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International

SFO & the Bribery Act: Sector sweeps, facilitation payments & London listed companies

News reaches us of a private small round table session put together by Transparency International and attended by some from the US FCPA white collar community (we understand Mark Mendelsohn attended) and our very own David Green CB QC, Director of the Serious Fraud Office. Here’s the skinny based on our source. The headline message promulgated by David Green will not be news to those who have been following Mr. Green’s hard hitting public pronouncements in the UK (or reading this website) though as ever, it’s always important to be able to read between the lines. The clue’s in the name Mr. Green emphasized that the SFO is reverting to type and will focus on prosecution of Serious Fraud. The advisory and guidance role of the SFO, something Mr. Green’s predecessor branched out into, was shuttered on the (not so) new Director’s arrival at the SFO over a year ago.  We understand that this was ...

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Sectors

The Bribery Act, its material impact since 2011 & the Aston Martin analogy…

There are plenty of naysayers when it comes to the Bribery Act and superficially there are many who would say that events of the last year or so support their theory. Critics point to a lack of enforcement (beyond a low level court clerk in August 2011 and a taxi driver in December 2012) as evidence that it is an overhyped piece of legislation that does not, in practice, amount to a hill of beans. In 2011 Howard Sklar asked if, after replacing the clapped out Taxi Cab that was the old UK anti-bribery law, the SFO would take the shiny new Aston Martin Bribery Act out of the garage. It's fair to say that most haven't seen the new Aston Martin just yet. But it's out there. The SFO have confirmed that they have various Bribery Act case projects in the works. In the meantime, though the Bribery Act has already had, in our view, ...

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News & what’s on

DPA law gets Royal Assent. Deferred Prosecution Agreements on track for 2014

In line with a timetable we published a few weeks ago Thursday saw Parliament approve the law which will enable Deferred Prosecution Agreements in the UK (in England and Wales). A Draft Code of Practice for Prosecutors needs to be published by the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Director of the Serious Fraud Office for consultation.  We anticipate that something should be published in the coming weeks. This Code will contain more practical detail and is likely to include the principles for when a DPA will be considered appropriate, the principles applying to such a decision and any factors which could suggest a DPA would be unsuitable. We also anticipate that it will include a provision for the protection of legal professional privilege, guidance on the process to be adopted by the prosecutor and advice on how a prosecutor should deal with decisions to prosecute upon termination of an agreement for breach. Likewise the ...

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Bribery Act & Proceeds of Crime

Pure Gold: “A Compliance and Ethics Program on a Dollar a Day” by Joe Murphy

Joe Murphy, pictured (likes dancing). You’ve heard plenty about the red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy created by the Bribery Act. Heard of Joe Murphy? Joe’s a fairly unassuming guy who will, if you ever meet him, tell you he likes dancing. Or at least that’s what he told me. Joe’s written a short booklet “A Compliance & Ethics Program on a Dollar a Day”. It's worth the weight of a pallet load of them - in gold. It’s free and published by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics you can join this if you want for a nominal sum (US$295) but it's not essential. In the booklet you’ll find numerous ideas and specific recommendations for a compliance program for your business and from a very practical standpoint. Barry met Joe on his recent visit to the G20 in Paris. The booklet kills stone dead the constant refrain of those who complain about the unnecessary burden created by the ...

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Your Questions: Answered

Your questions answered: Peter Lloyd CEO Mabey Group on last minute Christmas conundrums. BRILLIANT. What to do with all those presents!

Dear Peter: My business is in the property sector on the service side. At Christmas our office is deluged in gifts from suppliers and others who we deal with over the year. The gifts range from a single bottle of wine or whisky through to cases of wine, boxes of chocolates upto ipads, tickets to events and the like. What do you recommend is the best way of handling these? I don't want to offend anyone but I don't want to do anything wrong either! Santa Peter answers: My simple solution to this problem is to arrange a Christmas draw for charity. Allow your employees to buy raffle tickets with all of the proceeds going to a local charity. Use all of the ‘gifts’ as prizes and make the draw in public, say at the Christmas party. Send all of the suppliers a note of thanks showing how much was raised and telling them about ...

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