Criminal
UK corporate criminal liability reform creeps forward
27 January 2021 - Post by:
The UK Law Commission is considering whether corporate criminal liability law should be reformed and two weeks ago MPs proposed a new economic crime corporate offence to be included in the Financial Services Bill. What is the likely way ahead and what are the implications now for companies? Corporate criminal liability for economic crime – › Read More
SFO releases guidance on deferred prosecution agreements
06 November 2020 - Post by:
On 23 October 2020, the SFO published another chapter of its gradually evolving Operational Handbook (the Handbook), this time covering the invariably attention-grabbing topic of Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs). This newest addition to the Handbook, which follows and complements last year’s chapter on corporate co-operation, may not present those who are familiar with the SFO’s › Read More
24 July 2020 - Post by:
Recent guidelines from the French Minister of Justice reveal a heightened willingness of French authorities to combat corruption-related offences and to prosecute more individuals. The guidance, contained in a Circular, also strongly encourages corporations to voluntarily self-disclose internal suspicions of corrupt practices. A call for self-reporting The Circular calls for self-reporting by corporations, stressing that › Read More
Direct access – a sea change in data gathering in UK/U.S. criminal investigations
08 July 2020 - Post by:
A new UK/U.S. bilateral agreement for accessing electronic data in cases of serious crime, which was negotiated and released in autumn 2019, is about to enter into force. The Agreement represents a sea change in cross-border investigations. The Agreement permits criminal authorities in each country to obtain electronic data directly from a range of telecommunications › Read More
Watershed moment for prosecution of corporate crimes in Germany gets closer
28 April 2020 - Post by:
Resistance has been futile. Although practitioners and academics strongly criticised a previous working draft, the German Federal Ministry of Justice has now formally published its proposal for a Corporate Sanctions Act (Verbandssanktionengesetz, the Draft Bill). The Draft Bill reflects some of the concerns that were raised about the previous draft (discussed here). It has become › Read More