Charles Dewey
As one of the initial core members of the admin group was involved in forming the initial team with Wendy Marks. Have subsequently grown the admin team and been involved in forming initiatives to fight the SRA’s decisions and liaise with Roger Allanson on behalf of the group to gain answers to key questions and challenges.
I was a key member in putting the petition and supporting document together and rallying support for this. It had 130 names in support of returning Roger Allansons certificate to practice to allow our cases to be brought back in play. I was involved in setting up extensive supporting documentation to propose a case to support one of the group members meeting with Jacob Rees Mogg this is in an archive but is a good ‘ready reckoner’ of outline documentation.
Working in marketing and communication I have well developed tech skills and have been involved in supporting and producing various documents and communication pieces to aid the admin group and add support to our arguments and concerns members may have. I’ve also been the master admin of the zoom calls and have arranged and scheduled these.
I’ve been involved in liaising with Roger Allanson, rallying the admin members for team calls and been part of the diplomatic process of making decisions and initiatives to help the experience of group members, moderate the posts where necessary and generally make the engagement with the page as smooth and safe as possible.
Oliver Gayle
Oliver Gayle is a restructuring and insolvency lawyer with 20 years’ experience spent at an international law firm and a well-known bank where he is currently Head of Insolvency and Credit Restructuring.
Oliver has several years of experience acting for insolvency practitioners in asset recovery and investigations and is familiar with litigation funding and costs recovery processes as well as having extensive experience in restructuring and insolvency of companies ranging from SMEs to global corporates and financial institutions.
Oliver is familiar with costs and funding of insolvencies and the powers, rights and obligations of a liquidator to obtain information in relation to the dealings of a company and its directors prior to insolvency.
In recent years he has been involved in the collapse of several law firms including pursuit of recoveries from directors/members and has served on a number of creditors’ committees.
Rohan Ramchandani
I worked for 12 years at Citibank where I was one of the youngest managing directors in the FX business. I was head of European FX Spot trading from 2010-2013.
While not being part of the Facebook group, my wife and I both invested large amounts in the Allansons litigation funding scheme and have a hugely vested interest to see justice done and all the funders receive their money back.
I believe I can add value to the committee from my significant litigation experience against regulators. I was wrongly & unfairly accused of engaging in unlawful trading practices which garnered a lot of press attention as part of one of the major banking scandals over the last decade. Being based in the UK, my belief was to squarely answer to the UK authorities. The FCA never brought any action against me, and despite being interviewed and under investigation by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the SFO concluded (by stating in an official letter) that the alleged conduct did not amount to a violation of any UK law ( i.e. there was no case to answer).
Unfortunately, despite being cleared by my own country, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) decided to make a criminal antitrust case against me. This was a lengthy, torturous and exhausting experience. Due to the harsh sentencing guidelines in the US, 97% of defendants plead guilty. For the remaining 3% who go to trial, the US DoJ wins 90% of their cases at trial. So from the moment you’ve been charged, you have a 0.3% chance (1 out of 300 ) of being acquitted. Despite these odds, I was so convinced of my innocence, I chose to waive extradition, leave my pregnant wife and 5 year old daughter behind, and travel to the US risking 10 years in prison to clear my name once and for all.
Fortunately, the truth prevailed, and my 5 year + legal battle came to an end after the jury acquitted me of the baseless charges after deliberating for just over 4 hours.
Alicia Vernon
I have been working on behalf of the page since its inception as an Action group. I am an Educator and a Trainer and have worked in leadership positions, for a government agency in Procurement and contracts, have my own business some of which is centred around mental health and wellbeing.
I have had media experience and so am well used to speaking in the public domain. I am an activist and campaigner at heart and have a strong social conscience. I produced the first three drafts of the petition document and been an integral contributor to every initiative in the group and so have a really good understanding of our journey and our needs.
Most recently I covered for Charlie and liaised with Roger until Charlie was able to return to us. My understanding and comprehension of the issues we are dealing has increased exponentially over the last year. I am highly motivated to bring our situation to as best a conclusion as possible during these very challenging circumstances in which we find ourselves. This means working together and encompassing all the information to represent all our views and concerns.
Tim Panter
I am age 51. In my work as an experienced professional actuary, I advise some of the largest final salary pension schemes in the country, providing pensions to over 600,000 members.
I am a clear thinker and problem solver, level headed, and very comfortable working with professional advisers and ordinary members alike.
I would be happy to help represent the large group of funders who have found ourselves in this unfortunate position, working constructively to support the insolvency practitioner to achieve the best possible outcome for all funders.