Experts predict successful start for new anti-bribery law
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) will not bring an investigation under the new anti-bribery legislation until it has identified a case with a huge probability of success, according to a high-profile panel of legal experts.
Panelists at the Bribery Act roundtable hosted by NLJ on 1 July—the day the legislation came into force—believe that the likely first target for the SFO will be a small or medium enterprise or a whistleblower case involving a large UK multinational.
Richard Lissack QC of Outer Temple Chambers said: “The SFO will identify a case with a very high chance of conviction—to start with a losing prosecution would be unthinkable.”
The panel also included Robert Amaee, of counsel at Covington & Burling and the former head of anti-corruption/proceeds of crime at the SFO; Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer partners Paul Lomas and Mark Sansom, and Drew Macaulay, director of business development at First Advantage Litigation Consulting.
Sansom said: “The SFO has been talking tough and has good political reasons to do so. But I doubt they will want to take a contentious point to court—such as a case testing the limits of their jurisdiction under the Act—and risk losing. We can expect them to look for a slam-dunk case as the first target. They may be particularly keen on any case involving a non-UK company which does business in the UK, in order to demonstrate the ‘level playing field’ under the Act.”
The comments came as evidence emerges that UK companies are still not taking the twice-delayed new anti-Bribery legislation seriously despite having years to prepare for it. A recent European Fraud Survey carried out by Ernst & Young found that one in seven staff polled at large UK companies were willing to offer cash payments to win business with just over half being aware of anti-bribery policy at their organisation.
Full coverage of the panel discussions will appear in an NLJ Bribery Act special later in the summer.
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