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On 14 November 2023, the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) secured the conviction of solicitor William Osmond, who disclosed confidential details about a money laundering investigation and forged a legal document in an attempt to mislead authorities. Osmond was subsequently sentenced to nine months in prison on 30 November.
According to a news release announcing the conviction, Osmond is the first-ever solicitor prosecuted by SFO for “tipping off” a client. Solicitors are legally obliged not to share details of money laundering investigations into their clients.
Osmond, co-founder of London-based commercial and property law firm Osmond & Osmond Solicitors Ltd, was also the acting Money Laundering Reporting Officer for the firm, meaning that he was expected to report any suspicions of money laundering to the authorities.
In 2018, SFO investigators made covert enquiries about businessman James Redding Ramsay, a client of Osmond, who had paid GBP 4 million toward the purchase of a London property. According to the SFO news release, “Osmond immediately contacted his client to inform him about the investigation” and then met with Ramsay to discuss the matter over the next five months.
In response to the investigation’s request, Osmond also supplied the SFO with a fake “Letter of Engagement” that detailed his role as solicitor for a British Virgin Islands company which was bought by Ramsay and used to shift funds for the purchase of the London property.
During a 2019 search of Osmond’s office, SFO investigators found five pages of hand-written notes on Osmond’s discussions with Ramsay and computer files evidencing his forgery of the legal letter.
(Source: UK Serious Fraud Office)