Stuart Biggs KC

Stuart’s practice focuses on matters involving allegations of misconduct by companies, directors, public officials and financial professionals.  Recent work includes:

• Advising the former director of a high-profile PPE company;
• Advising and representing a director of a public procurement company in respect of an HMRC investigation;
• Advising and representing a senior member of the legal profession prosecuted on allegations of tax fraud;
• Advising the partners of an international law firm in respect of allegations of breaches of the money laundering regulations and money laundering;
• Prosecuting the former Nigerian Petroleum Minister and others on allegations of bribery;
• FCA prosecutions of a peer-to-peer lending website and a spread betting investment fraud;
• Acting for a key witness to the Post Office Inquiry;
• Acting for the former CFO of a PLC in R v. Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court, ex parte Bates – successfully quashing a summons in a private prosecution and securing a change in the law as to the availability of a costs order for a successful applicant for judicial review in a criminal cause or matter;
• Acting for a defendant in Part 5 POCA high court civil recovery proceedings.

Stuart acts for individuals and corporates investigated and prosecuted by the SFO, FCA, HMRC and specialist divisions of the CPS and advises victims of financial crime.  He assists corporates with internal investigations and in their interactions with the criminal justice system and regulators.  He has considerable experience in Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings.

Stuart advises on a range of matters affecting companies including bribery, fraud, anti-money laundering, sanctions, data protection, brand and content protection and consumer protection.  He has a wealth of prosecution experience to draw upon and maintains a specialist prosecution practice. He is instructed both to prosecute and to defend private prosecutions.

Stuart also represents clients in a range of civil proceedings involving allegations of fraudulent conduct.  He has appeared in cases before the tax tribunals both in silk and as a junior.

Since co-authoring the Butterworths’ Guide to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, Stuart has maintained a keen interest in this area, conducting confiscation, restraint and enforcement hearings.  He has contributed to the Law Commission’s work on suggested reform of the law of confiscation.  He has experience in dealing with orders obtained on behalf of foreign prosecutors by MLA, including acting in the high-profile successful discharge application of a restraint order obtained on behalf of the Vatican (DPP v. Torzi).  He has considerable experience in account freezing cases: recent examples have concerned the trading accounts of a bitcoin brokerage and client accounts of a specialist wholesale broker.

Stuart has a longstanding specialism in Intellectual Property Crime and content protection.  He is instructed by a variety of rightsholders and provides detailed advice on the substantive law and on investigations and procedure.  He has spoken on IP crime at the Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime.

Stuart acts for clients in proceedings before a diverse range of disciplinary tribunals and regulators.  These have included governing bodies in respect of the accountancy profession, the Regulatory Decisions Committee of the FCA, the Electoral Commission and the internal disciplinary committee of a political party.