Bribery relating to investments in Cambodian biofuel (Sustainable Growth Group)
In 2012, the SFO launched an investigation into the mis-selling of investment products between April 2011 and February 2012 relating to biofuel Jatropha tree plantations in Cambodia by Sustainable Growth Group (SGG) and its subsidiary Sustainable AgroEnergy plc (SAE).
The biofuel products were sold to UK investors, who were, according to the SFO, deliberately misled to believe that SAE owned land in Cambodia planted with Jatropha trees, with an insurance policy in place to protect investors if the crops failed. According to the SFO, the total value of the fraud was approximately £23 million. The group of companies went into administration in March 2012.
In August 2013, the SFO brought charges for fraud, and bribery offences under the Bribery Act against four individuals connected with SAE: Gary Lloyd West (Chief Commercial Officer and Director), James Brunel Whale (Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Director), Stuart John Stone (third-party sales agent) and Fung Fong Wong (Financial Controller).
These were the first bribery charges the SFO brought under the Bribery Act.
The SFO alleged that, in addition to making false representations to investors, Mr. Stone bribed Mr. West to produce false sales invoices of over £3 million, for which Mr. Stone — as a sales agent — received very high commission rates of 65 percent on investor’s funds.
The fraud was concealed using false e-mail addresses, Swiss bank accounts and
On 5 December 2014, Mr. Stone and Mr. West were convicted of giving and receiving bribes (under Sections 1 and 2 of the Bribery Act), respectively. Along with Mr. Whale, they were also convicted of various fraud offences. Mr. Wong was acquitted of all charges.
A judge imposed custodial sentences of 13 years on Mr. West (including two years for receiving bribes), nine years on Mr. Whale and six years on Mr. Stone (one of Mr. Stone’s three six-year concurrent sentences was for giving bribes).
The SFO’s legal proceedings to establish compensation and confiscation orders against the three individuals are ongoing.
These are the first sentences for bribery offences to be passed in accordance with the new sentencing guidelines effective from 1 October 2014.
These guidelines set out how the courts should determine the category of offence (by assessing culpability and harm) and the sentencing starting points for each category.
The guidelines also list aggravating factors (including attempts to conceal evidence, offences committed across borders and pressure exerted on another party) and mitigating factors (including remorse, voluntary reporting and cooperation with an investigation).
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