The Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) had its first day in court in a Bribery Act prosecution on 24 September 2013, with three of four defendants connected with a £23m fraud at Sustainable AgroEnergy plc (“AgroEnergy”) facing charges of making and accepting a financial advantage contrary to sections 1(1) and 2(1) of the Bribery Act 2010. […]

The legislative framework for DPAs can now be found in Schedule 17 to the Crime and Courts Act 2013 passed on 25 April 2013. Whilst a date has yet to be set for these provisions to come into force, the Serious Fraud Office expects DPAs to be available from February 2014. To this end, three […]

The UK’s shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, has unveiled proposals aimed at increasing the resources available to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and introducing tougher criminal penalties. Ms Thornberry says the UK should strengthen its criminal penalty regime so it is “more in line with other jurisdictions”. Labour also advocated removing the directing act and […]