Businessmen to face court in relation to alleged £23m fraud
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is to bring its first prosecution under the Bribery Act 2010 next month.
The SFO is bringing fraud charges against a group of businessmen associated with the sale of bio-fuel investment products to UK investors by Sustainable AgroEnergy Plc. Three of the men have also been charged with offences of making and accepting a financial advantage contrary to ss 1(1) and 2(1) of the 2010 Act. All the defendants will appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court in September.
The value of the alleged fraud is approximately £23m and the offences are said to have taken place between April 2011 and February 2012. The company and its parent company, Sustainable Growth Group, were placed in administration last year.
Forensic accounting specialist Andrew Maclay, director at BDO, said: “At long last, we have a proper prosecution under the Bribery Act.
“Sustainable AgroEnergy Plc may not be a household name, but this seems to be just the sort of fraud and bribery case that the SFO should be investigating under the Bribery Act. At first glance a £23m fraud in Cambodia may seem to be of little relevance to the UK until one understands the impact on some 1,500 SIPP savers who had invested in the company.
“What is particularly encouraging is how the UK’s SFO and Cambodian Anti Corruption Unit have worked together on this. With four Sustainable AgroEnergy executives awaiting trial in the UK and the company chairman sampling the delights of Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison, the Bribery Act would appear to be working on the global basis it was designed for.
“Once the dust settles it will be interesting to see whether this bribery case opens the door for the investors who lost out to recover their money — in that a successful prosecution should be followed by a criminal confiscation and compensation order against those who are found guilty — although the chances of them having £23m of personal assets available to compensate the investors may be slim.”
The Crown Prosecution Service has prosecuted other individuals under the 2010 Act, which came into force in July, 2011, but this is the first time the SFO has brought charges.
In 2011, Munir Patel, a magistrates’ court clerk, became the first person to be convicted under the Act when he admitted accepting a £500 bribe not to enter a speeding charge on the court’s database.
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