Ilana Baines
Senior Associate

Ilana is an accomplished criminal litigation lawyer who has extensive experience defending in complex cases including bribery, corruption, money laundering, tax evasion, Account Freezing Orders, insider dealing, fraud by abuse of position, fraudulent selling and land banking.

Ilana's experience covers investigations and prosecutions brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), The Royal Mail and National Trading Standards. She regularly advises professional clients on regulatory proceedings, including Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) investigations and interventions. Ilana also specialises in Restraint and Confiscation proceedings.

Notable Experience

• Represented a bureau de change owner on money laundering allegations in excess of £100 million.
• Operation Puffin: £8.7 million corruption prosecution involving the supply of potatoes to Sainsbury's.
• Operation Elveden: Represented a Sun journalist on charges of conspiracy to commit Misconduct in Public Office.
• Operation Cotton: FCA's first prosecution of Land Banking, amounting to £4.3 million.
• SFO investigation into accounting practices at Tesco.
• SFO prosecution in respect of LIBOR fixing.
• Operation Saturn: the longest and most complex FCA prosecution of insider dealing at that time.
• Secured the return of several million pounds after an Account Freezing Order was imposed.

Background

Ilana graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2007 and completed her LPC at the College of Law in London. She sits on the Women in Criminal Law committee and is a member of the Fraud Lawyers Association and Women Lawyers Division of the Law Society. Ilana is also a mentor to BVC, LPC and GDL students studying at the University of Law.

Contact Ilana