at the ECB.

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UK nationals living in the EU, who may struggle to complete the necessary residency applications, will be helped by measures. The Government is providing up to £3 million in grant funding for charities and other voluntary organisations who will inform UK nationals about the need to register or apply for residency and support them as they complete their applications.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a Pennsylvania investment adviser with operating an investment advisory fraud involving over $100 million in investments. The SEC also obtained an emergency asset freeze. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Brenda Smith, and her fund Broad Reach Capital, LP, raised approximately $105 million from approximately 40 investors by representing that she would invest their money in publicly traded securities through various trading strategies that she championed as providing consistent high returns.

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Claims management companies (CMCs) must do more to ensure their promotions do not mislead potential customers according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Since the FCA took over regulation of CMCs on 1 April 2019 it has reviewed over 200 CMC adverts in various media and found widespread poor-practice in CMCs.
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The European Commissioner for Digital Economy Mariya Gabriel announces an ambitious target to increase EU competitiveness in AI and try to catch up with the China and US in terms of investment. She proposed an investment objective of € 20 billion annually for the period 2021-2027, using the new EU funding programmes Horizon Europe and Digital Europe.
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