Michael O'Kane

Practice Areas

Michael O’Kane is the Senior Partner of Peters & Peters. He has dealt with a wide range of high-profile business crime matters for high net worth (HNW) individuals, governments and corporations since joining the firm. He has particular expertise in international corruption, criminal cartels, economic sanctions, extradition, mutual legal assistance, private prosecutions and Financial Conduct Authority investigations. He is particularly well known for cases with a complex, international and often political aspect.

Career

Michael was called to the Bar in 1992 and prior to joining Peters & Peters was a senior specialist prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Headquarters. He was a key member of a small specialist unit responsible for the prosecution of serious and high-profile fraud, terrorist, espionage, and special interest criminal matters, including the Stansted Airport Afghan hijacking and the prosecution of Paul Burrell (Princess Diana’s butler). He is listed as one of only 10 of the world’s best investigative lawyers.

Professional Memberships

• American Bar Association (ABA)

• Association of Commonwealth Criminal Lawyers

• Competition Law Association

• International Association of Prosecutors

• International Bar Association (IBA)

Publications

Michael is a frequent writer and commentator in the general and specialist press.

He co-authors the leading European Sanctions Law blog (https://www.europeansanctions.com/) and is the author of the leading textbook on the UK Criminal Cartel Offence: The Law of Criminal Cartels – Practice and Procedure, Oxford University Press.

Awards

Languages Spoken

English

Clients

• Five members of a well-known family accused of international corruption.

• A prominent senior member of a Middle Eastern royal family.

• A billionaire UK national facing asset freezes

• A multi-billionaire Israeli and UK national facing international asset freezes

• An ultra HNW African businessman facing allegations of corruption

• Two ultra-HNW co-owners of one of the largest privately owned energy companies in Russia

• Prominent tech businessman facing asset freezes

Experience

Michael is Senior Partner at Peters & Peters. He also held a position as Senior Crown Prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service.

Industry Sector Expertise

• Business Crime & Investigations

• Competition & Antitrust

• Bribery & Corruption

• Criminal Fraud

• Criminal Restraint & Confiscation

• Extradition

• General Crime

• Internal Investigations

• INTERPOL Red Notices

• Sanctions & Export Controls

• Unexplained Wealth Orders

• Private Prosecutions

• Criminal Cartels

• Mutual Legal Assistance

• Dawn Raids

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Michael acts for clients across a range of jurisdictions and has experience in dealing with UK, foreign and cross-border matters.