Rachel Cropper-Mawer

Rachel is a partner in Ogier's Jersey office and is head of the firm's Regulatory Services offering, which encompasses risk management, crisis management, investigations and enforcement.

Rachel is a highly experienced lawyer, specialising in advice on contentious and non-contentious regulatory and compliance, and fraud and asset recovery matters for both domestic and cross-border cases. She has extensive experience of High Court litigation and arbitration.

Background and experience

Rachel is a highly experienced lawyer, specialising in advice on contentious and non-contentious regulatory and compliance matters as well as fraud and asset recovery matters for both domestic and cross-border cases. She has extensive experience of High Court litigation and arbitration. She regularly conducts internal investigations, co-ordinating international investigations, defence and management of external investigations by regulatory authorities and litigation. She advises c-suite executives and boards. She managed risk and compliance for the Middle East and Africa region and developed the non-operated joint venture anti-bribery and corruption risk management programme at BP plc, and also worked for Willis Insurance Brokers (International), where she took on the role of chief compliance and risk officer, sitting on the executive team and risk committee, and advising the audit committee.

Rachel has worked across across sectors - primarily financial services, manufacturing, extractives and construction / engineering. Rachel's risk management and programme development expertise extends across the gambit of financial crime risk, ESG and financial regulations.

In her career Rachel had a year-long secondment to the Financial Conduct Authority in London, working on insider dealing and other complex wholesale financial services investigations in the Enforcement team at the Financial Conduct Authority. She also spent six months seconded to insurance company Hannover Re in Germany. She was also formerly co-chair of the Global Regulatory and Investigations team at one of the largest international litigation firms.

Rachel is a regular speaker at industry events and an author of industry-leading thought leadership, publishing articles on a wide range of subjects.

Example investigations Rachel has worked on (including her experience prior to Ogier) include the following:

• High profile deep fake fraud investigation - the first reported deepfake fraud, involving supporting staff with police interviews, asset tracing, running an internal investigation and reporting to the C-Suite

• Internal investigation in the aviation sector spanning 15 jurisdictions: co-ordinating evidence gathering, legal advice and risk management in respect of bribery, fraud, AML and sanctions evasion

• Internal investigations on fitness and probity- for senior managers and directors across a number to sectors and jurisdictions

• Investigations into bribery, AML and fraud in the Middle East, Africa, EU, UK and Australasia

• Financial Service investigations and reporting including fraud, probity and management of an FCA consumer compensation programme for a large bank

• Investigation into bribery and corruption by senior account managers at a large infrastructure company

• Investigation into bribery and corruption by an IT entity, influencing the outcome of tenders through bribery of "independent" IT consultants

• Investigating scale fraud in a haulage company by senior regional managers

• Investigation into the theft of data and business

• Conducting search and seize orders as a supervisory solicitor

In the majority of cases clients chose to bring freezing injunctions and proceedings to successfully recover monies. In other cases, new owners successfully sued the sellers of companies in respect of breach of undertakings and material nondisclosure of the corruption at the time of the sale and purchase. 

Examples of risk and crisis management work Rachel has advised on (including her experience prior to Ogier) include the following:

• Developing sanctions and investigations programs for a large international energy, telecommunications, construction and hi-tech holding company

• Developing the financial crime risk management program for procurement and sales for a global beauty company and household name

• Developing the modern slavery risk management program for a leading global design and consultancy organisation for natural and built assets

• SMCR risk management program work for a number of UK Insurers

• Updating the consumer risk management training program for a major building society

• Developing dawn raid programs for financial services and large international companies

• Managing dawn raid responses in infrastructure, financial services and the extractives industry

• Conducting a dawn raid during my secondment to the FCA

• Training Boards and senior managers

• Preparing companies for scheduled regulatory visits from the FCA and HMRC

Significant cases Rachel has worked on (including her experience prior to Ogier) include the following:

• Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors: Highly complex allegations of fraud, corruption and political corruption

• JSC BTA Bank v Abliazov: Highly complex allegations of fraud, corruption and political corruption

• IF P&C v Silverseas Cruises: This appeal concerned one of the first reported post 9/11 (11 September 2001) cases to reach the English courts. The insured's – Silversea's - claim was for business losses incurred as a result of passenger cancellations and reduced bookings on its cruises. It was the leading precedent on business interruption for many years

• Akzo Nobel v Michael:  Large-scale fraud. Involved obtaining a freezing injunction, securing a settlement, and liaising with the regulatory authorities

• Tinkler v Esken: Complex case involving allegations of failure to disclose key documents in a trial and fraud. Third party disclosure orders, disclosure orders and disclosure orders and an order for the preservation of documents and collateral use of documents, the retrieval of deleted Telegraph messages from a phone

• OLAF v J Papdouris and Ors: Successfully managing the defence of an investigation by the EU into corruption in respect of rural redevelopment funding schemes in Cyprus

• OLAF v Marathasa Vineyard: Successfully managing the defence of an investigation by the EU into corruption in respect of funding for the development of a winery in Cyprus

• OLAF: successful early stage resolution of an investigation into the funding of an R&D project for fire retardant materials

Memberships:
·         Women in White Collar Crime Defence
·         Civil Fraud Lawyers Association
·         Fraud Lawyers Association

Committees:
·         Committee member of the IBA Asset Recovery Committee

Pro Bono:
·         Mentor Scheme in London Schools
·         Ambassador and Mentor for Aspiring Solicitors

Admitted in:
2001 - England and Wales (non-practising)