Partner
Christopher Houssemayne du Boulay is a partner and barrister who specialises in serious and complex financial crime.
He plays a key role in Hickman & Rose’s business crime team, preparing some of the firm’s most complex criminal and regulatory cases. He often represents businesspeople – usually directors or senior executives – who require legal representation when the companies they work for are under investigation.
A talented litigator with a forensic mind, Chris has established a formidable reputation for identifying and exploiting weaknesses in the opposition’s case. As a barrister, he is also able to conduct advocacy on behalf of his clients in all courts in England & Wales.
Chris has developed particular expertise defending individuals accused of complex allegations of accounting fraud, both in criminal and regulatory matters. His high-profile cases include:
Chris has also advised individuals in connection with the SFO investigations into ENRC, Rolls Royce, Airbus, Greenergy, BAT, the Price Stone Group, and Libor and Euribor manipulation. He also has experience of investigations and proceedings brought by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Financial Reporting Council, HMRC and the Crown Prosecution Service.
Chris has pioneered the use of technology to help fight cases, and regularly provides advice as to how it can be effectively deployed across all of the firm’s practice areas.
Called to the Bar in 2012, Chris completed his pupillage at leading criminal chambers, QEB Hollis Whiteman. During his pupillage Chris was seconded to HMRC where he assisted with trial preparation in relation to two Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) VAT fraud cases in the tax tribunal.
Prior to pupillage Chris worked on the successful defence of singer and X-factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos against drug supply allegations following an undercover sting by Sun journalist Mazher Mahmood (the ‘Fake Sheikh’). The trial was stayed as an abuse of process and Mazher Mahmood was subsequently prosecuted and convicted for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Chris is a former Chair and Treasurer of the Young Fraud Lawyers Association, and is a member of the International Bar Association, Financial Services Lawyers Association and the City of London Law Society.
Chris is a financial crime specialist who works on Hickman & Rose’s most significant corporate and white-collar criminal defence cases.
Chris’s recent work includes the successful defence of the former Manging Director of G4S Care & Justice Services in criminal proceedings brought by the SFO, concerning an alleged fraud against the government over a ten-year period.
Chris took the lead on the analysis of the detailed financial modelling documents and accounting records, described by counsel for the SFO as “immensely complicated”, and the most complex financial evidence that they had ever come across. Hickman & Rose persistently challenged the SFO’s approach to the investigation and disclosure of this material, and the way the SFO was seeking to use the material to advance its case. Following an almost ten-year investigation and two failed trial listings, and facing an abuse of process application launched by Hickman & Rose, the SFO eventually decided to offer no evidence and bring proceedings to an end.
Chris also had a significant role in the team that achieved the acquittal of the former Managing Director of Tesco UK, on charges of fraud and false accounting brought by the SFO. The prosecution collapsed following a successful submission that there was no case for the defendants to answer.
Chris is presently representing a defendant in connection with an SFO prosecution for ‘conspiracy to make corrupt payments’ in a complex multi-jurisdictional matter. He is also representing a corporate in connection with the alleged embezzlement from a foreign state of assets worth over $500m.
Chris has also played an important part in the team advising individuals in connection with the SFO’s investigations into ENRC, G4S, Rolls Royce, Airbus, Greenergy, BAT, the Price Stone Group, and Libor and Euribor manipulation.
Chris is particularly interested in the way in which ordinary business practices are often later rewoven by a prosecutor as dishonest criminal behaviour. Chris has developed considerable expertise in unpicking a prosecution case, and helping his clients put supposedly incriminating evidence in its proper context.
He also has experience of cases that involve parallel investigations in the UK and overseas, including the US, Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia and often works closely alongside lawyers based in other jurisdictions.
Chris is a former Chair and Treasurer of the Young Fraud Lawyers Association, and is a member of the International Bar Association, Financial Services Lawyers Association and the City of London Law Society.
Chris is an expert on the law governing the proceeds of crime, money laundering and the seizure and confiscation of assets, especially as it relates to complex financial investigations. Chris regularly advises individuals, corporates and other law firms.
Chris has represented a number of individuals and corporates in connection with freezing and forfeiture proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act. He recently secured the return of almost £800,000 for a client (95% of the amount frozen), and represented a corporate in connection with in excess of €30m of frozen assets Chris is the current Chair of the Young Fraud Lawyers Association.
Chris is experienced in matters before professional regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), and regularly provides legal advice to clients facing parallel criminal and regulatory investigations.
Chris’s high-profile cases include the defence of the former VP Finance of Autonomy Corporation PLC before the FRC in connection with allegations made by Hewlett-Packard of a $5 billion accounting fraud, and proceedings brought by the FCA in connection with alleged libor manipulation.
Chris also regularly advises individuals facing internal investigations by their employers, where they are at risk of being reported to the FCA or to other law enforcement.
Chris defended a pharmaceutical company charged with a health & safety offence, and offences under the Medicines Act 1968 following the deaths of three children alleged to have received a contaminated product.
The case involved a significant volume of complex scientific evidence and followed a four-year joint investigation by the Medicines Regulator (MHRA), Public Health England (PHE) and the Metropolitan Police.
Hickman & Rose succeeded in negotiating a basis of plea, and in convincing the Court that the prosecution had not proved that any of the infants had died as a result of our client’s product. The Court found that there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the infants were suffering from septicaemia as a result of the administration of the product.
7 Nov 2024
Hickman & Rose is proud to be recognised again in The Times newspaper’s 2025 list of the best law firms in England and Wales.
Hickman & Rose has been a staple of The Times’ list since it…
9 Oct 2024
Hickman & Rose is proud to have been shortlisted as “Boutique or Regional Investigations Practice of the Year” in Global Investigations Review’s annual review of the best law firms working in…
2 Oct 2024
Hickman & Rose is proud to be recognised again as one of the country’s leading law firms in the 2025 edition of the Legal 500 directory.
The firm’s ‘outstanding’ Serious and…
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