Stuart Biggs > Cloth Fair Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile
Cloth Fair Chambers Offices
39-40 CLOTH FAIR
LONDON
EC1A 7NT
England
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Stuart Biggs
Position
Stuart’s practice focuses on matters involving allegations of misconduct by companies, directors, public officials and financial professionals.
He acts for individuals and corporates investigated and prosecuted by the SFO, FCA, HMRC and specialist divisions of the CPS and advises victims of financial crime. He assists corporates with internal investigations and in their interactions with the criminal justice system and regulators. He has considerable experience in Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings.
Stuart advises on a range of matters affecting companies including bribery, fraud, anti-money laundering, sanctions, data protection, brand and content protection and consumer protection. He has a wealth of prosecution experience to draw upon and maintains a specialist prosecution practice, including private prosecutions.
He has complementary experience of advising and acting in respect of individual and company insolvency and has acted for a director in contested company director disqualification proceedings. He has appeared in cases before the tax tribunals as leading junior, led junior and alone.
Since co-authoring the Butterworths’ Guide to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 Stuart has maintained a keen interest in this area, conducting confiscation, restraint and enforcement hearings. Recently, he was invited to contribute to the Law Commission’s work on suggested reform of the law of confiscation. He has experience in dealing with orders obtained on behalf of foreign prosecutors by MLA, acting in the high-profile successful discharge application of a restraint order obtained on behalf of the Vatican. He has considerable experience in account freezing and cash forfeiture cases: recent matters have seen the release of the trading accounts of a bitcoin brokerage and a construction company.
Stuart has a longstanding specialism in Intellectual Property Crime and content protection. He is instructed by a variety of rightsholders and provides detailed advice on the substantive law and on investigations and procedure. He has spoken on IP crime at the Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime.
Stuart acts for clients in proceedings before a diverse range of disciplinary tribunals and regulators. These have included governing bodies in respect of the accountancy profession, the Regulatory Decisions Committee of the FCA, the Electoral Commission and the internal disciplinary committee of a political party.
Career
Recent & Current Cases
- Pre-charge advice to persons under SFO investigations into London Capital & Finance, Rolls Royce, Greenergy and Amec Foster Wheeler
- Overseas internal investigation into money laundering compliance
- Successful application to remove UK restraint obtained in respect of the Vatican’s £300m corruption investigation
- Acted for a corporate in the private prosecution of former employee for fraud and money laundering
- Defence of a director of a Hong Kong fiduciary services company in respect of allegations of money laundering put at $120m
- Defence of sales director in £160m financing fraud
- Defence of Director of Corporate Finance and Investment Firm charged with FSMA offences
- Defence of Director of hospitality industry companies accused of multi-million pound tax fraud
- Advising on prosecution of an international bribery case
- Representing a company in negotiation in respect of a potential DPA
- Defence of a Director of a services company against allegations of defrauding consumers
Previous Cases
- R v H [2012] EWCA Crim 1113 Arms trafficking
- R v May [2008] UKPC 36 Successful Privy Council appeal
- R v Golizadeh & Others [2008] 2 Cr App R (S) 47
- R v Skansen Interiors Ltd Representing a company in negotiation in respect of a potential DPA
- Operation Elveden including R v Anthony France [2016] 4 WLR 175: [2017] 1 Cr App R 19 and
- R v Chapman & Others; R v Sabey & Brunt [2015] 3 WLR 726
- R v Darren Thompson [2015] EWCA Crim 1820, football investment fraud
- R v Matthew Ames (Unreported 2014, Isleworth Crown Court and Court of Appeal – carbon credit investment scheme fraud)
- R v Sevket (Unreported 2013, Central Criminal Court and Court of Appeal – £1.5m film loan fraud)
- R v Aston Shim [2016] EWCA Crim 576
- R (Virgin Media Ltd) v Zinga [2015] 1 Cr App R 2
- AC (Wholesale) Ltd v Revenue & Customs Commissioners [2017] UKUT 191 (TCC)
- MBG Associates v Revenue & Customs Commissioners [2012] UKFʓ 723 (TC)
- Secretary of State for Trade and industry v Swan and Others [2005] BCC 596
Education
MA (Cantab) (law), Fitzwilliam College
Personal
Lexis Nexis Corporate Crime Lawyers Consulting Editorial Board
The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, Butterworths (2003)
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Fraud: crime
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 1Stuart Biggs – Cloth Fair Chambers ‘Stuart is an outstanding advocate, an exceptional lawyer and a devastating cross-examiner of experts.’
Cloth Fair Chambers stands out as ‘an undisputed heavyweight‘ in the fraud and financial crime space. John Kelsey-Fry KC has an excellent reputation for being ‘one of the most persuasive advocates at the Bar‘. Rhys Meggy stands out as ‘one of the very top junior barristers of his generation‘. Stuart Biggs is another highly regarded junior in the financial crime field, with a solid track record in appearing for both the defence and the prosecution. In recent work for the set, Biggs is defending the manager of an Iranian-owned money exchange business against allegations of money laundering and using part of the money for the sale and purchase of Bitcoin. In a key development for chambers, Dean Brown joined the set as Head of Practice Management in July 2024.
London Bar > Business and regulatory crime (including global investigations)
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 2Stuart Biggs – Cloth Fair Chambers ‘There is no issue that Stuart can’t or won’t turn his hand to. A particular strength of his is his interest in and enthusiasm for technical and esoteric issues, especially cases involving emerging technologies and applying them to older legislation.’
Well-versed in multi-jurisdictional work, Cloth Fair Chambers is lauded for its expertise in all aspects of bribery, corruption, money laundering, and insider dealing as part of the set’s varied caseload, which frequently extends to the intersection of criminal and civil law. Tom Allen KC is highlighted for acting for the lead defendant in R (SFO) v Cook, Mason, proceedings regarding charges of corruption in relation to military contracts related to work carried out for the Saudi Arabian National Guard, which included allegations about the involvement of senior UK politicians and civil servants. Stuart Biggs represents a director pre-charge in the SFO investigation into the collapse of London Capital & Finance, while Robert Dacre joined the set in March 2024 from 2 Hare Court, and prosecutes for the London Borough of Hillingdon in a case related to infringement of the copyright of a number of leading brands. Rhys Meggy arrived in May 2023 from QEB Hollis Whiteman.