Pavlos Panayi KC KC > Chambers of Rachel Langdale KC > London, England > Barrister Profile

Pavlos Panayi KC KC

+44 (0)20 7242 3555 View profile

Work Department

Business Crime; International and extradition; Crime

Position

Specialist in business crime, bribery and corruption; financial regulatory, sanctions, extradition and international criminal law with an emphasis on providing high-level external advice to common law jurisdictions.

Acts for corporates and individuals seeking advice in the UK, Channel Islands, Cyprus, Greece and the Caribbean.

Maintains a general criminal practice including in allegations of terrorism, murder and sexual offences.

Regular speaker in the UK and internationally on issues of bribery, corruption, AML and fraud.

Current instructions 

• Acting for an online gambling corporate licensee in a British Crown Dependency facing investigation by the gambling regulator surrounding its sanctions, AML and CTF compliance and controls.
• Currently instructed in civil proceedings arising from the “Golden Passports” scandal in Cyprus where several prominent politicians, lawyers and businessmen are accused in the Nicosia Assizes court of complicity in fraud and corruption. The public scandal arose following an undercover investigation by the Al Jazeera news network into the abuse and corruption of the Cyprus Investment Programme path to citizenship.
• Instructed for an IT director of several Indian and U.K. technology companies, the main defendant in a £20m bribery and fraud prosecution following an 8 year joint investigation by HMRC and the City of London police.
• Instructed to appear for the main defendant in a prosecution by the Financial Conduct Authority for Insider Trading arising out of unusual share and spread betting prior to a major market announcement.
• Instructed for the Cypriot CFO of a global business in liquidation, alleged to have committed civil fraud and a series of breaches of fiduciary duty.

Recent instructions

• Acted for dual Israeli and Cyprus citizen of Russian origin, in relation to litigation in the English commercial court arising from a banking dispute in Moscow, with parallel litigation in the Russian Federation and Cyprus.
• Acting for a billionaire businessman facing restraint order arising from an AML investigation.
• Advising in relation to the international and UK aspects of an investigation arising out of the Onecoin $4b ponzi scheme.
• Acting for a Cyprus bank and its officials charged in the Nicosia criminal court with fraud, market-manipulation and forgery allegations in three linked trials arising out of the collapse of the Cyprus banking system in 2012-2013.
• Acting for a Guernsey fund management business in enforcement action brought by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.
• Directing an internal investigation for a major international financial institution into a series of linked frauds of approx. €300m.
• Acting for five directors of a leading UK business facing prosecution for conspiracy to cheat following a long-running HMRC investigation
• Acting for principle partner at a London based law firm alleged to have committed a £6m fraud on the Legal Aid fund.
• Acting for two British company directors of an AIM listed communications company and its Greek subsidiary facing prosecution in Athens for alleged fraud on thousands of consumers.
• Advised in several extradition request cases.

Public Access

Pavlos is qualified to accept instructions directly from clients and is registered under the Bar Council’s Public Access Scheme, meaning that members of the public who seek specialist advice can come directly to him. In addition, he welcomes instructions from solicitors, in-house law departments, qualified foreign lawyers, and clients licensed by the Bar Council to give instructions directly to barristers under the Bar Council’s Licensed Access Scheme. For more information please visit our Direct Access page here.

Memberships

• Member of International Committee of Bar Council of England and Wales, leading on Cyprus.
• Co-founder and president of the Cypriot Lawyers Society which has an international membership of Cypriot lawyers and other professionals with an interest in and connection to Cyprus.
• Goodwill Ambassador for the UK Cyprus Enterprise Council.
• Fraud Lawyers Association member
• Proceeds of Crime Lawyers Association member
• Criminal Bar Association member
• Former elected member of Bar Council and former committee member of Criminal Bar Association
• Joint Head of Offshore and Financial Crime at 7BR
• Joint Head of Recruitment at 7BR