Piers Rake

Practice Areas

Piers' main areas of expertise include:

Forensic Investigations, including financial wrongdoing (fraud, bribery and corruption), regulatory investigations and non-financial misconduct.

Civil Fraud

Litigation Support, including asset tracing.

Dispute Resolution, including commercial and corporate litigation and mediation

Regulatory Compliance

Financial Crime

Career

Piers is the head of Astraea’s intelligence & forensic investigations team, and leads multidisciplinary engagements on behalf of clients who are navigating complex special situations.

Piers is a Solicitor (20 years PQE), a CEDR Accredited commercial Mediator, a Certified Fraud Examiner, and Forensic Investigator.

With a background in commercial litigation, Piers has 20 years of experience helping clients to manage risk, resolve disputes and investigate and respond to allegations or instances of financial wrongdoing and non-financial misconduct.

In this time, Piers has lived and worked in the Middle East, and has conducted cross border engagements spanning Europe, the Middle East and North & Sub-Saharan Africa. He has particular experience investigating economic crime and advising regulated businesses on their legal and regulatory obligations, having been global head of financial crime Investigations at Barclays Bank Plc.

Piers has led investigations into organised crime networks, high-end money laundering and fraud, in relation to drugs and human trafficking, ‘shadow-banking’ schemes, trade-based money laundering, cash-funnelling, investment and accounting fraud, cross-border corruption, tax evasion and sanction circumvention.

Piers is a former investigator and adjudicator for one of the UK’s main political parties, where he undertook investigations relating to complaints against party members in a voluntary capacity.

Professional Memberships

Law Society of England and Wales

Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution

Publications

Piers has written for a range of external publications including The Times, Thompson Reuters Practical Law and a number of industry publications on topics of fraud, whistleblowing, economic crime, and legislative reform.

Languages Spoken

English

Education