Circus Brilliant

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Counsell took the helm in February 2025 following Marcus Boyle’s departure in January last year.

Evans, who chairs Stop Scams UK, an initiative she founded in 2019 to unite banks, technology companies and telecom providers to combat payment fraud, will assume the position on 30 September, commencing a five-year term.

The DCMS has said she brings extensive experience from her long-standing career in public protection and financial crime prevention.

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The Commission’s intervention followed hot on the heels of the £600,000 regulatory settlement with QuinnBet, announced eight days earlier.

Its findings contained an all-too-familiar combination of ineffective systems, delayed interventions and inadequate source-of-funds controls. One customer placed approximately 4,800 bets in one day and 7,000 the next without being flagged. Another, whose payslips showed monthly earnings of about £2,000, deposited and lost £9,000 in four days.

“What is striking here is the level of activity that apparently failed to trigger effective intervention,” Williams says. “These were obvious indicators requiring further scrutiny, and it is difficult to understand why they did not result in more effective intervention.”

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Arbitrators found against the companies and ordered them to pay millions of dollars toward Laos’ legal costs and expenses.

One tribunal found in 2019 that Lao Holdings had acted in bad faith and ordered it to pay Laos $1.95 million. Another made a similar finding against Sanum and awarded the government $1.78 million.

A third arbitration produced another award worth nearly $1.3 million, taking the amount Laos is seeking to more than $5 million.