Mountford Chambers

Charles is a prominent and highly regarded advocate, who specialises in cases of serious fraud, money laundering and revenue evasion. He is also regularly instructed in serious criminal and regulatory cases of all kinds. Since 2012 he has been a Chambers and Partners top ranked silk (Band 1) in Financial Crime.

He combines extensive criminal experience with a background in civil and commercial law and has also become a leading practitioner and recognised authority in the fields of civil fraud litigation, asset recovery, civil recovery and account freeing orders. He has recently led teams in the private prosecution of serious fraud and is currently instructed by a foreign government in relation to an alleged fraud on their public funds.

Charles has appeared in more than 90 serious fraud trials in his career including some of the leading cases of recent years and has advised many other clients under investigation. He has represented politicians, solicitors, accountants and prominent figures in the city and insurance markets. The Chief Executive of a leading psychiatric hospital, who he represented and who received a public apology after his acquittal, described Charles as, ‘passionate and committed…(he) has natural talent of a very high order’.

Charles’ recent work includes criminal aspects of insider dealing, rate manipulation, cross jurisdictional asset recovery, market manipulation and anti-competitive trading. He has advised banks and other financial institutions and has drafted asset recovery legislation for overseas territories and advised on the implementation of money laundering and mutual assistance regimes.

In criminal law, he also has extensive experience in cases of homicide, terrorism, serious violence and drug trafficking and has appeared in two major public enquiries.

Recent clients include News of the World news editor James Weatherup; James Gilmour inter-dealer broker acquitted in the LIBOR trial; JV, a prominent defendant in major European corruption trial; and IJ, accused of corruptly influencing cricket matches.

Charles frequently contributes articles to Lexis on subjects relating to fraud and financial crime and has written for the Money Laundering Quarterly review.

He regularly speaks to audiences in different parts of the world on subjects relating to fraud, money laundering and international asset recovery.

Called: 1979 Silk: 2008

Bencher of Grays Inn Member of FA Rule K panel 2016 Chaired Bar Council Investigation Committee 2011/12

Senior Governors Scholar, Hymers College, Hull Bryant Exhibitioner, Emmanuel College, Cambridge