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.
Blog Post
Government launches updated anti-money laundering strategy with a focus on the role of "professional enablers" such as lawyers, accountants and estate agents
On 1 November 2018, Minister for Security and Economic Crime, Ben Wallace, launched the Government's updated Serious and Organised Crime Strategy (originally released in October 2013) (the "Strategy"). To put the revised Strategy into force £48m of funding was promised to tackle economic crime and illicit finance. The National Economic Crime Centre, a specialist unit within the National Crime Agency ("NCA") with officers from the NCA, Serious Fraud Office, HMRC, and police forces, was launched on 5 November 2018 as part of this drive against money laundering and economic crime.
Blog Post
Reflection on the recent High Court decision: the SFO can request production of documents held abroad by foreign companies
A recent High Court decision has ruled on the international application of a section 2 Criminal Justice Act (CJA) 1987 notice. It was held that the notice was enforceable against a non-UK company and it accordingly could be compelled to disclose documents to the SFO held outside of the jurisdiction.
Blog Post
Canadian Court Awards Cryptocurrency Owner a Tracing Order
Last month, the Supreme Court of British Columbia awarded a Singapore company, Copytrack, an order that it was entitled to trace Ether tokens which had been issued to an investor by mistake.
Blog Post
NCA sees off challenge to its first UWO
The new powers of unexplained wealth orders (UWO) and the supporting “interim freezing orders” commenced on 31 January 2018. Criticism has been made of government authorities' (the NCA, HMRC, the FCA, the SFO and the CPS) seeming reluctance to avail themselves of their newfound investigative tool.