By Mark Dunster, Simon Florance

On 10 May 2018, the Royal Court of Guernsey handed down its judgment in Liang v RBC Trustees (Guernsey) Limited. This was the first private law action brought by a person denied access to assets as a result of a SAR made to Guernsey’s Financial Intelligence Service (the FIS).

This kind of private law action was foreshadowed by the Guernsey Court of Appeal in an earlier decision, as a byproduct of the “chilling effect” of Guernsey’s anti-money
laundering legislation; namely The Criminal Justice (Proceeds of Crime) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 1999 (the POC Law).