Elly Proudlock

Elly is a senior lawyer with over 15 years’ experience advising on white collar criminal defence, internal investigations and cross-border financial crime compliance.

Elly acts in external investigations involving the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and other authorities. She represents companies and individuals facing allegations of financial crime including fraud, bribery and corruption, money laundering, breaches of financial and trade sanctions and other types of misconduct.

Elly also acts in internal investigations and regularly advises companies on the whole range of issues relating to business crime, including helping clients to mitigate their exposure under the UK Bribery Act, the Proceeds of Crime Act, sanctions legislation and, most recently, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act. This includes extensive experience advising financial sponsors, global corporates and financial institutions on business crime compliance and due diligence.

In relation to sanctions, Elly has advised many clients on compliance issues relating to the Ukraine-related sanctions imposed in 2022, as well as on strategies to comply with anti-boycott legislation while mitigating sanctions risk.

Work highlights

• conducting an investigation for a London-listed global mining company, into matters which led to the dismissal of the Group’s CEO for serious misconduct

• acting for a non-UK headquartered bank in an investigation by HMRC into alleged breaches of trade sanctions

• advising a leading payments company on an OFSI investigation into an alleged breach of financial sanctions, resulting in OFSI’s first use of its power to issue a public censure without financial penalty
• advising a company in connection with a self-report to the SFO regarding suspected offences under the Bribery Act
• acting for a UK listed company in an SFO fraud investigation
• conducting several internal investigations into alleged fraud and other misconduct for an international entity
• advising a multinational energy services company in relation to an SFO investigation into its historic use of agents
• conducting ABC, AML, sanctions and general compliance due diligence (seller and buyer side) for multiple UK and EU corporates and private equity firms, as well as advising on and implementing post-acquisition compliance uplifts
• advising a UK energy supplier on the localisation of global ABC policies and procedures in a new market

Elly has previously represented senior individuals in SFO investigations involving high-profile names such as Barclays (payments to Qatar), ENRC (alleged corruption in Africa), Rolls-Royce (alleged corruption in multiple jurisdictions) and Serco (alleged overcharging).

Elly is a member of the Fraud Lawyers Association and sits on its committee, as well as sitting on the City of London Law Society’s Corporate Crime & Corruption Committee.

Elly is a contributing author to Global Investigation Review’s Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations.

Elly is listed as a Rising Star in Legal 500 for Regulatory Investigations and Corporate Crime.

Elly studied French and Spanish at Cambridge University.