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27 October 2020 / Simon Farrell KC , Joe Edwards
Issue: 7908 / Categories: Features , Covid-19 , Commercial , Fraud
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When the tide goes out: Fraud & corporate wrongdoing in the wake of a predicted economic crisis

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Simon Farrell QC & Joe Edwards discuss fraud & corporate wrongdoing in the wake of a predicted economic crisis

In brief

  • Debt bubbles.
  • A wave of both civil and criminal litigation.
  • Statutory powers and cans of litigious worms.

As Warren Buffet once famously said ‘you only discover who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out’. This was a reference to those exposed in the face of an economic crash. The phrase has often also been used more precisely to refer to those caught out and brought to book either in the criminal and/or the civil courts after a severe economic downturn.

World debt levels have risen inexorably since the 2008 crisis and rose across all sectors by over $10trn in 2019 to $255trn. This was before the COVID crisis. Global debt now stands at 322% of global GDP and is $87trn higher than at the onset of the 2008 financial crisis.

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Bell Yard Kysen—Liz Giles

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Clarke Willmott—Lee Edwards

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Lime Solicitors—four promotions

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Lime Solicitors announces four promotions

NEWS
The Attorney General, Ellie Reeves KC MP, and Solicitor General, Andy Slaughter KC MP, marked the 25th anniversary of Pro Bono Week by joining lawyers, charities, students and parliamentarians at events celebrating voluntary legal work
A polished legal defence may owe more to artificial intelligence than legal merit—and creditors risk paying the price in delay and expense
Witness evidence can be compromised by AI before a solicitor sees the draft, leaving safeguards focused on authorship incomplete
Should a conviction stand when a later ruling reveals that the law underpinning it was wrong? The answer exposes a clash between finality and justice
Possession claims are entering a new digital era, with procedural traps awaiting practitioners who assume familiar rules still govern every step
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