Commercial Crime

Uniquely within the Bar’s ‘Magic Circle’, Fountain Court is a leader in corporate and individual commercial crime.

We specialise in the crossover between criminal, civil and regulatory liabilities and remedies / sanctions that are now such an important feature of business.

Complementing our strength in Banking and Finance, Financial Services and Civil Fraud, we act for organisations and individuals in domestic and cross-border financial crime investigations and prosecutions. Members act both for and against the SFO, HMRC, NCA, FRC and FCA in jury trials and freestanding and ancillary court proceedings.

Fountain Court has been instructed in almost every major recent corporate crime investigation in the UK. We are routinely instructed in FTSE100/250 corporate investigations and self-reports and have worked on the probes into Barclays (Qatar), ENRC and Serco; insider trading and market abuse probes such as Wirecard, Operations Tabernula and Saturn and the JP Morgan ‘London Whale’ matter; landmark civil proceedings such as ENRC v SFO, N v RBS and Sports Direct v FRC; and high profile judicial review challenges to search warrants relating to the Mueller Investigation in the USA, Unaoil and Newcastle United FC.

Our members understand the unique pressure of criminal investigations and the risk of collateral damage to reputation and commercial interests. We help clients devise the appropriate strategic response and crisis management tools and are often asked to advise corporate boards and disclosure committees.

The nature and subject matter of these cases means that much of our work is advisory. Many matters remain out of the public domain.

Our work includes cases relating to:

• Fraud
• Bribery
• Sanctions
• Money laundering
• Confiscation
• Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA)
• Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs)
• Market abuse including insider trading
• Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs)
• Mutual legal assistance
• Extradition
• Judicial review
• Freezing injunctions and search orders / warrants
• Production orders / notices
• Cyber crime
• Data protection
• Legal professional privilege
• Confidentiality
• Privacy
• Public interest immunity