Ian Domaille and Margaret Hannis made an application following decisions from the Royal Courts and Court of Appeal that supported the Guernsey Financial Services Commission levying fines against them. It was deemed inadmissible.
They, together with Ian Clarke, were fined after the GFSC said that the business and its senior officers failed to identify red flags on potentially serious client activities; failed to identify and address conflicts of interest; and had failed to address action points raised in previous file reviews.
The matter concluded earlier this month when fines were imposed of £125,000 on Mr Domaille, who founded Artemis in 2001, £40,000 on former director Mr Clarke, and £22,500 on Ms Hannis. Proposed industry bans against the three were dropped.
The application by Mr Domaille and Mrs Hannis to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg was made under Article 6 of the convention, which protects the right to a fair trial.
In a notice published on its website this month, the GFSC said that it had noted the decision to regard this case as inadmissible. The application was actually made last year.
It added that the compatibility of its enforcement process with the convention was recently considered in two regulatory appeal cases heard in the Guernsey Court of Appeal, which concluded that these were compliant with Article 6.
‘For the avoidance of doubt, those judgments still stand following the European Court’s decision to decline to hear the application made to it by Mr Domaille and Mrs Hannis,’ it said.
‘The commission also notes that an application for permission to appeal the Court of Appeal’s judgment to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council was unsuccessful.’
Mr Domaille declined to comment.
The company had fought the regulator all the way on the issue, and was privately celebrated by many in the industry when it won an appeal against the GFSC in the Royal Court in 2023.
But the commission appealed against its defeat and won its case in the Court of Appeal. Although it was ordered to reconsider the cases against the three directors, the case then proceeded to its enforcement conclusion earlier this month.
The company had a number of ‘risky’ clients, including from countries such as Libya and Russia, and its compliance record had already come to the attention of the GFSC before it started enforcement proceedings, and it had not acted properly to address its failings. The company has since remediated its position and is still trading.