Carter Ruck libel lawyer faces prosecution over role defending crypto fraud
Claire Gill, a partner at the London-based firm, has been accused by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) of making an 'improper threat of litigation' in 2017.
Ms Gill will now face a disciplinary hearing, which can issue unlimited fines and strike off lawyers if they are found guilty.
The case against her is understood to focus on Carter Ruck's work for defunct cryptocurrency business OneCoin. It raised at least £4bn from investors but was later revealed to be a Ponzi scheme.
Dubbed the 'biggest financial scam since Bernie Madoff', founder Ruja Ignatova was charged by the US Department of Justice in absentia with fraud and money laundering after she went on the run. She remains on the FBI's most wanted list and was the subject of a popular BBC podcast, The Missing Cryptoqueen.
Tax Policy Associates (TPA), a campaign group which triggered the SRA investigation, said Carter Ruck sent legal letters threatening to sue journalists and investors who attempted to expose OneCoin.
Carter Ruck allegedly sent a legal threat to Coin Telegraph, a cryptocurrency news website, in 2016 accusing it of defamation after the website published an article labelling OneCoin a 'scam', according to the TPA.
A year later, OneCoin investor Jen McAdam, who had ploughed her life savings into the site, made similar allegations and was hit with another legal threat from Carter Ruck.
Dan Niedle, TPA's founder, who led the investigation into the law firm's links to OneCoin, said on X it was 'astonishing how reckless' Carter Ruck had been with its dealings with OneCoin. He accused Carter Ruck of 'recklessly enabling' the fraud.
Mr Niedle, a former lawyer, told The Telegraph: 'Lawyers are not Daleks. We have ethical obligations. A lawyer should not act for a fraudster. Carter Ruck actively helped a fraudster. It was reckless and it's incredibly serious.'
Carter Ruck did not respond to these allegations. It said: 'We are disappointed by the SRA's decision to bring these proceedings against our colleague, who we will be fully supporting in her defence of this matter.'
OneCoin, which was founded in Bulgaria in 2014, unravelled in a dramatic fashion six years ago after it was found to be a pyramid scheme. In 2023, its cofounder Karl Greenwood was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the US for his role in the scam.
US Attorney Damian Williams said at the time: 'Greenwood and his co-conspirators, including fugitive Ruja Ignatova, conned unsuspecting victims out of billions of dollars with promises of a 'financial revolution' and claims that OneCoin would be the 'Bitcoin killer'.
'In fact, OneCoins were entirely worthless, and investors were left with nothing.'
Carter Ruck is one of Britain's leading libel and defamation firms. It has represented figures such as late Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky as well as multinationals like Trafigura.
The firm charges hundreds of pounds an hour in fees, and can often charge costs to the losing defendants if it wins cases.
Legal threats from libel lawyers which have the effect of silencing actors are known as strategic lawsuits against public participation (Slapps). They have become increasingly controversial over claims they allow deep pocketed wrongdoers to silence critics and the media.
Mr Niedle was previously involved in a Slapp case involving former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.
Earlier this year, Ashley Hurst, Mr Zahawi's solicitor, was fined £50,000 and told to pay an extra £260,000 in costs by the SRA after sending Mr Niedle a libel threat and claiming he could not even report the existence of the letter. At the time, Mr Niedle was probing Mr Zahawi's tax affairs.
The case against Ms Gill will be heard by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, an independent decision-making body, which can issue unlimited fines and strike off lawyers if they are found guilty.
The SRA can only issue fines of up to £25,000 and refers cases it believes to be more serious to the SDT because it has stronger powers.
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