Understanding the FATF Greylisting: Implications for BVI Financial Institutions

George Weston 

Partner, Banking & Corporate at Harneys

George Weston is a partner and head of our British Virgin Islands Transactional team. He advises on all aspects of corporate and commercial law, including mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, downstream private equity investments, joint ventures, public and private share offerings, capital raisings, and corporate reorganisations. Although he works with clients in a wide range of industry sectors across the globe, George has particular expertise working with leading law firms and private equity investors on cross-border corporate acquisitions and joint ventures with a technology or real estate element (including hotels and hospitality). He leads our SPAC practice group in the Americas and has considerable experience of both IPOs and business combinations.

Prior to joining Harneys, George spent seven years in the London office of Paul Hastings, where he worked on a number of high profile corporate transactions. He also completed a secondment in an ECM team at JP Morgan Chase.

George has been widely quoted and published in a variety of media including CNBC, MergerMarket, Legal Business, Asian Business Law Review, Business Law Today, Practical Law Company Magazine, the British Tax Review and the International Financial Law Review. George is a member of the International Bar Association, and he serves as the Chair of BVI Finance. He is also a member of the statutory Company Law Advisory and Review Committee and consults regularly with the BVI government and regulators on the development of corporate law in the BVI.

Aki Corsoni-Husain

Partner, Global Head of Regulatory and Tax at Harneys

Aki Corsoni-Husain is the global head of Regulatory & Tax, specialising in all aspects of contentious and non-contentious financial services, sanctions, fintech, AML, and tax information exchange law. His practice covers the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus/ EU law, and other jurisdictions within our network. Aki works intensively with and mentors all of our regulatory and tax lawyers located across the globe. As relevant, he provides consultative professional advice to governmental and regulatory authorities on the regimes underpinning global regulatory initiatives and frequently presents at conferences on these topics. Aki works on a daily basis with the world’s top financial institutions and law firms.

Prior to joining us, Aki worked in the Financial Markets and Regulatory group at Dentons in London and has also spent time in-house on secondment at Goldman Sachs International, Shell plc, and ABN AMRO Bank.

Aki is the founder of, and regular contributor to, our ground-breaking Regulatory Blog and our Expert Review podcast series. He also serves as a contributing editor to many publications, including British Virgin Islands Commercial Law, Bermuda Commercial Law and International Guide to Money Laundering Law and Practice.