Leon Kazakos, KC

Barrister, 2 Hare Court

Prior to taking silk Leon was shortlisted for Crime Junior of the Year 2019 and ranked Band 1 for Crime as a leading individual by Chambers and Partners.

Now in his fourth year in silk he is ranked Band 2 for both General and Financial Crime.

His practice divides into business crime, general crime, regulatory proceedings, tax appeals and police disciplinary work.

In business crime he is instructed to defend across the spectrum of misconduct; from allegations of high value fraud, corruption and misconduct in public office to cheating the public revenue, money laundering, breaches of FSMA, and other related misconduct.

His general criminal practice encompasses homicide (murder and manslaughter), human trafficking and slavery, serious drugs and firearms offences, and serious sexual offending.

His regulatory work spans firearms licensing, breaches of planning notices, wildlife offences (CITES regulations) and some health and safety work.

He provides advice and advocacy in substantial, sensitive and complex cases usually from a pre-charge stage; representing individuals and companies who are under investigation or being prosecuted for serious wrongdoing. He is an accredited advocacy trainer (Lincoln’s Inn), a pupil supervisor and a trained facilitator for advocacy and the vulnerable. Leon lectures and delivers training to solicitors’ and accountancy firms in relation to criminal and regulatory matters, with a particular focus on financial misconduct and money laundering.

Leon is the current Leader of the South Eastern Circuit and Joint Vice Chair of the Kalisher Trust. He is a contributing editor to Butterworths “Fraud Law, Practice and Procedure”, a contributing author in corporate crime to LexisNexis and a contributor to Banks on Sentence.

Contributed to

1

Unexplained Wealth Orders—UWOs

Practice Notes

This Practice Note sets out the legislative history to the creation of unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) by the changes made to Part 5 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 by the Criminal Finances Act (CFA) 2017 in terms of the introduction of UWOs and the key provisions of the legislation, including who can apply for UWOs, who they can be obtained against (and the definition of Politically Exposed Persons or PEPs for this purpose), procedural considerations, and the test under POCA 2002, s 326B ie reasonable grounds for suspecting that the known sources of the respondent’s lawfully obtained income would have been insufficient for the purposes of enabling the respondent to obtain the property, which must be satisfied before a High Court will make the order. It also considers the basis on which an order can be obtained, including the duty of full and frank disclosure for ex parte applications and the consequences of a failure to comply with the order ie where there has been a failure to respond to all of the requests for information set out in the order without reasonable excuse.

Corporate Crime