Attempts to abuse, manipulate or mislead the markets are some of the most serious financial crimes a director or individual can be charged with, and those found guilty can face many years behind bars.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has significantly increased the number of criminal investigations relating to market abuse and manipulation and is not afraid to use its powers to crackdown on those it suspects of wrongdoing including dawn raids and restraining assets at the start of an investigation.

How we can help

If you are facing allegations of market abuse or manipulation, our FCA investigations lawyers will help you at every stage of the investigation from compulsory requests for information and representing individuals interviewed under caution to advising on restraint and confiscation orders.

Investigations are complex and require excellent knowledge of how the FCA approaches regulatory enforcement. We robustly challenge enforcement proceedings, and our strategic approach has enabled us to achieve excellent results with criminal cases being dropped at investigation stage, and penalties for regulatory breaches minimised.

Our financial crime investigations lawyers have successfully represented directors and individuals in some of the most high-profile cases brought by the financial regulator.

Our work

• Acted for the former finance director in the high-profile iSOFT case. Directors were prosecuted on conspiracy to mislead the market. The case was described as the FSA’s ‘flagship prosecution’. All four directors were acquitted at the end of a second trial
• Acted for a US dollar money markets trader employed by a bank who was the subject of a joint investigation being conducted by the FSA and the US regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The investigation related to the widely publicised LIBOR rate rigging scandal and allegations that several banks and traders conspired to manipulate the LIBOR rate. We advised the client in respect of an internal investigation being conducted by the bank and in respect of a compelled interview conducted jointly by the FSA and the CFCT
• Represented an individual from the foreign exchange sales desk at an investment bank in relation to investigations being conducted by the bank, the FCA, SFO and US authorities concerning alleged manipulation of foreign exchange rates and ‘wire fraud’ in respect of allegations of misrepresentations to clients