Ephgrave: Milestone case
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has secured its first unexplained wealth order (UWO) against the ex-wife of Tim Schools, the struck-off solicitor behind the Axiom Legal Financing Fund fraud.
The order is aimed at recovering a Lake District property valued at £1.5m that the SFO believes was purchased with the proceeds of the £100m fraud.
The Cayman Islands-based fund – which lent money to law firms to pay for disbursements, mainly for personal injury cases which were said to have a high chance of success – closed in October 2012 after four years in the wake of allegations of fraud, and went into receivership in February 2013 owing investors around £120m.
The SFO investigation uncovered that investor money was used to fund thousands of high-risk cases, that were not independently vetted and often failed at court. Few investors ever received any return.
Mr Schools was struck off in 2014, although the charges did not relate to the Axiom fund, and was jailed in 2022 for 14 years over the fraud. More than 500 investors sank cash into the fund. Mr Schools received nearly £20m from it.
A UWO can be issued by the High Court where an individual is ‘reasonably suspected’ of involvement or connected to a person involved in serious crime. The National Crime Agency has hitherto been the only law enforcement agency to seek them since they were introduced in 2017.
The order means that if the property, owned by Claire Schools, is sold, the proceeds are secured. Ms Schools has also been ordered to produce information about how the property was obtained within 28 days.
If she fails to prove that the asset was acquired legitimately, the SFO can apply to seize it at the High Court at a later date.
The order follows the confiscation of £1m from Mr Schools earlier this month.
SFO director Nick Ephgrave said: “This is a milestone case for the SFO and follows on from last week’s successful £1m recovery to go back to the victims in this case.
“Wherever criminal assets have been hidden or dispersed, we will progress our investigations with determination and explore new methods to recover funds for victims and the public purse.”
Last year David Kennedy, an investment manager at the heart of the fraud, was jailed for eight years for fraudulent trading.
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