Come clean or lose out, companies told

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) guidance makes co-operation a more enticing prospect and raises the stakes for resistant companies.

Its ‘SFO corporate guidance’, issued last week, promises to contact self-reporting corporates within 48 business hours, provide regular updates, and decide within six months whether or not to open an investigation.

Any corporate which opts not to self-report may still be invited to DPA negotiations ‘if it has provided exemplary co-operation’ with any investigation. ‘Co-operation’ means ‘providing assistance to us that goes above and beyond what the law requires’, and the SFO states: ‘We consider a waiver of legal professional privilege to be a significant co-operative act’.

Attempts to forum shop, or minimise or obfuscate the involvement of individuals would be viewed as uncooperative.

SFO director Nick Ephgrave said: ‘If you have knowledge of wrongdoing, the gamble of keeping this to yourself has never been riskier.’