Dr Helen Taylor
Senior Legal ResearcherAbout
Dr Helen Taylor leads Spotlight’s court monitoring programme. She previously worked at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in South Africa, and has also clerked at the South African Constitutional Court. Helen completed her DPhil in Law at the University of Oxford, and is a research associate at the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Human Rights, Public and International Law at the University of Johannesburg.
Posts by Dr Helen Taylor
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The UK’s new framework for transparent and accountable asset return — putting this global precedent into perspective and into practice
21 January, 2022Dr Helen Taylor
Spotlight on Corruption welcomes the UK’s new “Framework for transparent and accountable asset return” as a positive step in the fight against corruption. For this Framework to be effective, the...
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Three things I learned from IACC
14 December, 2022Dr Helen Taylor
Last week’s International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Washington DC was a packed programme of plenary sessions, panel discussions, workshops and film screenings – punctuated by coffee breaks to caffeinate and...
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From Serious Farce to Serious Force – 4 priorities for beefing up the Serious Fraud Office in 2023
10 January, 2023Dr Helen Taylor
Dr Susan Hawley
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) – the UK’s top fraud fighting body – has been in the news again in ways it won’t welcome after top KC Clare Montgomery called...
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Patchy progress towards effective AML supervision highlights the urgency of reform
17 January, 2023Dr Helen Taylor
In the dying days of 2022, HM Treasury released two years of covid-backlogged data on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) supervision in the UK. This 2020-2022 report yields no clear picture of...
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Nigeria’s bid to overturn a “sham” $11 billion arbitral award to P&ID
30 January, 2023Dr Helen Taylor
One of the biggest arbitral enforcement disputes kicked off in London last week, as Nigeria seeks to overturn an award worth $11.1 billion obtained by a small offshore company following...
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The accountability of the Ahsanis: Will the architects of the Unaoil bribery scandal get away with their tainted proceeds?
24 February, 2023Dr Helen Taylor
Saman Ahsani, one of the kingpins of the corrupt Unaoil empire, was recently sentenced in a Houston courtroom to one year in a minimum security prison and a $1.5 million...
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Briefing: First-ever court challenge to Russia sanctions designation
20 July, 2023Dr Helen Taylor
The UK has designated more than 1,600 individuals and 220 entities in an unprecedented roll-out of sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Today, for the very first time, the courts...
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A policy misfire? How the new sanctions restrictions fail to stop Russia benefitting from UK legal advice
25 July, 2023Dr Helen Taylor
At the end of June 2023, the UK introduced new restrictions to prohibit lawyers from advising Russian companies on certain business transactions that would be prohibited under sanctions if they...
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First-ever court challenge to Russia sanctions fails
18 August, 2023Dr Helen Taylor
Today the first-ever judicial challenge to a designation under the UK’s Russia sanctions regime was dismissed, as the High Court upheld the government’s decision to impose sanctions against the US-UK...
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New SFO director Nick Ephgrave matches ambition with innovation in his first public speech
14 February, 2024Dr Helen Taylor
James Bolton-Jones
Giving his first public speech yesterday as the new Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Nick Ephgrave set out his stall for how the agency will become faster, bolder...
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Closing the door on open justice in a creaking court system?
20 February, 2024Dr Helen Taylor
Despite its much-touted commitment to open justice, the English court system can be difficult to navigate, even for experienced lawyers and seasoned reporters. For ordinary members of the public, trying...
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The unfinished business of accountability for Glencore’s corruption
21 June, 2024Dr Helen Taylor
Exactly two years ago in a packed London courtroom, Glencore pleaded guilty to paying $29 million in bribes to benefit from special oil deals in five African countries. Although the...
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Mozambique wins court claim over corrupt Tuna Bonds
29 July, 2024Dr Helen Taylor
Today Mozambique substantially won its $3.1 billion claim against Abu Dhabi shipbuilder Privinvest over its role in a corrupt conspiracy to secure government-backed loans over a decade ago for a...
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NCA forfeits over £17 million in luxury properties from first-ever McMafia order
5 August, 2024Dr Helen Taylor
Six years after the National Crime Agency (NCA) applied for the first-ever Unexplained Wealth Order, it has this month secured the forfeiture of two luxury properties – a house in...
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Falling at the first hurdle: what two recent cases against law firms handling suspect money show about the UK’s anti-money laundering enforcement regime
5 September, 2024Dr Helen Taylor
Summary The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) – which polices anti-money laundering (AML) compliance in solicitors firms – has recently made welcome strides in taking enforcement action against money laundering breaches....
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All bark and no bite?: Taking stock of the UK’s enforcement of sanctions
24 July, 2024Dr Helen Taylor
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sparked a radical shift in the UK’s use of sanctions, as the UK scaled up its ambition for this key tool of...
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Feeble sanctions enforcement on display at Commons hearing, but could this change soon?
28 November, 2024James Bolton-Jones
Dr Helen Taylor
Weak enforcement has long been the Achilles’ heel of the UK’s fight against economic crime, and the early signs suggest that sanctions enforcement is unlikely to be an exception to...
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