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29 March 2024 / Sir Max Hill KC , Hannah Thorpe , Alex Tivey
Issue: 8065 / Categories: Features , Commercial , Company , Fraud
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Corporate criminal liability: a wider scope?

New legislation demands better corporate behaviour. Sir Max Hill KC, Hannah Thorpe & Alex Tivey explain what this means in practice
  • Discusses the expansion of the failure to prevent fraud offence across all economic crime, its application to large organisations, and the redefinition of the identification principle to include senior managers.
  • Describes the increasing use of civil enforcement methods to recover the proceeds of crime, alongside greater use of deferred prosecution agreements.
  • Gives practical guidance on reasonable prevention measures.

Corporate criminal liability has existed in some legal jurisdictions for decades. In England and Wales, there have been legislative efforts to expound this doctrine. But corporate criminal liability, particularly in England and Wales, has been patchy as to scope and as to the success of legislative reform. Things are changing now. Corporate criminal liability has expanded from niche origins in bribery, corruption and money laundering, to encompassing all economic crime. Together with a coming together of civil and criminal enforcement measures by regulators, investigators

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NEWS
Restrictions on workplace non-disclosure agreements could make settlements slower, more complex and more expensive when reforms expected in 2027 take effect
Private prosecutors face closer scrutiny under Crown Prosecution Service guidance designed to strengthen accountability and consistency when intervention is requested
Foreign states cannot necessarily claim immunity for cyber operations launched abroad against computers in Britain, following a divided Supreme Court ruling
Defendants who make unsupported complaints about their lawyers risk losing legal aid while confiscation proceedings continue without representation
Lawyers advising Russian clients face different sanctions restrictions across the UK, EU and US, despite their shared objective of increasing pressure on Russia
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