Imogen Makin

Experience

Imogen represents a wide-range of financial institutions and has worked on both domestic and international investigations involving multiple regulators, including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the UK, Department of Justice (DOJ) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the USA, and the Japan Financial Services Agency, Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in Asia Pacific. Imogen's experience of cross-border investigations means that she regularly advises on issues regarding conflicts of laws, for example on legal professional privilege. Her recent experience includes successfully defending an international financial institution in an SFO and DOJ investigation into bribery, corruption and money laundering. 

Imogen has extensive experience of FCA enforcement investigations, including acting on a dual-track anti-money laundering (AML) investigation into a bank's anti-financial crime systems and controls and acting for a financial institution in relation to the global regulatory investigations into conduct in the foreign exchange (FX) market. 

Imogen's recent experience also includes: 

1. advising and defending financial institutions in response to applications for Account Freezing Orders; 
2. acting for financial institutions on internal investigations involving whistleblowing allegations, non-financial misconduct and potential breaches of FCA rules; 
3. representing financial institutions in response to contentious supervisory requests/engagement with the FCA including negotiating VREQS; and
4. advising on enhancements to financial institutions' anti-financial crime systems and controls.

Imogen has previously acted for individuals involved in simultaneous investigations by the FCA, SFO and other investigating agencies internationally, most recently regarding the collapse of Greensill Bank. In the past, she has also defended banks against mis-selling claims brought by investors and private individuals in the High Court. 

Publications

• UK Home Office proposes a new failure to prevent fraud offence
• Individual accountability and the key considerations
• Lessons from the 1MDB Scandal
• A step too far by the SFO: Supreme Court finds the SFO's Section 2 powers do not have extra-territorial reach
• Financial Crime and Fraud Regulatory Updates March 2021