2015 may see an extension of the corporate offence under the Bribery Act to make companies liable for “failing to prevent” any economic crime. In 2015 we are likely to see the introduction and/or prosecution of a range of new offences, including energy market manipulation and insider dealing offences and a strict liability cartel offence, […]

Internal documents seen by the Guardian suggest the UK catering giant’s Kazakh unit made ‘facilitation payments’ for an unspecified period up to 2011 An international subsidiary of Compass Group, the British catering giant that supplies more than 1,500 UK primary schools and 30 NHS Trusts, paid bribes to government officials in Kazakhstan, documents seen by […]

While much of the country was embarking on preparations for the festive season, in December 2014 three company directors were found guilty and sentenced to a combined 28 years in prison for their part in a £23m biofuel fraud. They were also disqualified from acting as directors for a combined total of 40 years and […]

Three men have been convicted and sentenced as part of the Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO) investigation into Sustainable Growth Group and its subsidiary companies. Gary Lloyd West, James Brunel Whale and Stuart John Stone were convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud, conspiracy to furnish false information, fraudulent trading and Bribery Act 2010 offences in relation […]

David Green CB QC, Director, Serious Fraud Office (SFO), has given a speech at the Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime. In his speech Mr Green made the following key comments: 1. the SFO’s current caseload includes investigating specific allegations in relation to o LIBOR, FX, o allegations of bribery and fraud involving major UK corporates […]

Making bankers accountable The current provisions in the UK to make bankers accountable include Section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010 has not yet been deployed in anger.  This is the section that makes it an offence for a commercial organization to fail to prevent bribery.  It remains to be seen how often the section […]

The Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) brought fraud related charges against three directors and one employee of Sustainable AgroEnergy plc (“SAE”), a subsidiary of Sustainable Growth Group (“SSG”) on 14 August 2013, as part of a wider investigation into an alleged £23 million “bio fuel” investment fraud. Three of the individuals have also been charged under […]

On 23 April 2013, Mr Yang Li, a Chinese student who had been studying at the University of Bath, pleaded guilty to bribery under section 1 of the Bribery Act 2010 (the “Act”). Mr Li had been studying for an innovation and technology management masters degree at the University of Bath.  Upon finding out his […]