Mr Rhys Meggy > Cloth Fair Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile
Cloth Fair Chambers Offices
39-40 CLOTH FAIR
LONDON
EC1A 7NT
England
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Mr Rhys Meggy
Position
Rhys Meggy’s practice centres on defending allegations of financial criminality or regulatory impropriety on the part of professionals and corporates.
In commercial crime, Rhys’ expertise includes defending allegations of bribery and corruption; large-scale fraud and false accounting; tax evasion; insider dealing; breaches of the general prohibition under FMSA; anticompetitive behaviour; breaches of export controls; insolvency and company law offences; breaches of health and safety and environmental regulations; and money laundering. In addition to FCA, SFO, HMRC, CMA and IS work, Rhys has a particular niche in the defence of executives and corporates pursued by Companies House and the Office of National Statistics.
Rhys also has a well-established practice in financial services regulation, appearing before both the FCA’ s Regulatory Decisions Committee and/or the Upper Tribunal for both individuals and firms in connection with allegations of misconduct or challenges to authorisation decisions.
He has extensive practical experience of the intersection of the civil and criminal jurisdictions where he frequently advises parties to civil fraud litigation as to the criminal implications of the conduct at issue, both in the UK and offshore.
His general criminal work covers the entire spectrum of offences, not least: murder and manslaughter (including corporate); sexual offences; perverting the course of justice; and misconduct in public place. Rhys also has longstanding experience of advising on and/or appearing in: anonymity and/or reporting restriction applications; HMRC CoP8 and CoP9 tax investigations; HMRC compounding negotiations following from export finance breaches; judicial review and/or ‘section 59 CJPA’ proceedings relating to the seizure and retention of evidence; account freezing order (AFO), cash detention and civil forfeiture proceedings; disputes concerning LPP and Independent Counsel reviews.
Prior to coming to the Bar, Rhys worked at a law firm in the BVI, liquidating the feeder funds of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Later, Rhys was seconded to advise a global investment bank in respect of a wide variety of financial misconduct issues, including dealings with regulators in the context of bribery, money laundering and tax compliance investigations.
Rhys won UK Financial Crime Junior of the Year at the Legal 500 Bar Awards 2022.
Memberships
Called to the Bar – 2009
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Fraud: crime
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 1Rhys Meggy – Cloth Fair Chambers ‘Rhys is an extremely hard-working, clever and eloquent barrister. He takes a lot of care with every case to ensure that everything he does is completed to the highest possible standards. A top junior barrister.’
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 2Rhys Meggy – Cloth Fair Chambers ‘One of the leading practitioners in the highly competitive field business, regulatory crime and fraud. He is an excellent advocate with immense presence in court, respected by the bench and his opponents. He has a wonderful manner that comes with a confidence borne from exposure to the most challenging work.’
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.