On 16 December 2011 the British Horseracing Authority (‘BHA’) Disciplinary Panel (the ‘Panel’) published its Reasons in arguably the biggest sport corruption case to be heard before a National Governing Body (‘NGB’) to date. The hearing lasted 11 days and involved charges against 13 named individuals. The outcome was:

- near lifetime bans from the sport for Maurice Sines and James Crickmore, the main protagonists in racing’s latest tale of premeditated corruption;
- lengthy (likely career ending bans) for jockeys Paul Doe and Greg Fairley; and
- significant bans also for Jimmy Quinn and Kirsty Milczarek. 

The depressing case of the criminal convictions of Mohammad Amir, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif for spot-fixing during Pakistan’s 2010 test series against England was a sobering reminder that corruption is a live problem in sport.

Money laundering in football is not a new phenomenon but the poor financial health of world football overall has lead to increased scrutiny in recent years by leading organisations such as Transparency International ('TI') (the world’s leading non-governmental anti-corruption organisation) and the Financial Action Task Force (‘FATF’) (an independent inter-governmental body that develops and promotes policies to protect the global financial system against money laundering and terrorist financing).