Far-Reaching New Prosecution Powers For The FSA

This article was first published in The Lawyer, November 2009

The surge in the number of criminal prosecutions brought by the FSA has been well-publicised. The recent Court of Appeal judgments in R v Rollins and R v McInerney will embolden further the financial regulator as a prosecutor of financial crime. The court held that the FSA can act as both a public and private prosecutor in relation to the same case, asserting that it can now prosecute for offences beyond those specified in the statute that empowered it to bring prosecutions.

Neil Rollins and Michael McInerney were the subject of separate prosecutions brought by the FSA, the former for insider dealing and the latter for boiler room fraud. The distinguishing feature of these cases was the addition of charges of money laundering against both defendants.