Cyprus’s former interior minister and his son were jailed in Greece on Wednesday for helping a leading Greek politician take millions of euros in kickbacks from arms deals, according to court officials and documents. Dinos Michaelides and his son Michalis were found guilty of money laundering and each sentenced to 15 years in prison, court […]

In a landmark decision released on 10 February, 2015, the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”) announced that Qualcomm, the US chip manufacturer, had been fined RMB 6.08 billion (approximately US$ 975 million) for abuse of market dominance, including unfair licencing practices. The record fine, which is the largest on record in China, follows […]

British prosecutors are investigating whether subsidiaries of Alstom, the French power and transport company at the centre of an international corruption inquiry, committed offences in Hungary, a London court heard on Wednesday. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has already charged two UK-based Alstom subsidiaries and four former employees with corruption, alleging they disguised bribes as […]

At the end of 2014, OECD released its first ever Foreign Bribery Report. The report is an analysis of the crime of bribery. We learn about who is bribing, who is receiving the bribe, what the cost of the bribe is, how bribes are being paid, where bribes are being paid, where the bribers are […]

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 […]

Argentina has been criticised by the OECD for its efforts to fight foreign bribery. The OECD said the country still had no law to punish firms for foreign bribery and it was “seriously non-compliant with key articles of the Anti-Bribery Convention”. The OECD said during a site visit to the country by its Working Group […]

Bribes in the analysed cases equalled 10.9% of the total transaction value on average, and 34.5% of the profits – equal to USD 13.8 million per bribe. But given the complexity and concealed nature of corrupt transactions, this is without doubt the mere tip of the iceberg, says the OECD. Bribes are generally paid to […]

On 1 July 2011 the Bribery Act 2010 (the Act) came into force. The Act is a significant piece of legislation which no company doing business in the United Kingdom can afford to ignore. The practical effect of the Act is that it obliges any business operating in the United Kingdom to review its policies […]