Bark & Co Solicitors London

News

2

UBS ‘rogue’ trader Kweku Adoboli to be bailed

A City trader accused of a £1.4bn ($2.2bn) fraud at the London offices of Swiss banking giant UBS is to be freed from Wandsworth Prison on bail.Kweku Adoboli, 32, will be released on Monday with an electronic tag ahead of his trial in September, a bail hearing at Southwark Crown Court heard.

He was “delighted” by the decision, his lawyer Giles Bark-Jones said.

The trader, who was arrested in September last year, denies two charges of false accounting and two of fraud.

Mr Bark-Jones told the BBC and Bark & Co Solicitors: “Our client is both emotional and delighted at the outcome of today’s bail hearing. He looks forward to working on his case at our London offices.”

Mr Adoboli, of Clark Street, east London, is accused of unauthorised trading while working for UBS’s global synthetic equities division, where he bought and sold exchange traded funds.

3

Mr Kweku Adoboli Granted Bail, Bark & Co Solicitors London news.

Mr Kweku Adoboli was today granted bail after a successful bail application at Southwark Crown Court. Mr Tim Harris, Solicitor on this matter said his client was “delighted, very emotional and would like to thank all his family and friends for their support”. Mr Adoboli is due to be released from Wandsworth prison on Monday pending the bail terms being satisfied.

Mr Bark-Jones, partner at Bark & Co Solicitors said “Our client is both emotional and delighted at the outcome of today’s bail hearing. He looks forward to working on his case at our London offices.”

4

Abbey Forwarding v Richard Hone and Others, Bark & Co Solicitors reports.

In a two week trial in the High Court, Bark & Co successfully defended the former directors of Abbey Forwarding Limited in the High Court in an action brought by the liquidator of the company against them for breach of fiduciary duty.

Abbey Forwarding Limited was a reputable and established bonded warehouse which operated from premises in east London from 1971 until the beginning of 2009. In February of 2009 Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (“HMRC”) raised assessments against the company for approximately £6 million and at an ex parte hearing successfully applied to have the company placed into provisional liquidation on the basis that the company had actively participated in diversion fraud.

5

The HMRC appointed liquidator immediately brought proceedings against the directors for breach of fiduciary duty alleging fraud against 3 of the directors. The basis for the claim and provisional liquidation by HMRC was that the directors fraudulently, or in the alternative negligently, allowed loads of duty suspended alcohol to be illegally diverted and sold onto the UK market.

6

The claim was dismissed in its entirety. In his judgement Mr Justice Lewison determined that not only was there insufficient evidence of any fraudulent behaviour on the part of the directors, but that the loads of alcohol had in fact reached their destinations and there was insufficient evidence to show any fraudulent diversion at all. The directors were fully exonerated and the liquidator was ordered to pay damages to the directors as well as their costs.

7

Bark & Co Solicitors London News: HMRC Crackdown on Offshore Accounts

It has recently come to our attention that two Britons have been arrested on suspicion of using Swiss Bank accounts held with HSBC to evade UK taxes. This could lead to the first criminal prosecutions in a three year clampdown on offshore tax evasion by HMRC.

8

According to our source, HMRC made the arrests late last year and both individuals have been released on bail pending charges. These arrests are thought to have resulted from the review of the information stolen from HSBC’s private bank in Zurich by Herve Falciani, a French software engineer, which contained account information pertaining to 6,600 accounts held by UK residents.

9

This significant development once again underlines HMRC’s desire to stamp out tax evasion linked to funds retained in offshore accounts and signals a hardening of HMRC’s attitude. News of these arrests may counter the concerted criticism of HMRC’s crackdown on tax evasion. Some commentators have accused the taxman of shying away from mounting criminal prosecutions and the deterrent message that they convey to the tax-paying population. We will of course keep you updated on this development.

10