Leonora Sagan represents corporations, executives and high-net-worth individuals in complex commercial, criminal, and regulatory disputes and investigations.
She is recognised by the legal directories as a leading junior in Business and Regulatory Crime, Civil Fraud, Commercial Litigation, and Financial Services, and has extensive experience in dealing with fraud, bribery, corruption, and other financial misconduct in both civil and criminal contexts. Her cases often concern asset misappropriation, tracing and forfeiture; company frauds; contentious trust matters; banking and financial services; private prosecutions; and allegations of professional misconduct, especially in the legal profession or at board and executive levels. The nature of Leonora’s practice means that she routinely advises on the law at the interstices of the civil, criminal, and regulatory spheres, including in cases with a sanctions angle, such as Celestial Aviation v UniCredit, listed by The Lawyer as one of its “Top 10 Appeals of 2024”.
Leonora is currently acting for the Man Group in Public Institution for Social Security of Kuwait v Man Group (listed by The Lawyer as one of its “Top 20 Cases of 2020”) in which several financial institutions are pursued in connection with allegations of large-scale bribery. She is also representing four off-shore investment funds seeking to recover assets misappropriated by their asset managers and damages for conspiracy. Other recent cases include defending the former CFO of Globo Plc against allegations of misleading the market, and securing the acquittal of the former CEO of Redcentric in the first ever criminal prosecution for the same offence, brought by the FCA (under s.89 Financial Services Act 2012).
Leonora regularly acts for clients facing FCA investigations and proceedings, and is also on the SFO’s panel of external counsel. In court, she often appears as sole counsel and has a particular interest in interlocutory and appellate work.
Before joining Fountain Court Leonora practiced at Kobre & Kim LLP in New York and London.