£100 million Money laundering SOCA prosecution - MPR to lead defence

Seema Parikh of MPR Solicitors has been instructed to defend the lead Defendant in one of SOCA’s largest money laundering prosecutions in the West Midlands.

A taskforce of over 200 officers carried out dawn raids across the country last week resulting in several arrests following a targeted investigation on money service bureaus (MSB) under codename Operation Smarten which has international links to other SOCA operations.

Seema Parikh has extensive knowledge of the workings and procedures of MSBs and the hawala method of transferring funds across borders. She has represented Directors of MSBs charged with money laundering offences under POCA (Proceeds of Crime Act 2002).

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) is a national law enforcement agency which came into being on 1 April 2006 and is a result of a merger between the old National Crime Squad, National Intelligence Criminal Service and specialist units from the Immigration Service, and HM Revenue and Customs. It targets “career criminals” and only deals in the most serious and complex of criminal cases. SOCA officers can have the combined powers of police, customs and immigration officers.

Did you know that because members of SOCA do not wear uniform, none of the police powers requiring a constable to be in uniform, such as stopping a motor vehicle on a road, can be exercised by SOCA alone?

These types of prosecutions inevitably make use of multifarious strands of evidence like cell site analysis, telephone billing, downloads from handsets and PCs, financial records, surveillance (covert and overt) and forensic. The cases are usually voluminous in paperwork often served in electronic format.

At MPR Solicitors, we have detailed knowledge and experience of dealing with SOCA investigations and prosecutions and our lawyers are able to assimilate complex forensic evidence and legal issues. We are assisted by back-office support staff trained to analyse large volumes of data using the latest software and IT hardware.

MPR Solicitors work closely with leading barristers chambers and forensic accounting experts and we can put a unified defence team in place very quickly to pro-actively defend our clients’ cases headed by our solicitors.

MPR Solicitors is recognised by the Legal Services Commission for its expertise in dealing with Very High Cost Cases including Serious Fraud, Complex Business Crime and Regulatory offences.

Whilst we work in teams for larger cases, we offer a bespoke personal service to our clients nationwide and can arrange for representation and legal advice in serious and complex cases anywhere across England and Wales.