Money laundering conviction news 16/12/2008 Legal partner convicted under money laundering law

Jonathan Krestin, managing partner of London law firm Butcher Burns, has been sentenced under a serious breach of money laundering law this week. He was fined £5,000 at Isleworth Crown Court under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and was acquitted on three other counts. He remains on the Solicitors Roll.

The lawyer, who had previously served as his firms money laundering reporting officer, was shown to have used his clients accounts to transfer 14,000 that he knew or suspected to be the proceeds of crime. Despite having been provided with a court order showing that the money was under suspicion of having been gained through a 35 million carousel fraud run by French national Michel Namer, Krestin transferred the money from his clients account to that of his clients mistress, thus breaching UK money laundering regulations.

This was a retrial, as a previous hearing in June 2008 had failed to come to a verdict on charges against Krestin. That trial, however, found the tax advisor who had introduced Namer to Krestin, Neil Macpherson, guilty of four breaches of money laundering law, sentencing him to three years imprisonment. Namer has been convicted separately of fraud and is serving a six-year sentence of imprisonment.

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