On October 5, 2020, a confiscation order was issued by the Southwark Crown Court, ordering Richard Baldwin, who did not appear in court, to pay £1,633,766. Baldwin was convicted on money laundering charges in 2017, and subsequently sentenced to 68 months’ imprisonment.
The money laundering charges arose out of Baldwin’s participation in a conspiracy to insider deal in 2007 and 2008, which was uncovered in a complex investigation (dubbed “Operation Tabernula”) by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, and resulted in the conviction of Baldwin’s co-defendants Martyn Dodgson and Andrew Hind, and three other individuals: Paul Milsom, Graeme Shelley, and Julian Rifat.
According to the evidence, between 2006 and 2010, Dodgson conveyed to Hind inside information received in the context of the former’s employment at several investment banks. Hind and Baldwin, who were partners in a luxury watch business in London, used the inside information to conduct trades, concealing the trades and hiding the profits offshore, including through a shell company in Panama and a bank account in Switzerland. Dodgson and Hind were convicted of conspiracy to insider deal in May 2016. Baldwin was convicted of dealing in criminal property in 2017, after admitting to charges of contempt of court in November 2015 for violating a 2011 restraint order issued during the investigation to prevent him from dissipating the profit from insider dealing in the shares of a Scottish brewing company.
Baldwin remains at large, after absconding from justice during the money laundering trial. If he fails to pay the confiscation order within three months, he will face an additional eight years in prison. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.