Met Police review Daniel Morgan murder over News of the World link It is reported that the Met Police will now investigate a News of The World link concerning the Daniel Morgan Murder (R v Vian & Others). Details reported [here] in the Guardian Mr Glen Vian, represented by Bark & Co, was acquitted in March 2011. Read more (Last updated: 01.03.2012) Kweku Adoboli pleads not guilty at Southwark Crown Court Mr Adoboli has today entered a plea of not guilty at Southwark Crown Court.

1. - Bark & Co Solicitors

2. Met Police review Daniel Morgan murder over News
of the World link
It is reported that the Met Police will now
investigate a News of The World link concerning
the Daniel Morgan Murder (R v Vian & Others).
Mr Glen Vian, represented by Bark & Co, was
acquitted in March 2011.
Kweku Adoboli pleads not guilty at Southwark
Crown Court
Mr Adoboli has today entered a plea of not guilty
at Southwark Crown Court.

3.  Sky News Coverage  The Daily Record
 The Times (s)  Government On-Line
 The Guardian  Yahoo
 Business week  efinancial news
 Irish Times
 Wall Street Journal
 Economic Times
 Bloomberg
 Euro News
 Reuters  USA Today
 The Washington Post  ABC News
 BBC  Canadian Business
 New York Times  Google
 The Mirror  Deal World
 CFO World

4. As has been reported widely in the press,
Bark & Co can confirm we act for Mr Kweku
Adoboli.
The firm do not intend to comment in detail
on the case at this stage. Media
organisations, journalists and bloggers are
cautioned to carefully bear in mind their
reporting of this matter pursuant to their
responsibilities under the Contempt of
Court Act.

5. "Should corporate justice be served or
procured?“
Bark & Co fraud lawyer Tim Harris discusses
in Criminal Law & Justice weekly if the use
of US style deferred prosecution
agreements could be useful in the UK.

6. Bark & Co Solicitors have successfully secured the acquittal of
Kevan Thakrar. Our client is a serving prisoner having
previously been convicted of triple murder in 2009.
Kevan Thakrar was charged with 2 counts of attempt murder
and 3 counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. All
allegations related to attacks on prison officers in HMP
Frankland, Durham.
Giving evidence, Kevan Thakrar informed the jury that he
suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following an attack
on him by officers within the prison system. His defence
centred around the bullying and racism that he has sustained
whilst in the prison system and that his actions were in self
defence.

7. The Solicitor instructed, Marie Bourke, along
with a dedicated defence team from Bark & Co,
sought and succeeded in obtaining information
which severely undermined the prosecution
case and highlighted the torturous regime
which is alive within the prison system. Great
lengths were taken to secure evidence from
legal professionals, professionals within the
medical field, as well as serving prisoners.

8. The Crown Prosecution Service formally offered no
evidence against our client leading to His Honour
Judge Hone QC directing a Not Guilty verdict.
Our client was charged with Conspiracy to Murder an
allegation which, for the past 5 years, he has always
vehemently denied. He was represented by solicitor
Marie Bourke, of this firm.
The case rested on one supergrass witness and
following legal arguments, the Judge ruled that the
evidence of this witness should be excluded from the
case, he stated that “By the time the summing up of
Gary Eaton's evidence of unreliability, fabrication
and fantasy had concluded, it would be impossible to
find a sufficient bedrock of truth upon which a
properly directed jury could convict any of these
defendants”.

9. In a ground breaking decision, the Commissioners
for Her Majesty‟s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
have withdrawn their resistance to the 9 Appeals
filed on behalf of Abbey Forwarding Limited by
the three ex directors and have been ordered to
pay costs.
This decision to withdraw was made following an
Abuse of Process Application made by Bark & Co
Solicitors. The Appeals related to excise duty
and VAT assessments raised by HMRC totalling
over £7 million.

10. Bark & Co have been instructed by a director
of a company being investigated for fraud by
abuse of position, conspiracy to defraud and
money laundering. The fraud is alleged to
have occurred in the provision of IT services
to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP. It is
alleged that payments were made for
fictitious work done and that the conspiracy
involved employees of the firm.
Our client denies the allegations and that he
has acted dishonestly.

11. We are recently instructed in
the defence of an investigation
into an alleged conspiracy to
defraud a large well-known
international Internet marketing
company.

12. Bark & Co are representing a solicitor
arrested in connection with an offshore
share marketing scheme. It is alleged that
our client conspired with the directors of a
Spanish company to defraud individuals
and that our client then used its firm's
client account to accept investor's money
and distribute it accordingly.

13. The 2010 Bribery Act comes into force today. It
remains to be seen how this legislation will be
applied in practice by the various enforcement
agencies, but the Act has potentially far reaching
consequences for any UK based companies (and
individuals) who operate in territories where
“normal business practice” could fall foul of the
strict definitions of the offences. It is therefore
essential that companies, both large and small,
who fall into potential risk categories, should act
to protect the company and its executives by
implementing procedures in compliance with the
MOJ guidelines. This would ensure a potential
full defence.

14. Following a decision in R v Hookway, the Police
can no longer bail subjects following arrest
for more than a maximum of 96 hours from
the time detention was first authorised.
After this time a charging decision is
required to be made. Bark & Co are urgently
reviewing all our cases that this decision will
affect.

15. Bark & Co Solicitors are acting for Mr
Roshandel, an former employee of banking
executive Mr Julius Meinl, in a dispute over
the ownership of a £200,000 custom Bentley.

16. Bark & Co are instructed to represent Mr A. He is
under investigation by City of London Police
Overseas Anti Corruption Unit concerning alleged
improprieties in a $2.2 billion deal with the
Liberian Government for the concession over
400,000 hectares of rainforest to be used for a
carbon offset project. The matter is being
investigated under the Prevention of Corruption
Act 1906. All allegations are denied.
An investigation was also launched by the Liberian
President.

17. Bark & Co are representing two people
following the arrest of 14 made during a raid
by Metropolitan Police at a Garage in
Southall, West London (19/05/2010). Three
of those initially arrested were un-arrested
before 11 were taken into custody by Police.

18. R v Z - Leeds Crown Court - Bark & Co
successfully defended a client accused of
Money Laundering and production and supply
of 3,000 cannabis plants at a factory run by
an organised crime gang.

19. Bark & Co acted for the principal of an accountancy
firm, the premises of whom was raided by the
Ministry of Defence Police on suspicion of conspiring
to launder funds on behalf of a client. Further, the
MOD alleged that since accountancy firms are
classified as falling within a regulated sector, a
second offence was committed by the principal for
failing to make an authorised disclosure. Bark & Co
considered from the outset that there was scant
evidence to support the approval of a warrant and
the allegations of the MOD. We immediately
challenged the lawfulness of the warrant and later
advised our client in interview and made robust
written representations as to why our client should
not have known or suspected money laundering. The
investigation of our client has today been
discontinued without charge.

20. This case provides a salutary example to
clients in the regulated sector of the
importance of ensuring best practice in
money laundering compliance especially
given regulator enthusiasm to embark on
costly and reputationally damaging
investigations on minimal evidential
grounds.

21. The case against our client has today been
discontinued in the Central Criminal Court
("The Old Bailey"). Representing our client
were Senior Solicitor Mrs Alison Hill of this
firm and leading defence Counsel Mr David
Whitehouse QC and Mr Edmund Gritt. Mrs Hill
gave a short statement to the media outside
Court. FULL DETAILS BELOW.

22. Bark & Co has been instructed to defend a
director charged with cheating the revenue
through a manipulation of the trade in
carbon credits. The prosecution allege in
turn that the proceeds were concealed by
being transferred offshore. The alleged loss
to the revenue is estimated at £30m. The
allegations are denied.

23. Bark & Co successfully defended our client
from allegations of money laundering and
conspiracy to produce cannabis. Our client
was exonerated of all charges after a robust
defence strategy rebuked links to
involvement in a major drugs factory
warehouse run by a Chinese organised crime
gang,

24. It has recently come to our attention that two
Britons have been arrested on suspicion of
using Swiss Bank accounts held with HSBC to
evade UK taxes. This could lead to the first
criminal prosecutions in a three year
clampdown on offshore tax evasion by HMRC.

25. 4th December 2010, officers from the
Metropolitan Police arrested Mr Nadir at his
Mayfair residence for allegedly breaching his
Bail conditions. The conditions require that
Mr Nadir remains at his home address
between the hours of 12pm and 6am.

26. Concerns raised over disclosure
issues and SFO press articles

27. You may have seen media coverage
concerning HMRC‟s use of account holder
information stolen from HSBC in Switzerland.
It is now evident that HMRC has reviewed the
information and has launched a concerted
attack against tax evasion on the strength of
it...

28. Asil Nadir attended a hearing at the Central
Criminal Court (The Old Bailey) today
(03/09/2010) to begin his fight for Justice.
The mention hearing began at 10am in Court
9 with The Honourable Mr Justice Bean
presiding.

29. Mr Asil Nadir has returned to the UK from
Northern Cyprus in order to fight to clear his
name and get justice after almost two
decades of exile. Mr Nadir comments "We've
a mission to fulfil. Somehow, having endured
this injustice for 20 years, I feel it's time now
to put closure to this in a most acceptable
way."
The defence team from Bark & Co Solicitors
with Mr William Clegg QC and Mr Dean
Armstrong are committed to ensuring the
delivery of a fair legal process that had been
previously been denied to our client.

30. In a two week trial in the High Court, Bark &
Co successfully defended the former
directors of Abbey Forwarding Limited in the
High Court in an action brought by the
liquidator of the company against them for
breach of fiduciary duty.

31. Our client was acquitted by the Jury at Ipswitch
Crown Court of his involvement in an alleged
international boiler room fraud.
Two other defendants were sentenced at Ipswich
Crown Court for running an illegal high pressure,
share-pushing operation from call centres in
Spain. Around 1,250 investors in the UK were
persuaded to buy over £7 million worth of
shares. Using their "Gordon Gekko" contract
notes to complete the transactions, the team
were alledged to have siphoned off around 80%
of the invested funds. Craig Clark who was
represented by Bark & Co. was acquitted by the
jury of any wrongdoing.

32. „This case shows that practitioners should be
aware that the Courts are now likely to be
less sympathetic to taxpayers‟ Andy Lynch,
Head of Civil Litigation, Bark & Co Solicitors
quoted in UK Legal News June 2010