Global Regulatory Enforcement Law Blog : Global Regulatory Enforcement Lawyers & Attorneys: Reed Smith Law Firm: Government Contracts & Compliance

This post was written by Rosanne M. Kay.

Word on the street is that the UK's Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") has a number of active investigations into potential offences under the Bribery Act 2010. So far, the Bribery Act has only been used in a reasonably minor prosecution of a court clerk who took bribes to erase motoring offences from court records.

Despite rumours about active Bribery Act investigations, there are persistent question marks about the SFO's ability to take on such investigations and prosecutions. The SFO has suffered significant cutbacks and, apparently, only has £2million in its war chest to enforce the Act.

However, the public are highlighting potential issues to the SFO. Apparently, its hotline is receiving around 500 calls a month and the whistle-blowing section of its website has had 200 hits.

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This post was written by Rosanne Kay and Emma Osborne.

The first person to be charged under the new UK Bribery Act, a magistrates court clerk, was convicted by Southwark Crown Court on Friday, 14 October 2011.

The court clerk, 22 year old Mr Munir Yakub Patel, was convicted under Section 2 of the Bribery Act for requesting and receiving a bribe intending to improperly perform his functions. The court heard that Mr Patel agreed to use his position at Redbridge magistrates court to prevent a traffic penalty from being entered onto a court database in exchange for £500.

Mr Patel was bailed until 11 November 2011, when he will be sentenced.

The case was brought by the Crown Prosecution Service (‘CPS’) which, like the Serious Fraud Office (‘SFO’), can bring prosecutions under the Bribery Act. It is anticipated that the CPS will focus on more domestic prosecutions whilst the SFO will focus on the more complex overseas corruption cases.

Although this is a minor conviction, it marks the start of the jurisprudence under the new Act. However, it will have little bearing on how complex overseas bribery cases will be dealt with or on how contentious parts of the Act relating to jurisdiction and “associated person” will be interpreted. The Act is not retrospective and will only apply to offences committed since it came into force on 1 July 2011. It may therefore take some time before we see the first SFO prosecution under the Act.
 

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This post was written by Fionnuala Lynch and Rosanne M. Kay.

Earlier this month, Richard Alderman, Director of the SFO, was speaking at an international symposium on economic crime in Cambridge and made an interesting point which has been picked up by many UK newspapers.

He referred to the fact that 20 years ago, it was possible for UK companies to get deductions for tax purposes in respect of bribes. Clearly this is no longer the case and, now that the new Bribery Act is in force, may lead to potential prosecutions.

Mr. Alderman was however suggesting that companies should have information to ensure that they are not claiming tax deductions in respect of bribes and the SFO has therefore started to require companies to disclose relevant parts of their tax calculations in the hope that these might provide evidence of bribes and the fact that companies are identifying them.

The SFO is seeking to persuade companies to self-report their own breaches of the Act.

There are several potential situations where companies’ tax calculations may reveal unlawful practices under the Bribery Act:

• Where companies offer or hold offshore accounts – Various tax authorities worldwide are trying to unravel the secrecy surrounding offshore banking. This process involves the exchange of information between worldwide tax authorities on the tax affairs of multinational companies and offshore account holders. This could result in previously undetected bribes coming to light.
• The Act’s impact upon existing disclosure requirements – Section 6 of the Bribery Act (the foreign public official offence), in contrast with Sections 1 and 2, does not require any intention to procure “improper” conduct from the official. The briber need only intend to “influence” the official to act to the briber’s business advantage. The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) has, in the past, expressed concerns that what would normally be considered legitimate promotional expenditure, could now be caught by the Act. This uncertainty over what constitutes an offence under Section 6, may result in banks and financial institutions making more frequent Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). The institutions’ tax calculations are likely to be disclosed and inspected as part of this process, which may expose bribes.
• More stringent monitoring roles for companies relating to bribes – Companies should use internal monitoring to look into all policies and procedures that may shed light on potential bribes. In particular, financial monitoring may well include ensuring that books and records relating to tax are properly kept and will pick up irregularities which indicate that bribes are being paid.

Despite the hype, the likelihood that companies’ tax calculations will reveal bribes seems remote. In particular, it seems unlikely that those preparing tax calculations will be made aware that bribes have been paid. For example, payment of a bribe is usually supported by an invoice for consulting services.

Mr. Alderman was previously the Director of National Teams and Special Civil Investigations in HMRC, where he conducted specialised tax investigations. In his speech, Mr. Alderman explained that, if a tax deduction was sought in the context of a bribe where the expense had not been identified properly, this would create another ‘books and records’ offence and a separate line of prosecution for HMRC, rather than the SFO.
 

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This post was written by Rosanne M. Kay.

The first person to be charged under the new Bribery Act will be a magistrates court clerk who allegedly accepted £500 for fixing a motoring offence.

The Crown Prosecution Service (“CPS”) has decided to prosecute Munir Yakub Patel who faces a charge under Section 2 of the Bribery Act for allegedly requesting and receiving a bribe intending to improperly perform his functions. Mr Patel is due to appear before Southwark Crown Court on 14 October 2011. According to press reports, he is currently being held in custody.

Proceedings for offences under the Bribery Act require the consent of either the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”). The SFO is the lead agency in England and Wales for investigating and prosecuting cases of overseas corruptions whereas the CPS prosecutes bribery offences investigated by the police committed either overseas or in England and Wales (although it is anticipated that the CPS will focus more on domestic cases).

Whilst this may only be a small case which will not touch on key concerns relating to jurisdiction and hospitality, it marks the start of jurisprudence on the Bribery Act. It will also put the SFO under increased pressure to start its own action under the Bribery Act.

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This post was written by Rosanne Kay and Tom Webley.

The Financial Services Authority (“FSA”) recently announced its intention to carry out a thematic investigation of the policies and procedures that investment banks have in place to prevent their staff and agents from paying or receiving bribes. Click here for the full speech.

This coincides with the coming into force of the Bribery Act 2010 on 1 July 2011. Click here for more information about the Bribery Act.

Thematic reviews are carried out by the FSA to look into widespread issues affecting a whole industry, market or product and result in the publication of a report of what the FSA discover. Although they may lead to enforcement action against specific firms depending on what the FSA find, the reviews are not enforcement actions in themselves.

A similar review was carried out of the insurance sector which resulted in the publication of a report in June 2010 highlighting a widespread lack of understanding of the risks of corruption and compensation and bonus schemes which increased the risks of bribery.

In their recent announcement, the FSA highlighted the overlap between corruption and money laundering. Indeed, most banks will already have detailed procedures in place to reduce the risk of failing to comply with, for example, anti-money laundering rules as well financial sanctions and FCPA requirements. They may well therefore have most of the relevant procedures in place to deal with bribery risks already
 

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This post was written by Simon D. Hart.

With the coming into force of the UK's Bribery Act 2010 today, companies will be reviewing and revising a wide range of documents, policies and procedures across their organisation. Whilst in-house Counsel will almost certainly have been at the forefront of any internal review to ensure the company's readiness for the Bribery Act, the Human Resources department also has a very significant role to play in that exercise. Reed Smith's Employment group looks at the Act from an employment perspective.  To read more click here.

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This post was written by Simon Hart and Rosanne Kay.

The Director of the Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) has recently articulated a robust interpretation of the SFO’s jurisdiction under the UK’s Bribery Act 2010, which comes into force on 1 July 2011. In doing so, the Director has challenged the understanding of many companies and their advisors. Whilst the debate may be seen by many as an academic debate for lawyers, the implications could have a significant impact on whether or not particular operations of a global company fall within the reach of the SFO.

The Director made it very clear that, in his view, if a global company had a UK subsidiary, but there was bribery in another part of the global company, the SFO would have jurisdiction under the Bribery Act. This interpretation is in contrast to statements made in the Guidance issued by the Ministry of Justice in March 2011 which indicated that such foreign companies would not themselves be regarded as “carrying on business in the UK” simply by virtue of having a UK subsidiary or a listing on an exchange. (“Carrying on business” is the test for determining whether an entity can be fixed with criminal liability under the corporate offence in the Act.)

Mr Alderman made it plain that the SFO would be adopting a very wide interpretation of the phrase “carrying on business in the UK”. Mr Alderman has said “What I have said to corporates is that it would be very dangerous for them to use a highly technical interpretation of the law to persuade themselves that they are not within the Bribery Act and that it is permissible for them to carry on using bribery. I have said that they could have a very unpleasant shock…”

Mr Alderman went on to explain “Our view is that if a foreign group has a subsidiary in the UK and in another country and that bribery occurs in that other country then that bribery is within the remit of the SFO.”

Ultimately, the much-debated jurisdictional provisions of the Act will be determined neither by the SFO nor those that the Act purports to cover, but by the English Courts. However, it is clear that the SFO will be looking to promote an anti-corruption agenda by highlighting the risks of engaging in corrupt activities anywhere in the world if the business has any connection with the UK.

To reinforce the message, Mr Alderman has emphasised that surprise arrests of overseas nationals at UK borders could be a possibility if they have engaged in bribery: “You can’t be sure that you won’t be stopped at the airport. We are not going to say, “if you turn up, you will be arrested”. It may or may not happen”.

Mr Alderman has also signalled that the SFO will be interested in prosecuting cases against foreign corporations where there has been bribery that has disadvantaged ethical UK companies. He has suggested that in such a case, there would be a strong UK public interest in bringing that foreign company before the UK courts. Mr Alderman has said that he is keen to test the new law against foreign companies despite the challenges in investigating, prosecuting and punishing a foreign company.

Despite Mr Alderman’s strong words, it remains to be seen whether the SFO will have the resources or the will to investigate and prosecute foreign corporates. Nevertheless, these recent statements highlight the fact that companies can only draw limited comfort from the commentary on jurisdiction in the Ministry of Justice Guidance.

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This post was written by Simon D. Hart.

After months of speculation, and rumoured turf wars within the UK government, it has today been confirmed that the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) will not be broken up and will remain independent of the new National Crime Agency (“NCA”). The SFO will retain both its investigative and prosecution powers in relation to major economic fraud and corruption. Crucially for the SFO, this means it retains control of investigations and prosecutions under the new Bribery Act 2010 which comes into force on 1 July.

There had been considerable speculation that the SFO would be broken up with its investigative powers being folded into the new NCA and its prosecution powers being passed to the existing Crown Prosecution Service. Richard Alderman, the director of the SFO, had been arguing strongly that the way to tackle serious fraud and advance the anti-corruption agenda was for there to continue to be a single, specialised unit which had both investigative and prosecution powers. He appears to have won that battle – but perhaps not the war. The sting in the tail of today’s announcement is that the government has left open the prospect of the future of the SFO being reviewed one year after the NCA becomes operational in 2013.

The recent uncertainty over the future of the SFO has given rise to the departures of a significant number of senior personnel from the organisation. Whilst today’s announcement means the SFO will survive in its current form for now, the fact that it may only be a stay of execution is unlikely to assist the SFO in recruiting the investigators and prosecutors it now needs to deal with complex and high value fraud and corruption.
 

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This post was written by Matthew Stone.

On 30 March 2011, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Director of Public Prosecutions published their joint guidance for prosecutors (the Guidance) for offences under the UK's new Bribery Act, which comes into force on 1 July 2011. This coincides with the publication of the final guidance issued by the Department of Justice on the adequate procedures defence to the s. 7 corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery.  Bribery Act 2010 - Adequate Procedures Guidance.

The new Guidance addresses a number of issues:

• Two-stage test for prosecutors – As with other criminal offences, prosecutions for bribery under the new Act need to pass the two-stage test in the Code for Crown Prosecutors  - i) the evidential stage and ii) the public interest stage.

If a prosecutor does not have sufficient evidence to make a conviction more likely than not, prosecutors should not go on to consider whether a prosecution is in the public interest, no matter how serious or sensitive the case is.

• Public interest considerations – In determining whether a prosecution is in the public interest, prosecutors should take into account a number of factors set out in the Guidance which tend either in favour or against prosecution. These factors differ depending on the offence in the Act in respect of which prosecution may be brought. They include, among other factors: 

○  whether conviction is likely to result in a substantial sentence
○  whether the suspect was in a position of authority or trust; and
○  whether there was an element of corruption of the victim in the way the offence was committed.

In respect of the Corporate Offence, the SFO's Guidance on Corporate prosecutions will be considered. This Guidance sets out further factors likely to weigh in favour of prosecuting a company which include:

○  whether the company has a history of similar conduct;
○  whether the conduct is part of the established business practices of the company
○  whether the company has already been the subject of warnings or sanctions; and
○  whether the company's reporting was slow or concealed the full extent of the offending conduct.

Prosecutors are also entitled to consider whether conviction of company personnel for a minor offence under the Act would have a disproportionate effect on the company by leading to the company's debarment from public contracts.

• “Financial or other advantage” – The general "active" and "passive" bribery offences and the offence of bribing a foreign public official all refer to a "financial or other advantage". This term is not defined in the Act. The Guidance states that the term "advantage" should be understood in its ordinary everyday meaning.

• Strict Liability Corporate Offence of failing to prevent bribery – The Guidance makes clear that the Corporate Offence does not require prior prosecution of the associate person although there needs to be sufficient evidence to prove bribery by the associate person to the normal criminal standard.

For corporates seeking to avail themselves of the adequate procedures defence, they will need to establish the defence on the balance of probabilities. The Guidance makes clear that a single instance of bribery does not necessarily mean that an organisation’s procedures are inadequate. The actions of an employee may be wilfully contrary to very robust corporate contractual requirements, instructions or guidance.

• Hospitality – The Guidance makes clear that hospitality which is not excessive or disproportionate and which is made in good faith is unlikely to attract the attention of the prosecutors. The more lavish the hospitality or expenditure, the greater the inference that it is intended to encourage or reward improper performance of a function or activity. Lavishness is just one factor that may be taken into account in determining whether an offence has been committed.

• Facilitation Payments – Unlike the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the UK Bribery Act has no carve-out for facilitation or grease payments and this point is reiterated in the Guidance.

The Guidance stresses that all cases under the new Bribery Act should be considered on their own merits, but given the likely importance of precedents - particularly for prosecutions under the Corporate Offence - lawyers will be watching closely to see how prosecutors and the courts apply the new law in practice after 1 July 2011.

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This post was written by Rosanne M. Kay and Tom Webley.

The waiting is over! At last the UK Ministry of Justice has published guidance about procedures which commercial organisations can put into place to prevent persons associated with them from bribing. The Act will now come into force on 1 July 2011.

The guidance offers non-prescriptive procedures and commentary on the scope of the Act. As the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Kenneth Clarke, said this morning in his statement on the publication of the guidance "These are quite tough rules. But what the guidance I am also publishing today underlines – after helpful consultation with businesses, and NGOs – is that combating bribery is about common sense, not bureaucracy."

At the core of the guidance are proportionality and risk assessment which should give comfort to those small and medium sized enterprises worried at the prospect of having to spend a fortune on putting in place complex, burdensome polices and procedures. Of limited comfort is the Secretary of State's indication that there will not be a large number of prosecutions and certainly not for trivial cases but these decisions are not his to make and will be decided by the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Director of the Serious Fraud Office. 

Click here for more information about the guidance.

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This post was written by Rosanne M. Kay and Suzie A. Savage.

It is understood that the UK Ministry of Justice will publish its guidance on adequate procedures tomorrow, Wednesday 30th March 2011.

The Act was originally scheduled to be implemented in April of this year, three months after guidance was to be published in January about the “adequate procedures” firms should have in place to prevent bribery.  The Act will now apparently come into force in June/July 2011. 

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This post was written by Rosanne Kay and Neil Donovan.

The UK Ministry of Justice (“MoJ”) official with responsibility for managing the implementation of the Bribery Act 2010 (“Act”) provided an update on the status and content of the revised adequate procedures guidance during a speech last Thursday. 

The speech covered the following:

• Timeframe- according to the official, the delayed adequate procedures guidance will be published “as soon as possible” but set no specific date. There is still no information about when the Act will come into force but the MoJ has promised a three month gap between publication of the guidance and the coming into force of the Act.
• Principles in the Guidance- the six guiding principles contained in the draft of the guidance released last year will remain but the revised guidance will differ “quite substantially” from the previous version.

The timing of the adequate procedures guidance and the Act remain unclear. The content of the guidance is also apparently in a state of flux. Nevertheless, companies who are waiting for the guidance to implement changes to their policies and procedures may wish to reconsider. It will almost certainly take most companies more than three months to plan and make changes and they may run out of time.

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This post was written by George Brown and Tom Webley.

Two former directors of engineering firm Mabey & Johnson received custodial sentences today, having been found guilty earlier this month of inflating the prices paid under humanitarian contracts to provide steel bridges to ensure that kickbacks of over Euros 420,000 could be paid to Saddam Hussein’s government.

The directors, Charles Forsyth and David Mabey, who were respectively the Managing Director and Sales Director of the firm, were found guilty of making the illegal payments in 2001 and 2002. Another employee, Richard Gledhill, had pleaded guilty to offences relating to breaching United Nations sanctions and subsequently gave evidence for the prosecution. 

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The Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Richard Alderman, gave a speech yesterday about the Bribery Act which touched on many practical issues and further guidance to be issued.

The speech covered:

• Prosecution guidance – this should be issued by Mr Alderman and the UK Director of Public Prosecutions at the same time as the “adequate procedures” guidance. The guidance will set out the public interest factors that prosecutors should take into account in deciding whether to prosecute under the Act and should shed light on facilitation payments and hospitality.
   
• Exclusion from EU public contracts – many have expressed concern about whether the offence of failing to prevent bribery under the Act will result in mandatory exclusion from public works in the EU. Mr Alderman confirmed that this was a point which the UK Government was still considering and he hoped that clarification on this would be given at some point.
   
• Foreign corporates carrying on business in the UK – there is also a question mark about the SFO’s jurisdiction over foreign corporates which carry on business in the UK and whether a London Stock Exchange listing or the presence of a subsidiary are sufficient to bring a corporate within the SFO’s jurisdiction. The SFO takes a wide view of the scope of its jurisdiction but Mr Alderman acknowledged that the UK courts would need to consider the question.
   
• Joint ventures – the SFO draws a distinction between current and new joint ventures. With current joint ventures, the SFO expects corporates to do what they can to establish that their partners are complying with ethical obligations but recognises the practical and legal limits to this. However, the SFO would expect any new joint ventures to address anti-corruption issues. The SFO has already had a number of discussions with companies about their joint ventures.
   
• Hospitality – Mr Alderman was clear that it was not correct that all hospitality or promotional expenditure was illegal under the Act. Sensible, proportionate entertaining or promotional expenditure is lawful.
  
  By way of practical example, he referred to buying breakfast or lunch for a client or flying a group of prospective clients from another part of the world to see the company’s facilities in the UK. This will usually be sensible business. A month long all expenses paid holiday to the company’s private island in the Caribbean would likely be viewed with suspicion.
   
• Sporting events – the SFO is considering giving more guidance on the appropriateness of taking clients to sporting events.
   
• Facilitation payments – Mr Alderman was very clear that these were bribes and illegal. He referred to the respect he has for corporates which have adopted a zero tolerance policy towards facilitation payments. According to him, these corporates find their policy good for business as their employees are not bothered by demands for these payments because their policy is well known. He also referred to the SFO’s sympathetic approach to situations when payment is demanded under extreme duress or in medical emergencies. The prosecution guidance should also provide more clarity on the issue.

Without pre-empting the guidance which is anticipated shortly, the SFO is clearly keen to lay to rest some of the wilder speculation which has recently appeared in the press concerning the impact of the Act, particularly with regard to corporate hospitality. Mr Alderman has sought to leave his audience with the impression that the SFO’s enforcement of the Act will be tough, yet underpinned by common sense. The written guidance should reinforce that message. 

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The implementation of the UK Bribery Act has been delayed, the UK Ministry of Justice has confirmed today.

The Act was due to be implemented in April 2011, three months after guidance was to be published about the “adequate procedures” firms should have in place to prevent bribery.
It was originally thought that the guidance would be published at the end of this month. The guidance has now been delayed although there are rumours circulating that it may be published in the next few weeks.

As previously reported, the Act has been the subject of significant debate about its potential adverse impact on the British economy as well as of criticism about its lack of clarity.

It is thought that the delay will result in changes to the guidance, a draft of which has so far been the subject of consultation, but not to the Act itself.

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This post was written by Simon Hart and Sarah Wolff.

On January 13, 2010, the London Evening Standard reported that Prime Minister David Cameron’s office has ordered a review of the new UK Bribery Act as a result of strong concerns expressed by UK business leaders and others about the potential adverse impact the Act might have on the British economy. The Act has the effect of potentially criminalising corporate gift-giving, facilitation or "grease payments" and hospitality, regarded by many as vital to doing business abroad. The review will be conducted by a committee chaired by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Business Secretary whose charge is to scrutinise a broad range of regulations which are perceived as hindering business growth.

That same day, Vivian Robinson, the General Counsel of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the agency responsible for enforcing the sweeping anti bribery law, predicted that the review would not result in any “transformational changes” to the Act and may only impact the formal guidance on the Act that is to be published by the UK’s Ministry of Justice. That said, Mr. Robinson also stated that we can expect to see the formal guidance issued by the end of January. [For our posting on the Ministry’s consultation with industry which has taken place in relation to the guidance, see link ].  If that is the case then the effective date of the Act will remain on track for April 2011.

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This post was written by Simon Hart.

Eight weeks and counting. That is the period that the UK’s Ministry of Justice has given for responses to their consultation paper on the guidance which will be published by the Government as to what might constitute “adequate procedures” for companies who might find themselves relying on the statutory defence under the new Bribery Act 2010.  What is significant is that the Government has consciously truncated the usual 12 week consultation period so that the formal guidance can be published in January 2011 with the intention being that the Act will still come into force in April 2011.

The draft guidance is built upon 6 principles:

• risk assessment
• top level Board commitment,
• due diligence
• clear practical and accessible policies and procedures
• effective implementation
• monitoring and review.

Around each of these the Government has identified a number of draft questions that organisations need to ask themselves in order to decide whether their procedures are adequate for their business.  As expected, it appears the guidance will be high level, leaving the onus upon companies to interpret what is required.

Whilst the form of the draft guidance is not a surprise, the timetable for the consultation shows a clear commitment by the Government to bring this Act in to force in spring of next year. In planning terms, that is a very short space of time for corporations to assess their business models and put in place the necessary procedures.  The clock is ticking.

For those wanting to review and respond to the consultation, the relevant papers can be found here.

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This post was written by Kirsty O'Connor and Rosanne Kay.

Quelle surprise! The Ministry of Justice has recently announced that the UK Bribery Act will not come into force until April 2011 (six months later than previously suggested). The legislation that was rushed through before the recent general election needs some fine tuning, or at least a little elaboration about how it will work in practice.

The reason for the delay is so that the Government can engage in a consultation with businesses about the "adequate procedures" guidance to be published, as well as to give commercial organisations time to ensure their systems and controls are in line with the new Act. Certainly, this is sensible given that evidence of adequate procedures in place will serve as a defence to the corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery.

However, the new timetable has been met with cynicism from groups that campaigned for the legislation. It is feared that the extra time will allow the Government to water down the Act and make it easy for corporate bodies to wriggle off the anti-corruption hook. We shall have to wait until the Government's guidance is published in early 2011 to see whether the strict liability corporate offence retains its teeth.

For further information on the Bribery Act and recent developments, please click here.

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This post was written by George Brown, Matt Stone, Simon Hart, Sarah Wolff, and Jim Sanders.

The Bribery Act 2010 (the "Act") which recently was passed by Parliament has far-reaching implications for any business which is either registered in the UK or which has any part of its operation in the UK. The breadth and importance of this legislation means that corporates and their senior officers would be well advised to familiarize themselves with the effects of this new law.

 Why is this legislation important to you and your business? The Act includes:

• A new corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery: this is a strict liability offense: a company's guilt can be a result of an attempted or actual bribery on the company's behalf;
• "Senior officers" (including non-board level managers) can individually be held criminally liable for a company's bribery offenses;
• Extensive extra-territorial powers of prosecution similar to those found in the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA");
• Offenses apply to both public and private sectors (unlike the FCPA);
• No carve-out for facilitating or "grease" payments (unlike the FCPA)
• Conviction could mean debarment from all public sector contracts within the European Union.

This legislation comes at a time of increased international co-operation between regulators not only in matters relating to bribery, including enforcement of the FCPA, but in connection with financial fraud, insider dealing and related activities. The extensive powers provided by the Act will be used by UK enforcement agencies such as the Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") to clamp down on corrupt behavior. The Bill received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010 and its various provisions are likely to be bought into force over the next six months.

To view the entire client alert, please click here.

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This post was written by George Brown. 

It is well over a decade since the UK government started a consultation process as to the future form of the law controlling bribery. A Bribery Bill was put to Parliament in 2000 but, as a result of criticism as to its content, the Bill was never enacted. The latest Bribery Bill was introduced to Parliament in November 2009 and is now at the Committee stage. The Government is keen to ensure that the law is enacted before the General Election although there will be some delay before the law is put into force after enactment.

To view the entire alert, please click here.

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