SFO’s novel restitution route returns £400,000 to victims

A novel route to restitution

The fraud, orchestrated by Abdallah Ali Jammal between 2001 and 2002, was essentially an advance fee fraud and involved unsolicited emails promising commissions for helping release funds from overseas accounts. Some £4.4 million was stolen from 18 individuals worldwide. Jammal fled before he could be charged and is believed to remain in Lebanon.

Investigators froze assets during the original probe, including funds linked to Jammal Trust Bank; a bank later liquidated after US sanctions were imposed for its links to a terrorist organisation. With no realistic prospect of a criminal conviction, the SFO applied to the High Court on behalf of the victims for a declaration that the money was recoverable property under section 281 POCA.

Under this section, if certain statutory conditions are met – namely that the applicant was deprived of the property by unlawful conduct, the property was not recoverable property immediately before they were deprived of it, and the property belongs to the applicant – the court may declare the property as belonging to the victim. The ruling, obtained in 2023, enabled the SFO to redirect frozen funds to victims rather than HM Treasury. This approach was appropriate as the victims could establish a proprietary claim to funds traceable to their losses, rather than the funds being treated as general criminal assets to be forfeited to the state. It also avoided the complexities associated with criminal prosecution, particularly where the perpetrator remains outside UK jurisdiction.

This is the first time that the SFO has used POCA in this way, and their announcement states that they will “now seek to use this technique across other relevant cases.”

How does this fit with the SFO's wider posture?

This novel method of enforcement illustrates two themes running through the SFO's 2024-29 Strategy and 2025-26 Business Plan: a commitment to international partnership and a willingness to use every tool available to deliver tangible outcomes. The latter has been a strategic focus of Nick Ephgrave since he became Director of the SFO. In his first speech as Director in February 2024, Ephgrave emphasised the need for innovative investigative techniques and a results-driven approach.

In this case, tracing and verifying victim accounts required multi-agency cooperation. The SFO worked with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Australian Federal Police, Belgian Police, the French Liaison Magistrate and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office to locate the victims and secure their consent for the action. This level of collaboration highlights the complexity of cross-border fraud cases and reflects the SFO's ambition to be “the partner of choice both domestically and internationally”.

More broadly, the restitution move aligns with a discernible shift in the SFO's approach: flexibility, pragmatism, and victim-centric outcomes. Historically, the agency's enforcement model has been criticised for lengthy timelines and limited visible impact. Recent developments, however, suggest a recalibration.

In 2025, the SFO secured its first Unexplained Wealth Order and executed coordinated dawn raids in connection with its investigation into Basis Markets, signalling a more assertive use of powers and a determination to accelerate case progression. The agency also issued new guidance on cooperation and enforcement, introducing a presumption in favour of Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) for corporates that self-report and cooperate fully, alongside commitments to faster timelines.

The restitution initiative now adds a third dimension to this evolving approach: prioritising victim compensation even where criminal prosecution is not viable. Taken together, these developments point to a pragmatic enforcement model that combines speed, partnership, and tangible outcomes, reshaping expectations of how the SFO will deploy its powers in the years ahead.

Practical implications for corporates

• Expect civil recovery to feature more often where prosecution is impractical, with implications for disclosure and asset-tracing support.
• Victim compensation is now a priority in enforcement outcomes and may influence DPA negotiations.
• Cross-border readiness matters: multi-agency cooperation brings accelerated timelines and complex data requests.
• Legacy risks can persist: old issues can resurface if money was frozen at the time – or if it can still be traced.

Conclusion

The SFO's return of £400,000 to victims is more than a one-off. It signals a broader shift toward flexible enforcement, international collaboration, and victim-centric outcomes. For corporates, that means recalibrating expectations and readiness for an enforcement landscape where civil recovery and international partnership are firmly part of the toolkit.

AI tools have been used to support editing of this publication. All content has been reviewed and approved by Hogan Lovells lawyers.

Authored by Reuben Vandercruyssen, Olga Tocewicz, Claire Lipworth and Alex Cumming.