R v Dipak Rao [2017]

Rhys Meggy defended Dipak Rao, the accountant to the rock band ‘Deep Purple’, who abused his access to the valuable bank accounts holding royalty payments from famous songs such as ‘Smoke on the Water’, and embezzled at least £2.4million.

While Mr Rao was inevitably convicted having previously accepted the conduct in civil proceedings, Rhys succeeded in demonstrating that his embezzlement had followed his being defrauded himself by sophisticated boiler-room fraudsters in Canada and Switzerland.   He received a lenient sentence of 6 years’ imprisonment accordingly.

The case called on Rhys’ knowledge of international financial services regulatory investigations.

Counsel was instructed by Julian Waskett of Darton Law.

The case has been reported in the media by the Daily Mail, NME and the Guardian.