Criminal
Is it the end of the road for the SFO?
31 May 2017 - Blair Keown
The Conservative Party has pledged in its manifesto to incorporate the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into the National Crime Agency (NCA). As Home Secretary, Theresa May twice tried unsuccessfully to restructure the SFO. In 2011, she proposed sending the SFO’s investigators to the NCA and its prosecutors to the Crown Prosecution Service. In 2014, reports › Read More
09 May 2017 - Calum Macdonald
On 27 April, the Criminal Finances Bill received Royal Assent. Now the Criminal Finances Act 2017, it represents the most significant development in the UK’s anti-money laundering regime in more than a decade and the largest expansion of corporate criminal liability since the Bribery Act 2010. We have covered key parts of the Criminal Finances Act previously › Read More
The FCA’s Business Plan 2017/2018: Key themes
20 April 2017 - Samantha Holland
Earlier this week, on 18 April 2017, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) published its Business Plan for 2017/2018 setting out the FCA’s activities and priorities for the coming year. At the same time the FCA published its Mission (see our previous blog post on the FCA’s consultation on its Mission here) and, for › Read More
The Criminal Finances Bill: Part One
19 October 2016 - Calum Macdonald
With the publication of the draft Criminal Finances Bill 2016-2017 on Thursday, financial services firms have been put on notice of what stands to be the largest expansion of UK corporate criminal liability since the Bribery Act 2010. In case that were not enough for practitioners to digest, the Bill also proposes one of the most › Read More
The UK’s second Deferred Prosecution Agreement
19 July 2016 - Calum Macdonald
On 8 July 2016, the UK’s second-ever Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) was concluded between the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and an unnamed party for a number of bribery offences. Related criminal proceedings are still on-going. Accordingly, to preserve anonymity certain facts have not yet been released and the judgment authorising the DPA refers to the › Read More