FSA Prosecution of Senior City Figure

We successfully represented a well respected City figure, in relation to a criminal prosecution for breach of the requirement to secure the FSA’s prior approval for changes in control of a regulated entity (See links below).  Notwithstanding the apparent policy of the FSA regularly to grant retrospective approval for such changes, the FSA chose to commence a criminal investigation and ultimately asked the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court to issue summonses against our client and a number of corporate entities of which he was a director.  Having been unsuccessful in our attempt to persuade the FSA to discontinue the prosecution on the basis of their own enforcement guidance and the Code for Crown Prosecutors we invoked the Court’s inherent jurisdiction to control its own process by listing an application to stay the proceedings as an abuse of process.  The FSA discontinued the case against our client on the morning of the hearing.  Peters & Peters used established criminal law principles in an innovative manner to protect our client from an unprecedented form of regulatory risk – where a regulator decides to change its behaviour and effectively its application of the law without warning.

Special Counsel Monty Raphael and Partner Neil Swift acted.