Business Fraud Solicitors

Corporate fraud is a particularly complex area of law and each case is unique in its challenges. If you are facing investigation or prosecution for corporate fraud, call Flint Bishop and begin to build the best possible defence to fight the case against you.

Allegations of fraud can be extremely damaging to the reputations of both a company and an individual, so it is critical that you respond swiftly to any accusations and seek expert legal counsel from a specialist.

If you are confronted with the daunting prospect of investigation or prosecution for corporate fraud, our business fraud solicitors can provide the resolute support you need to overcome such a stern challenge and can help secure a positive outcome, even if at first this appears to be an unlikely outcome.

We appreciate that fraud investigations are complex and stressful. We will endeavour to minimise the impact on you and your business by offering clear, strategic advice at every stage of the process to allow you to make the possible decisions throughout any corporate fraud proceedings.

We will liaise with the relevant authorities on your behalf, taking as much of the stress away from you as possible.

Corporate fraud refers to illegal activities carried out by a business or individual that are done with dishonest intentions or in an unethical manner. Often, this kind of business fraud is motivated by the desire to gain some form of commercial advantage for the perpetuating business or individual.

Types of Corporate Fraud include but are not limited to:

Fraudulent Trading

Fraudulent Trading involves a business pursuing business operations with the intention of purposefully deceiving and defrauding its creditors. Considered more serious than wrongful trading, fraudulent trading is classified as a criminal offence and is punishable by substantial fines and debt liabilities, commensurate with the severity of the fraud.

Wrongful trading

If a business continues to trade as normal, even though senior management and directors are aware that the business is destined to go out of business, this is deemed a civil offence. Because this type of corporate fraud is classified as a civil offence it means that any directors found to be complicit in the fraudulent activities may be held personally liable for company debts and they could face a ban of up to 15 years, disqualifying them from being able to act as a director of any limited company.

Asset stripping

Asset stripping refers to the process of selling the assets of a failing business for profit, leaving the business with nothing but the liabilities. That business is then put into liquidation to avoid debt liability. In other instances, rather than selling the assets, the directors transfer the assets to a similarly named company, again leaving the original company with the debt liability. Again, the original company will then be put into liquidation to avoid paying the outstanding debt liabilities. This is sometimes referred to as ‘phoenixing’.

Money laundering

Money laundering involves the illegal process of masking the origins of money obtained illegally by passing it through a complex sequence of financial or commercial transactions.

Tax fraud

When a business or individual deliberately fails to declare their income or intentionally misrepresents their expenses to avoid their tax liability, this is classified at tax evasion, a form of tax fraud. Other examples of tax fraud include smuggling goods into the country that are liable to excise duty, customs duty or VAT

VAT carousel fraud

This involves the import of goods VAT-free from abroad. The seller then sells the goods on to domestic buyers, this time adding VAT to the price. The seller then disappears without paying the VAT owed to the government.

Furlough fraud

A relatively new form of Corporate Fraud, this is where an employer deliberately claims back wages under the job retention scheme for an employee they are aware is still actively working on their behalf.

Investment fraud

Investment fraud generally refers to a wide range of deceptive practices used to induce investors to make investment decisions based on misinformation. They can also include illegal insider trading, fraudulent manipulation of the stock market, share scams, pyramid schemes and boiler room fraud.

Other types of corporate fraud can include:

• False Accounting
• Invoicing Scams
• Payment Fraud
• Cheque Fraud
• Receipt Fraud
• Mortgage Fraud
• Insurance Fraud
• Intellectual Property Fraud
• Bankruptcy-related Fraud

If you or your business face allegations of corporate fraud, our team of specialist solicitors are on hand to support you.

We will work tirelessly on your behalf to secure the best possible outcome for you and your business, offering you no-nonsense legal advice and expert legal representation at every stage of the investigation or prosecution.

Simply put, our experience and expertise allow us to win cases which other firms would lose.

Our team of corporate fraud solicitors is renowned for its high success rates in complex and challenging cases.

We understand that even during an investigation, businesses must continue to operate where possible. Our approach is always highly commercial, placing business continuity at the core of our advice and legal representation. We appreciate the sensitive nature of corporate fraud cases, posing a potential PR disaster for any business and it’s senior personnel.

We will handle your case with the utmost sensitivity, endeavouring to keep any investigation or prosecution out of the public eye and ensuring that any negative impact to you and your business is kept to an absolute minimum and the reputation of you and your business is protected.

Flint Bishop is a leading full-service national law firm, and as such our Corporate Fraud team works hand in hand with specialist industry-focused legal teams across our firm, leveraging expertise and professional relationships to provide the best possible defence for you.