The former chief financial officer of the company behind Patisserie Valerie and three other people pled not guilty to fraud charges brought by the Serious Fraud Office on Friday over allegations they helped conceal a £10 million ($12.5 million) black hole in the bakery and café chain's books.

Former parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash and his co-defendant Christopher Berry appeared at a London criminal court on Friday charged with spying for the Chinese government.

HSBC fended off on Friday a £1.3 billion ($1.6 billion) fraud claim brought by hundreds of investors who alleged the bank misled them into financing a Disney movie tax relief scheme it developed which turned out to be worthless.

Multinational miner Anglo American said Friday that it has rejected a £39.1 billion ($48.9 billion) takeover bid from its Australian heavyweight rival, BHP Group, saying the offer "significantly undervalues" the company and its prospects.

Third-party video game cheating software should not infringe game creators' copyright in the European Union if it only manipulates a gamer's input rather than the game's code itself, a legal adviser to the bloc's top court said Thursday amid Sony's dispute with a British gaming business.

A London appellate court on Thursday blocked Locke Lord LLP's former banking partner from challenging his prison sentence for taking part in a £21 million ($26.2 million) Ponzi scheme.

The director of the Serious Fraud Office said on Thursday that the spate of fraud investigations launched early in his tenure wasn't a deliberate policy — though he acknowledged that he wants to make the agency "relevant to the taxpayer."

Financial companies are urging the City watchdog to slow its anti-greenwashing rule that comes in force in May as legal experts warn that it has failed to clarify all its expectations in final guidance, putting businesses that make the wrong call at risk of enforcement action.

Actor and political activist Laurence Fox was ordered by a London judge on Thursday to pay a total of £180,000 ($224,000) in damages to two men who he libelously called pedophiles after they described him as "racist."

BHP Group said Thursday that it has offered to buy out Anglo American in a transaction valuing the British multinational at £31.1 billion ($38.9 billion), as the Australian mining giant looks to bolster its commodities portfolio.