Category: White Collar Crime
Sanctions: what tech companies should consider
While sanctions restrict trade and dealings with specified individuals, entities and states, export controls restrict the distribution of specified products & services, namely military goods and items that can have a dual civilian and military use. In the past, compliance with sanction and export regimes was largely seen to be […]
High Court supports SFO bid to obtain documents claimed as privileged
In a landmark ruling on 8 May 2017, the High Court ordered that the Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (“ENRC”) should hand over to the SFO documents prepared during an internal investigation, despite the fact that the documents had been generated by lawyers (including external solicitors). In 2011, ENRC began an […]
Court clarifies jurisdiction to exempt bank from potential criminal liability for making payments before NCA approval received
What happens when a company’s bank accounts are frozen and, as a result, faces imminent collapse, but the bank opposes a court application to process key transactions on the basis that if the bank is made to do so by the court, the bank may be guilty of a criminal […]
Failure to Prevent Criminal Facilitation of Tax Evasion
The new UK “failure to prevent criminal facilitation of tax evasion” domestic and overseas offences will almost certainly become effective in or before September 2017. What does this mean for companies and firms? The offences threaten criminal liability in connection with policing the acts of others. Strict liability is imposed […]
Tesco announces Deferred Prosecution Agreement
It was announced last week that Tesco PLC’s subsidiary, Tesco Stores Ltd, has finalised the terms of a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the SFO (subject to court ratification on 10 April 2017). The DPA concludes the SFO’s two-year investigation into accounting practices in 2014 that left a £326 million […]
UK/European crime-fighting coordination post Brexit “a priority”
As anticipated in our blog last June, the impact of Brexit on how the UK’s crime-fighting agencies will interact with their European counterparts is now firmly on the agenda. On 6 March, the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, announced that remaining in the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) system will be “a […]
Government considering reform to hold companies more accountable for economic crime
The Ministry of Justice has announced that it has commenced a consultation with businesses on the introduction of legislation aimed at tackling corporate economic crime and is seeking views on the extent to which reform is required. This follows on from the Prime Minister’s anti-corruption summit on 12 May 2016 […]
UK’s Serious Fraud Office secures second deferred prosecution agreement – this time with the UK Subsidiary of US Corporate
Lord Justice Leveson has approved the Serious Fraud Office’s (“SFO’s”) second application for a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (“DPA”). The Agreement is with a company which cannot be named because of continuing related legal proceedings. The first DPA was with ICBC Standard Bank in December 2015. Further agreements under the DPA […]
Prosecuting “Illicit Enrichment”: a new offence for the UK?
This article by James Maton and Jamie Humphreys was first published on the blog of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption. There are many policy developments that would help improve asset recovery efforts in the UK (see Transparency International’s publication Closing down the Safe Havens). However, if we were to […]