David Aaronberg QC and Dominic Benthall have successfully prosecuted Sohail Qureshi, a Glasgow businessman who masterminded a 2004 conspiracy to defraud NatWest Bank of £20 million. After ten years on the run, Qureshi was extradited from the United Arab Emirates in October 2013 and convicted unanimously by a Southwark jury in respect of the fraud, as well as a £15 million money laundering count and an offence of using false instruments.
His conviction marks a final chapter, following a series of trials prosecuted by David Aaronberg and Ann Mulligan between 2007 and 2009 which resulted in the convictions of 13 co-conspirators.
Qureshi, described by HH Judge Loraine-Smith as “a consummate and professional fraudster”, received a sentence of 7½ years’ imprisonment.
