The recent case of Davies v Davies has been widely reported in the press as “the end of multi-million payouts for wives”. It isn’t the end. Separating wives and their lawyers can sleep at night. More importantly, the case shows just how hard the courts are finding it to establish new law on inherited wealth, or pre-marital business assets which one party brought into the marriage. Mr and Mrs Davies [...]
The UK Bribery Act (the “Act”), which has been in force since 1 July 2011, covers bribery in both the private and public sectors. However, unlike many anti-bribery laws in the CEE region, it does not establish any de minimis thresholds. For the purposes of the Act, a bribe is defined as providing someone a financial or other advantage to encourage that person to perform their functions or activities improperly [...]
Perry and Others v Serious Organised Crime Agency [2012] UKSC 35 Summary The Supreme Court ruled that there is no jurisdiction under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (“POCA”) to grant a civil recovery and subsequent freezing order over property outside of the UK. Further, it held that the Serious Organised Crime Agency (“SOCA”) does not have authority to serve notices requesting information under POCA disclosure orders on individuals outside [...]
In the recent decision of the High Court (Warren J) in the case of Revenue and Customs Comrs v Sunico A/S and ors [2012] All ER (D) 172, which involved a claim brought by HMRC alleging conspiracy to deprive HMRC of VAT through missing trader fraud, the Court ruled that the defendants were entitled to summary judgment and struck out HMRC’s claim. The facts HMRC alleged a conspiracy by a [...]