Lawyers And The Proceeds Of Crime

The role played by legal professionals in the laundering of criminal proceeds generated by others has become a priority concern for authorities at national and international levels. This ground-breaking book presents an in-depth empirical analysis of the nature of lawyers’ involvement in the facilitation of money laundering and its control through criminal justice and regulatory mechanisms. It is based on qualitative research combining analysis of cases of lawyers convicted of money laundering offences with interviews with criminal justice practitioners, members of professional and regulatory bodies and practising solicitors, and analysis of relevant national and international legislative and regulatory frameworks. The book demonstrates the complex and diverse nature of lawyers’ involvement in laundering activity, and shows that their actions and the decisions they take must be understood in relation to the specific situational contexts in which they occur. It provides significant new insights into the criminal justice and regulatory response to professional facilitation of money laundering in the UK, raising questions about the effectiveness and appropriateness of the response and the challenges involved. The book develops a framework for future research and analysis in this area, and proposes a range of potential strategies for controlling the facilitation of money laundering. Lawyers and the Proceeds of Crime is essential reading for those researching money laundering, white-collar crime or organised crime, and for practitioners and policy makers concerned with preventing the facilitation of money laundering.

Money Laundering for Lawyers provides, in a conveniently sized volume, invaluable detailed information and practical guidance for lawyers - particularly matrimonial lawyers - faced, under the new legislation, with a responsibility for the reporting of suspected money laundering and the putting in place of the required procedures intended to forestall, deter or detect money laundering whilst continuing to provide a proper service for their clients.

For over forty years, criminal defence solicitor Henry Milner has been the go-to lawyer for some of Britain's most notorious and high-profile criminals – from Kenneth Noye and the Brink's-Mat robbers to gangster Freddie Foreman, John 'Goldfinger' Palmer and the gang who carried out the Millennium Dome raid. These and many others who reached serious misunderstandings with the law knew that once they were nicked, there was only one man to call: a genial cigar-smoking solicitor with an office tucked away in a leafy corner of central London, a man known to the Sunday Times as 'The Mr Big of Criminal Briefs'. In this remarkable memoir, Milner gives a real insight into the life of a top London criminal lawyer and into the mind of his clients, along the way introducing us to some of the most colourful characters ever to appear on either side of the dock. By turns shocking and hilarious, No Lawyers in Heaven gives a wry commentary on the frailty of human nature across the spectrum of the criminal justice system in a punchy narrative that could grace the pages of a bestselling crime novel.

. . . this work is an important contribution to the global discourse on pursuing property, money or resources linked to crime. Michelle Gallant, Journal of Business Law Informed and informative, Civil Forfeiture of Criminal Property is a seminal work of impressive scholarship and strongly recommended for professional, academic, and governmental judicial studies collections in general, and criminal justice reference collections in particular. Library Bookwatch, Midwest Book Review This book is interesting because there is a dearth of writing on the subject. It must be read for that reason. Sally Ramage, The Criminal Lawyer Once called the monster that ate jurisprudence , civil forfeiture is now an established weapon in the fight against organized crime, terrorism, drug trafficking and corruption. This fine collection of essays covering civil forfeiture regimes in ten diverse jurisdictions, written by leading practitioners, provides a comprehensive and detailed overview of the jurisprudential, legal, political and practical dimensions of the new generation of these powerful and controversial laws. I commend this book to criminal, civil, comparative and human rights lawyers who have an interest in how serious and profit-motivated crime, and responses to it, develop over time and in different legal cultures. Arie Freiberg, Monash University, Australia In this book, which is the first of its kind, leading experts examine the civil and criminal forfeiture systems in Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. In the fight against organized crime and international money laundering, there is a global trend for countries to enact forfeiture and confiscation laws that are applied through the civil process rather than the traditional criminal justice system. The authors gathered here analyze the appeal these civil forfeiture laws have for governments for their potential to disrupt criminal organizations and for their quantifiable benefits to the state. But without the usual safeguards of the criminal process, civil forfeiture laws are controversial, attracting constitutional challenges, particularly on human rights grounds. This book will be of great interest to policy-makers in government, and law enforcement agencies who are thinking of reforming their own laws, as well as to law reform agencies or select parliamentary committees where the issue of reform is topical. It will also appeal to students in criminal law, criminology and human rights.

This text provides a thoughtful survey of the most important ethical issues faced by criminal lawyers in Canada today. Each chapter provides a detailed discussion of a particular issue with both real and hypothetical examples, analyzes the case law involved, and suggests ways in which the issue may be handled.

People love to hate lawyers; they're perhaps the most distrusted among professionals. What's puzzling is that lawyers who commit crimes are often at the top of their profession--affluent, respected members of society who seem to have little reason for criminal behaviour. Philip Slayton spent 35 years as a lawyer. In Lawyers Gone Bad, he exposes the motivations and the stories of senior partners in influential Canadian firms who have illegally sustained expensive lifestyles, engaged in drug trafficking, been convicted of immigration fraud, laundered money, and been disbarred for having sex with clients. These are colourful, personal dramas that give insight into lawyers, legal practice, and how the law itself can fail or be twisted.

The pursuit of the financial proceeds of criminal activity has become a central theme of contemporary crime control. Initially conceived to tackle the global trade in illegal drugs, these methods have been more recently employed in the context of terrorism. This work offers a judicious account of the national and international strategies which seek to cope with crime by attacking its financial underpinnings. The book focuses on the increasingly civil legal orientation of these strategies - a sea change from criminal prosecutions to civil legal instruments. The author focuses on developments of the civil strategy in the US and the UK beginning with its historical origins. The work reveals the contradictions that animate the civil approach to criminal finance and discloses the failure of civil devices, as presently constituted, to comply with rights. It bridges the gap between two jurisdictions prominent in this area; the United States and the United Kingdom. This comparative element distinguishes the project from other work in the field that focuses on a single jurisdiction. Critical in its perspective, the work brings balance and reflection to an emergent area of national and international interest.