Maria Cronin

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Maria has extensive expertise in advising corporate and individual clients on business crime related matters, with a firmly established expertise in international corruption and money laundering. The majority of her cases are international and involve working with teams of professional advisors in multiple jurisdictions.

Maria has advised on numerous high-profile cases, including acting for a multinational company in a global corruption investigation, acting for prominent individuals in respect of allegations of corruption both here and overseas, and acting for a former minister in connection with allegations of money laundering. Maria also advises corporates and individuals subject to investigations by international development banks. She specialises in cases involving cash seizures, asset restraint, frozen accounts, forfeiture and confiscation; often as part of a corruption or money laundering investigation. Her recent successes include securing the discharge of a US$23m restraint order, where it was held that there had been material non-disclosure by the prosecuting agency, as well as the release of a US$100 million dollar freezing order, in circumstances where the underlying allegations of a foreign state were without merit, politically motivated and the result of unfair proceedings.

She has extensive experience of advising on, and carrying out, complex and often sensitive internal investigations both here and overseas. Maria recently carried out an internal investigation on behalf of a foreign bank with a UK subsidiary in London, into allegations of misconduct by one of its senior management. She also advised on, and conducted, an internal investigation for an international company, in respect of allegations made against its subsidiary in China. Both as part of an internal investigation and also separately, she is asked to advise companies on their compliance with the Bribery Act 2010 and the Money Laundering Regulations. 

Maria is regularly asked to advise clients on a range of business critical issues, including on sanctions, complex fraud and cybercrime. She recently brought a successful judicial review, ending a private prosecution against her clients for fraud, where this had been commenced following an acrimonious dispute between joint venture partners. In addition, Maria has successfully acted for a number of prominent individuals who were the subject of red notices on INTERPOL.

In 2014, she was appointed President of the Criminal Commission of the UIA (Union International des Avocats). Created in 1927, UIA brings together over 2,000 individual members and 200 bar, federation and association members, from more than 110 countries. Maria is also a member of the Fraud Advisory Panel, the Fraud Lawyers Association and the Franco-British Lawyers Society. Maria speaks and writes regularly on bribery and corruption, money laundering and a whole range of financial crime related matters, both in the UK and overseas.

Prior to joining Peters & Peters, she worked at the European Commission in Brussels on Consumer Protection. A native French speaker, who also reads Russian and German, many of Maria’s cases involve an European or International dimension.