Eversheds Sutherland

Saira Choonka is a leading principal associate in FSDI specialising in running complex, large scale corporate and financial crime investigations and advising on consequential criminal and regulatory exposure. She represents a range of multinationals and financial institutions in these areas and has established key relationships with these clients, leading to significant repeat instructions. Her recent experience includes:

[CONFIDENTIAL - Conducting an internal investigation into corruption issues for a client operating in the aviation sector, which led to a self-report to the SFO and NCA. Negotiations are now underway for a Deferred Prosecution Agreement- END CONFIDENTIAL]

Acting as lead associate for the Serious Fraud Office in its action against ENRC in the High Court for the disclosure of material over which our client alleged Legal Professional Privilege had been incorrectly claimed, and the subsequent appeal of the High Court decision in that matter o [High Court] Director of the Serious Fraud Office v Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Ltd [2017] EWHC 1017 (QB)o [Court of Appeal] Director of the Serious Fraud Office v Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 2006This case won “Most Important Court Case of the Year” at the 2018 GIR awards.

[CONFIDENTIAL Saira currently acts as key advisor to established private wealth management company and is currently leading two regulatory investigations involving significant financial crime and risk management issues, likely to drastically change the operations of the organisation and impact the financial market. She works closely with this client advising on all aspects, INCLUDING ON financial crime remediation work, in particular relating to AML and ABC issues and supporting its internal stakeholders in these areas. Acting as part of a defence counsel team, Saira is leading a team representing a bank subject to one of the FCA’s first single criminal track investigation for money laundering breaches. She has been critical in advising on the balance between the client’s regulatory obligations and its privilege against self-incrimination and mitigating its criminal and regulatory exposure.CONFIDENTIAL]

Saira’s experience has led to her regularly delivering training in the areas of AML, ABC and fraud to a number of key clients of the firm focusing on front office, senior management, Legal and Compliance and Board levels.

Principal Associate