Addleshaw Goddard's fraud, regulatory and corporate crime team head Ian Hargreaves is set to join King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin (KWM), making him the fourth sector head to depart the firm in the space of seven months.

Hargreaves specialises in civil fraud and asset tracing, working on the recovery of assets across jurisdictions including Spain, Switzerland, Andorra, Gibraltar, the British Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas.

In 2011, he was part of a team acting for alleged Kazakh banking fraudster and former BTA Bank chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov on a multibillion-dollar misappropriation case, and has also served as head of Addleshaws' West Africa team.

Hargreaves will join the compliance and investigations team at KWM, one of the three key strands of the firm's litigation practice along with international arbitration and banking and finance.

Craig Pollack, global co-ordinator of KWM's dispute resolution practice said: "Ian's is a strategic hire in the investigations and compliance space to meet the growing need of UK and EU corporates to face up to the increasing amount of regulation impacting on the business environment in Europe, as well as being complementary to our high profile investigations team in China that work on many of the highest profile investigations for multinational companies there.

Pollack said the hire showed the practice was "in growth mode", adding: "Ian brings with him a wealth of experience of major fraud, bribery, sanctions, compliance and investigations work – both globally and domestically."

A leaving date has yet to be decided but Addleshaws has already announced Hargreaves' departure internally. 

As of this morning (24 September), Addleshaws' website lists eight partners – including Hargreaves – in its fraud, regulatory and corporate crime team, but it is thought that none will be making the move across to KWM with Hargreaves.

In May, real estate chief Mark Haywood took two partners to help launch Nabarro's Manchester office, followed shortly after by the departure of client delivery team head Andrew Chamberlain to DWF.

Two months previously, corporate head Phillip Goodstone jumped ship to EY as part of the accountancy giant's push into the legal market.