The UK Serious Fraud Office Wednesday charged logistics and freight operations company F.H. Bertling Ltd and seven individuals with bribing an agent of the ANGOLAN STATE OIL COMPANY, SONANGOL. The defendants face one count of making corrupt payments contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906. The SFO said:- The bribery was […]

The UK Serious Fraud Office said Friday a court approved its second application for a deferred prosecution agreement to settle Bribery Act and related offenses committed in several foreign countries. Deferred prosecution agreements are commonly used in the United States to resolve FCPA and other corporate criminal offenses. But the practice is new in the […]

Three men convicted of defrauding investors out of almost £80m ($116.4m, €104m) in a London-based Ponzi scheme to fund their lavish lifestyles have been sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison. Forty-year-old Jolan Marc Saunders, Michael Dean Strubel, 54 and Spencer Mitchell Steinberg, 46, were all convicted in February of conspiracy to defraud following an investigation […]

  The Bribery Act came into force on 1 July 2011.  After a slow start, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has started to gain traction with recent high profile prosecutions of Standard Bank[1] and the Sweett Group[2]. The main issue to date has been the lead in time.  The Bribery Act does not have retrospective […]

On 8 January 2016, Recorder Andrew Mitchell QC at the Southwark Crown Court sentenced Smith & Ouzman Ltd (an Eastbourne-based printing company) to pay £2.2m in respect of bribery offences (under the pre-Bribery Act legislation), after the company and certain senior executives had been found guilty in December 2014. This case is significant because it […]

Sweett Group plc admits to section 7 bribery offence in the Middle East The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) opened an investigation into Sweett Group plc’s (Sweett) overseas activities in July 2014. Sweett has admitted an offence under section 7 of the UK Bribery Act 2010 in respect of conduct in the Middle East. A […]

LONDON, Nov 30 ICBC Standard Bank Plc agreed to pay nearly $37 million and enter into a British financial regulator’s first deferred prosecution agreement to end probes into bribery of officials in Tanzania. The accord marks the first time that Britain’s Serious Fraud Office has used a DPA, which typically lets a company avoid prosecution […]

The U.K. Serious Fraud Office is seeking to enter into a plea agreement with ICBC Standard Bank Plc, marking the first deferred prosecution agreement the agency has issued since receiving new powers last year. The deal, which was approved in principle in a private hearing with Judge Brian Leveson, will go before a London court […]