Global Investigations Review (“GIR”) has this month published the GIR 100, an annual guide to the world’s leading cross-border investigation practices. BCL has been included in GIR’s selection of 100 firms from around the world able to handle sophisticated cross-border government-led and internal investigations.
The GIR’s editorial is set out below and can also be accessed here: http://www.bcl.com/downloads/GIR100-2015.pdf
A specialist in corporate crime, BCL Burton Copeland has in recent years advised some of the SFO’s most prominent targets, including executives of French engineering company Alstom and US chemical company Innospec.
The firm
BCL is a small firm with a big reputation in the area of corporate crime. The first iteration of the firm was founded in the 1970s by Ian Burton, a renowned solicitor who has been involved in many of the UK’s most significant white-collar matters.
These days, Burton’s expertise is bolstered by an elite team of white-collar practitioners. Remarkably, six of BCL’s 12 partner attorneys are listed in Who’s Who Legal: Business Crime Defence, and another four are recognised for their proficiency in Who’s Who Legal: Investigations. Standouts include Harry Travers, who was involved in the Innospec, Libor, BAE and GP Noble cases; Brian Spiro, a 30-year veteran of the criminal defence practice; and Jane Glass. Partners with government experience include Michael Drury, a former director of legal affairs at GCHQ and prosecutor at the SFO, and firm general counsel Robin Booth, who worked as a prosecutor throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Despite its size, the firm has been closely involved in many of the headline-grabbing white-collar cases since the creation of the SFO in 1987, and over the years its work has become increasingly international. While it has only one office based in London, its lawyers travel widely to conduct interviews and meet with corporate executives and investigating authorities.
Network
The firm has one office located in London.
Clients
BCL has advised Dutch commodity trading company Trafigura Beheer in response to multiple global investigations and proceedings arising from the Probo Koala toxic waste dump in the Ivory Coast. Since 2008, it has represented three senior London-based employees of Bank of America in criminal proceedings in Italy relating to the bankruptcy of Italian dairy and food producer Parmalat SpA.
The firm was also retained by News Group Newspapers to handle requests from the London Metropolitan Police Service for information on the “phone hacking” scandal, and by KPMG in connection to investigations by FSA and FINMA into US$3.2 billion trading losses at UBS.
Track record
BCL’s attorneys seem to pop up wherever the SFO shifts its gaze. One of the highest-profile cases in recent years was that of Robert Tchenguiz, a London-based businessman who, in the wake of the 2008 collapse of the Icelandic bank Kaupthing, was investigated by the SFO for allegations of perpetrating a £1 billion fraud scheme. In 2011, Tchenguiz was arrested in a dawn raid; however, a court soon found that the search warrants obtained by the SFO were unlawful, and the investigation was discontinued in October 2012. The case became a public embarrassment for the SFO, which stated publicly that “lessons have been learned.”
BCL also represented the UK president and the UK finance director of French engineering company Alstom SA in connection with an SFO investigation into potential foreign bribery violations, and what the SFO at the time called its biggest search operation. With BCL’s help, the investigation into its clients was eventually dropped – although proceedings against the company itself have been commenced. BCL also assisted British oil and gas company Swift Technical Holdings Group with allegations of overseas corruption. Similarly, the firm was able to convince the SFO that the company should not be charged.
Recent events
In recent years, the firm has acted in multiple, separate Libor manipulation prosecutions and has represented several individuals in relation to the global investigation into collusive behaviour in the foreign exchange markets. Both of these matters have drawn the attention of the FCA, SFO, DoJ and SEC. The firm has also been retained by several companies – the majority of which remain confidential – in well-known corruption investigations currently being conducted by the SFO.
One of the firm’s publicly known cases is that of Dr Miltos Papachristos, a former executive of American chemical company Innospec. Papachristos was prosecuted by the SFO, along with several other former company executives, following a ground-breaking ruling against the company in 2010. In June 2014, Papachristos was convicted of conspiring to commit corruption and sentenced to 18 months in prison.