Solicitor at UK libel firm facing tribunal over threat allegations tied to fake cryptocurrency
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) announced today that it had decided to prosecute Claire Gill, a partner at Carter-Ruck. The decision was taken in March earlier this year.
In a statement published on its website the SRA said that a tribunal 'has certified that there is a case to answer in respect of allegations which are or include that, on or around 26 April 2017, Ms Gill sent or arranged to be sent correspondence which contained an improper threat of litigation'.
It added that the allegations were subject to a full hearing and were as yet unproven. SRA cases are heard by the independent Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, which can issue an unlimited fine or bar a solicitor from the profession.
Carter-Ruck as a firm is not being prosecuted by the SRA.
The nature of the threat, and the identity of the client on whose behalf Gill issued it, are not stated in the SRA announcement. However it is understood that the case relates to Gill's work for OneCoin, which was later established to be a multi-billion dollar fake cryptocurrency, and its founder, Ruja Ignatova.
In 2023 the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported on threats from Carter-Ruck on behalf of OneCoin and Ignatova, including a letter sent on 26 April 2017 to Jen McAdam, a OneCoin victim.
The letter was obtained and published by the thinktank Tax Policy Associates and its founder, Dan Neidle, who complained about Gill to the SRA.
In the letter published by Neidle, Gill accused McAdam of posting links to online videos alleging that OneCoin was a fraud. 'The statements you have published … go way beyond what may be considered to be legitimate debate,' Gill wrote to McAdam. 'You can be in no doubt therefore of the damage being caused to our clients' reputation and business.'
In a statement Carter-Ruck 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.' McAdam posted on X that she was unable to comment.
The case comes amid public concern about so-called strategic litigation against public participation, or 'slapp', actions involving lawyers being accused of trying to improperly stifle public debate on behalf of clients.
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Ignatova, a Bulgarian national, was the subject of the BBC's podcast The Missing Cryptoqueen, which chronicled the evolution and eventual collapse of the OneCoin fraud and the search for the mysterious Ignatova, who vanished in 2018.
Ignatova remains wanted by the FBI in connection with OneCoin, and a reward has been offered for information leading to her arrest or conviction. She was charged with fraud and money laundering offences in the US in 2018, but her whereabouts remain unknown.
In 2024 the BBC reported on claims published in the Bulgarian press that the true masterminds of the fraud were members of the Bulgarian mafia, and that Ignatova could have been murdered, dismembered and dumped in the Ionian Sea after the mafia considered her to have become a liability.
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