Blog Post
Is the SFO riding roughshod over the fundamental protection of legal privilege?
Lisa Osofsky, Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), spoke at the Royal United Services Institute in London and spoke about legal professional privilege. This post comments on her remarks particularly in light of the Court of Appeal's judgment in ENRC v SFO.
Blog Post
House of Lords Select Committee determines Bribery Act 2010 is an "exemplary piece of legislation" and encourages the Government to consider extending the "failure to prevent" offence to other economic crimes
Today, Thursday 14 March 2019, the House of Lords Select Committee ("HLSC") published its post-legislative scrutiny report on the Bribery Act 2010 (the "Act") having held 23 oral evidence sessions and reviewed 61 written submissions (including from Fieldfisher). The Act brought in, along with offences of offering or giving and requesting or receiving bribes and the offence of bribing foreign public officials, a strict liability corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery by a company's "associated persons". The only defence available for the failure to prevent offence is to have in place "adequate procedures" designed to prevent associated persons paying bribes on the corporate's behalf.
Blog Post
SFO allows second lawyer to take notes in interviews
On 28 February 2019 the Serious Fraud Office updated its guidance on dealing with requests for lawyers to accompany individuals interviewed under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act. Previously an interviewee could be accompanied by one lawyer only. The guidance has been updated to allow an additional legal representative to attend the interview for the sole purpose of taking notes. This does not permit the recording or transcribing of the interview.
Blog Post
HMRC publishes guidance on self-reporting the failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion
The Criminal Finances Act 2017, which came into force on 30 September 2017, makes certain corporate entities (referred to as "relevant bodies") criminally liable where they fail to prevent persons associated with them from criminally facilitating tax evasion, whether the tax evaded is owed in the UK or overseas. A person is “associated” with a relevant body if they are an employee, agent, intermediary or other person who performs services for or on behalf of the relevant body. The definition is intended to be wide
Blog Post
SFO drops investigation into Rolls Royce
The Serious Fraud office has announced that it is discontinuing its investigation into Rolls-Royce and there will be no prosecutions of any individuals for criminal conduct following the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) reached in 2017.
Blog Post
Tesco's controversial DPA published
The Serious Fraud office has now published its Deferred Prosecution Agreement ("DPA") with Tesco Stores Limited alongside the accompanying statement of facts. The publication follows the collapse of attempts to prosecute three of Tesco's directors on charges of fraud by abuse of position and false accounting.
Blog Post
NCA continues seizure of assets in first Unexplained Wealth Order
"Diamonds are forever", sang Shirley Bassey in 1971. The National Crime Agency would disagree, having seized a diamond ring worth £1 million from the subject of its first Unexplained Wealth Order.
Blog Post
Government proposes new measures to tackle international money laundering through UK vehicles
On 10 December 2018 the Government unveiled a package of measures to address the use of Scottish Limited Partnerships ("SLPs") and UK Limited Partnerships ("LPs") for money laundering in its response to a consultation on reforms to such partnerships. SLPs in particular have featured heavily in large corruption scandals, including the "Global Laundromat" in which as much as US $80bn may have been laundered out of Russia utilising over 100 SLPs
Blog Post
The UK's first Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) Comes to an End
Last week the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced the end of the UK's first Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with Standard Bank. As part of the DPA's terms, Standard Bank was required to cooperate fully with the SFO and other authorities investigating the bribes, including disclosing information and material relating to the activities of individuals involved.
Blog Post
SFO proposes creation of broader 'failure to prevent' laws
The Director of the Serious Fraud Office and the President of the Queen's Bench Division have lobbied Parliament to create an overarching law of 'failure to prevent' applicable to all areas of economic crime in order to achieve greater success in the prosecution of corporate entities.