BDO LLP
We are only able to display limited information for this agency. We display more complete information for all of the following agencies:
BDO LLP is a professional services firm with an international network of specialists working across a variety of practice areas. Its dedicated asset tracing, recovery and investigations practice brings together forensic accountants, contentious insolvency practitioners and investigators with the expertise and international reach to handle complex cross-border matters worldwide. Stephen Peters leads the investigations function within the forensic services team, while Alexander Davies heads the corporate intelligence practice. Shane Crooks and Malcolm Cohen jointly lead the firm’s cross-border and contentious insolvency team.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Work highlights
Acting as the Administrators of the estate of the late Don Hanson, formerly senior partner of Arthur Andersen UK and one of the most high profile and flamboyant accountants of the 1990s, it investigated the ownership and tax treatment of significant assets which had been settled into a Jersey trust over 15 years previously, prior to being transferred out to Panama. A trial took place in the Jersey Royal Court in late 2021, at which Malcolm Cohen gave evidence, to determine the ownership and to rule on the alleged misappropriation of assets around the time of Mr Hanson’s death in 2013. The Court issued its judgment confirming that the Jersey trust had been invalid from the outset and that an associate of Mr Hanson had misappropriated its assets. Work was subsequently undertaken to seek recognition of the judgment in England and to enforce the GBP 32 million award against the associate and to trace and recover the trust assets, as well as to agree the estate's final tax position with HMRC. Recoveries have so far been made of assets wrongly transferred to an English charity and from the personal pension fund of the associate.