News & what's on - Written by on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 12:47 - 1 Comment

Sainsbury’s potato buyer has had his chips after guilty plea

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Various papers today including the Daily Telegraph reported that John Maylam, a supermarket buyer for Sainsbury’s, was given “excessive gifts and hospitality” by directors of Greenvale, a supplier of nearly half of the stores potatoes.

The proceeds of crime, proverbial brown envelopes stuffed with hundreds of thousands of pounds were ultimately spent on living the high life with luxury holidays including a £200,000 bill at Claridge’s Hotel in London and £350,000 for twelve-day holiday to the Monaco Grand Prix.

The corrupt scheme was a textbook example. In a £40 million deal Greenvale overcharged Sainsbury’s to fund the corruption.

Mr. Maylam, from Maidstone, Kent, pleaded guilty to corruption and acquiring criminal property.

David Baxter, Greenvale’s operations director, has also admitted corruptly giving Maylam gifts.

The court was told that Greenvale paid nearly £9 million of Sainsbury’s money into a bank account which was nicknamed ‘The Fund’.

Maylem and Baxter will be sentenced after the trial of Greenvale’s finance director Andrew Behagg, who denies corruption.  Mr. Behagg claims that he was the victim of extortion.

The case is prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service under pre-Bribery Act laws but underscore what we have said on many occasions, namely that the UK has always, and will continue to, prosecute non governmental corruption.

Picking up the theme of a post by our friend and colleague Mike Volkov we agree that the sky won’t fall in post Bribery Act.

On the other hand Chicken Little has just served up a portion of fries to the flat earth society who think that the Bribery Act will not be enforced.

Ketchup and get with the program.

 

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[…] The FCPAmericas blog has more insight on why the Wal-Mart case is a big deal. Thebriberyact.com writes about the Sainsbury’s […]

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