Blog Post
SFO struggling to secure corporate convictions
Research carried out by Kyle Phillips, a Director in the Corporate Crime team at Fieldfisher has revealed that despite developments in the law, including the introduction of corporate criminal offences under the Bribery Act 2010, the Criminal Finances Act 2017 and the Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPA's), the SFO is slow in progressing corporate criminal investigations.
Blog Post
Disclosure Pilot hits turbulence
This article discusses some of the key provisions in the Disclosure Pilot Scheme (the "Pilot") introduced at the start of 2019 in the Business and Property Courts (which includes the Commercial Court) and provides our honest views on how the scheme is working in practice nearly a year on.
Blog Post
Dirty money: how to control the flow of corrupt wealth
A review of more than 400 money laundering and corruption cases in the UK has revealed the scope of potential beneficiaries of dirty money.Transparency International UK has published a report, which
Blog Post
EU adopts law expanding whistleblower protections
As reported in our blog post EU strengthens and expands whistleblowing protections, the EU has been working to strengthen protection and support for whistleblowers reporting on breaches of EU law. The draft EU law was formally adopted by the EU Council on 7 October 2019.
Blog Post
Accelerating criminal investigations: the new US / UK data sharing agreement
The US and UK have signed a bilateral agreement that will significantly speed up the process of obtaining electronic data for the purposes of criminal investigations.
Blog Post
Spectre of privilege issues still looms large in SFO's corporate cooperation guidance
The SFO has published its long-awaited Corporate Co-operation Guidance which sets out what companies should and should not do to assist the SFO in its investigations. The Guidance contains statements in relation to the waiver of privilege which may not be welcome.
Blog Post
Acquittal of Sarclad executives: a further nail in the coffin for DPAs?
Last week three former executives of Sarclad, a company that designs and manufactures technology based products for the metals industry, were acquitted of conspiracy to corrupt and conspiracy to
Blog Post
Another blow for the SFO: Charges against former Barclays CEO Varley dismissed
The Court of Appeal has today dismissed all charges of fraud against Barclays' former CEO John Varley. Mr Varley was the only CEO of a large bank to be prosecuted following the financial crisis and his acquittal, along with that of the corporate Barclays entities, will add to criticism of the SFO that it is unable to hold senior management and corporations to account for wrongdoing. This is yet another high profile failure for the SFO following the collapse of a 2016 trial against brokers accused of helping the convicted trader Tom Hayes rig the Libor rate and the collapse of the trial in December 2018 of Tesco executives.
Blog Post
SFO still sniffy about snitches?
Lisa Osofsky, director of the SFO, appeared to slightly temper her earlier comments regarding offering leniency to informants when speaking at the GIR Live Women in Investigations conference on 12 June 2019.
Blog Post
Proposed register of overseas owners of UK properties contains a number of loopholes
The latest draft legislation aimed at preventing "McMafia-style" money laundering contains a number of loopholes which could undermine its purpose, a Parliamentary Joint Committee has concluded.