Barnaby Hone was instructed by the SFO in their first ever contested AFO on 17 March 2023. The SFO recovered over $7,699,204 from convicted money launderer, Mario Ildeu de Miranda. This is the largest ever amount seized by the SFO from a single bank account.
The SFO's investigation revealed Mr Miranda had channelled criminal proceeds through multiple international bank accounts using several different company names.
“Over two years, we unpicked a complex web of transactions across the world – exposing Mr Miranda’s attempt to conceal criminal proceeds and ensuring that the UK cannot be used as a hiding place for criminal assets.”
Lisa Osofsky, Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
Mr Miranda, 71, was convicted of 37 counts of money laundering in Brazil in 2019 as part of ‘Operation Car Wash’, in which Brazilian authorities uncovered extensive and systemic bribery centred around state-owned oil company Petrobras. Mr Miranda, a former executive at Petrobras, was sentenced to over six years in prison and ordered to pay $24,750,000 in Brazil.
In August 2020, the SFO froze a UK bank account that contained over $7,699,204 following a report that these funds were linked to Mr Miranda. The SFO’s investigation subsequently uncovered that these funds had been transferred out of Mr Miranda’s main Swiss bank account and channelled through other banks in Switzerland, Malta, Portugal, the UAE and the Bahamas before being deposited in London – where the SFO froze the account.
Barnaby Hone is a barrister with specialist expertise in all types of asset recovery and financial crime. He is ranked in Chambers and Partners in Band 2 and also within tier 2 of the Legal 500 for his knowledge within POCA, asset recovery, and forfeiture. He is a Member of the SFO’s A Panel and as a Level 4 Prosector on the CPS specialist POCA panel. Barnaby’s international asset recovery and financial crime practice includes experience of dealing with corruption, money laundering and fraud offences which have an international angle and recovering the proceeds of these offences.
Read more on GIR Legal (subscription required) and the SFO's press release here.
