A partner at the top libel firm Carter-Ruck was hired “in furtherance of fraud” when she sent legal threats on behalf of a multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency scam, a tribunal has ruled.
Claire Frances Gill is being prosecuted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for allegedly issuing an inappropriate threat on behalf of the scheme, OneCoin, and its mastermind, Ruja Ignatova.
In 2017, Gill sent a legal threat to Jen McAdam, a victim of OneCoin who had published videos online about her experience of being defrauded by Ignatova and her associates.
In the letter Gill told McAdam that “the statements which you have published … go way beyond what may be considered to be legitimate debate” and said OneCoin had told her to sue McAdam unless she deleted her videos.
Despite McAdam refusing to remove the videos, no legal action was ever filed.
The SRA is now prosecuting Gill for “an improper threat of litigation”. SRA cases are heard by the independent Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, which can issue an unlimited fine or bar a solicitor from the profession.
At a case management hearing in August Gill’s counsel said his client wanted the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) to ban OneCoin and Ignatova from being identified during proceedings, citing the principle of legal privilege, which protects communications between a lawyer and their client from disclosure.
Journalists and transparency campaigners had indicated that they would oppose Gill’s application, arguing that Gill’s work for OneCoin had already been widely reported.
In a ruling on Tuesday concerning disclosure of documents about the prosecution to third parties, the SDT said it “was satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the Carter-Ruck retainer was engaged in furtherance of fraud by OneCoin and Dr Ruja Ignatova”.
It said it had considered court judgments against OneCoin and Ignatova, a worldwide asset freezing order against Ignatova, and the fugitive status of Ignatova, who disappeared in 2018. She remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
Dan Neidle of Tax Policy Associates, who reported Gill to the SRA, told the industry publication Legal Futures: “I think most lawyers would be appalled if they had accidentally assisted a fraud. Carter-Ruck show no contrition.”
Publication of the case documents meant that “we’ll now all be able to see all the arguments and evidence, against Carter-Ruck and in its defence. That’s how open justice is supposed to work”.
Carter-Ruck said that neither it nor Gill had any knowledge that OneCoin was a fraud. In a statement to the Guardian it said: “Ms Gill and the firm proceeded entirely in good faith. She relied at all times not only on client instructions and information provided but also on advice previously given to OneCoin – also no doubt in good faith – by a number of lawyers including other solicitors specialising in multi-level marketing schemes.”
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The firm continued: “We are confident that Ms Gill’s conduct of the matter, including her conduct with regard to the single letter which is the subject of the SRA’s proceedings, was fully in accordance with her professional obligations.”
Gill has applied for the prosecution against her to be summarily dismissed. The next hearing will take place in December.
The case against Gill comes amid efforts by investigative journalists and transparency campaigners to encourage the government to legislate against menacing or abusive behaviour by English law firms, sometimes referred to as Slapps.
The term came to prominence after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and widespread media and parliamentary criticism of solicitors and barristers who had sued or threatened critics of the Russian oligarchy surrounding Vladimir Putin.
The legal sector is enormously sensitive to any allegation about Slapps. A group called the Society of Media Lawyers has argued that complaints about Slapps were overblown, and that the government should take no action to rein in lawyers’ conduct. Gill is among its members.
