Stephen Baker is an English Barrister, Jersey Advocate and Senior Partner of specialist litigation and dispute resolution practice based in Jersey Channel Islands, Baker & Partners.

Having been called to the English Bar in 1989, Stephen is a highly-experienced Court room Advocate, specialising in complex criminal and regulatory law, as well as international commercial and trusts litigation.

Stephen is a specialist in conducting investigations into the flow of suspected corrupt payments made to politicians through Jersey and has been responsible for suspicious activity reports and investigations on behalf of both the Attorney General of Jersey and the Jersey Financial Services Commission.

He also has expertise in cases involving complex fraud and money laundering, particularly those with an international and political dimension. In the UK, Stephen has been instructed to prosecute by the Serious Fraud Office, the Inland Revenue, Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise, and the Department of Public Prosecutions Head Quarters.

Outside of Jersey and the UK, he has advised the United Nations on matters of confiscation and been instructed by a large non-European state to advise on meeting legislative standards set by the Financial Action Task Force. He is an appointed Crown Advocate and has regularly acted for foreign governments including the Federal Republic of Brazil, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and the Kenyan Anti-Corruption Commission.

Stephen regularly speaks on the topics of corruption and asset recovery to a global audience, and is frequently asked by the national media to comment on matters of international co-operation in compliance and confiscation.

Stephen is the Jersey representative of FraudNet and also sits on the board of the Jersey Institute of Law.

In 2017, Stephen gained international peer recognition for his work in asset recovery, having been appointed Senior Vice Chair of the International Bar Association’s Asset Recovery Subcommittee. Throughout his two-year appointment, Stephen will engage with IBA’s global membership and work with other IBA committees to contribute to the organisation’s conferences.

Baker & Partners

Baker & Partners is a specialist litigation and dispute resolution practice based in Jersey Channel Islands. The firm provides objective, clear and practical advice and has been at the forefront of some the Island’s most complex and high value litigation cases.

Since its inception in 2003, Baker & Partners has gained a global reputation for its expertise in its niche practice areas and regularly appears among other high ranking organisations in both the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners directories.

Geroudis is a boutique law Chambers with practice focused on 3 sectors of legal industry, namely financial fraud and asset recovery, corporate and commercial law, and Africa investments via Mauritius using its DTA system. It has recently restructured to shift its focus to Africa investments from Europe and North America, focussing on Mining, distributorships, Government contracts and green investments into Africa and all related dispute resolution and public relations.

Shankhnad Ghurburrun is the Chairperson of the firm. He has built his professional expertise in Asset Recovery, corporate strategy, and M&A actions mainly in Africa. He is presently responsible for a Acquisitions in Canada for a special project for the firm the next 7 years.

Bettina Knoetzl has been a trial lawyer for 25 years, focusing on fraud and asset tracing, business crime, investor protection, liability claims and corporate disputes. She is one of the top litigators in the country, continuously ranked as a trial lawyer and as true asset-tracing specialist, recognized by the bench and bar, with superior knowledge of how to locate, freeze and recover misappropriated assets. Bettina has successfully defended corporate and executive clients in a huge range of business crime investigations, including fraud, corruption, mismanagement and insider trading allegations. She has a distinguished track record of winning for both companies and private clients in both discrete and high-profile public trials. At the start of 2016 Bettina carefully selected individuals and founded the eponymous firm KNOETZL, entirely focused on dispute resolution, business crime, investigations, asset recovery, compliance and crisis management.

Her achievements in asset-tracing and recovery have been recognized across the globe. In 2017 Who’s Who Legal called her “Lawyer of the Year” in Asset Tracing. She is a “Thought Leader” and ranked in the Top Tier by national and international directories such as Chambers or Trend for more than a decade. With her vast understanding and experience of cross-border work, she is a repeatedly, sought-after co-counsel by top-tier global law firms.

Bettina is the immediate past Co-Chair of the Litigation Committee of the International Bar Association, the President of the Advisory Board of Transparency International (Austrian Chapter), the exclusive Austrian representative of the ICC-FraudNet and Member of the Advisory Board of ZBP, the Career Center of the Vienna University of Economics and Business and teaches at the Lawyers’ Academy Litigation & DR skills. She is consistently ranked in the top tier by the leading international directories and is currently recognized as “Most Highly Regarded Individuals” in “Litigation”, “Asset Tracing” and “White Collar Crime”.

Thomas is a partner of KNOETZL and heads the firm’s White-Collar Crime Department. He focuses his practice on business crime matters, asset recovery and international litigation.

Expert in all areas of white-collar crime, Thomas has in-depth experience in representing corporate, governmental and high net worth individual clients through criminal proceedings and related civil cases, especially in aggressive pursuit of injured parties compensation for damages due to embezzlement, fraud and money laundering. Some of Thomas’s cases have been high in profile, requiring a sometimes-delicate handling of the press. Thomas also routinely acts as defense counsel and advises on major criminal investigations for individuals and international corporations, inter alia involving allegations of price-fixing, bribery, serious fraud or bankruptcy offences.

Thomas regularly publishes articles and academic works on subjects concerning corporate criminal liability, anti-trust offences and leniency programs.

He holds a degree of the University of Vienna (2010) and is a member of the Vienna Bar.

Jeff Lane is a commercial litigation Partner at Tanner De Witt and has been practising as a lawyer in Hong Kong for over 25 years. Jeff is well-known for his work in corporate fraud and asset tracing in domestic and multi-jurisdiction investigations, white collar crime and dealing with recovery proceedings and regulatory investigations with the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) and the Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB). He has written several articles about dispute resolution and fraud and asset tracing and regularly speaks on these issues in local and regional seminars. Jeff is recognised in a number of prominent international guides including Asia-Pacific Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners identifying him as one of Hong Kong’s leading litigation lawyers and he has been the Hong Kong representative of FraudNet since 2008.

Tanner De Witt, established in 1999 is a full service independent business law firm with more than thirty lawyers. The litigation team has enjoyed significant success in carrying out multi-jurisdiction fraud and asset tracing investigations. Other practice areas in which Tanner De Witt offers legal advice and representation are corporate and commercial; insolvency and restructuring; labour and employment; financial services regulation and compliance; criminal, including white collar crime; family and private client services; and hospitality, including liquor licensing.

Alejandro Pignataro is the Founding Partner of Pignataro Abogados, where he leads the Asset Tracing & Recovery Practice. He obtained his LL.M. in American Law with a concentration in International Business Practice from Boston University in 2003, and his JD from the University of Costa Rica in 2000.

Alejandro has devoted over 20 years of professional practice to provide legal counsel to foreign corporations and investors in Costa Rica. His expertise is in Corporate Law. Furthermore, he frequently serves as local counsel to receiverships and private counsel in multi-jurisdictional fraud cases, directing the domestic legal proceedings, interfacing with the enforcement agencies involved, and attending to the administration of the Receivership Estate.

The Firm’s Fraud and Business work team is assisted by Associates with vast experience in litigation and arbitration in Costa Rica.

Mr. Pignataro is the Costa Rican representative for ICC FraudNet. He is fluent in English, Spanish and French.

PIGNATARO ABOGADOS was established in 2015 as a boutique corporate law firm committed to providing top-tier legal advice to select corporate and individual clients doing business in Costa Rica and the Caribbean Basin region. The firm brings together a group of leading corporate law practitioners and civil litigation experts with an insightful understanding of the local market and its legal challenges. Our practice focuses on this specific array of fields of expertise in order to guarantee highly technical, pertinent legal advice with a business perspective.