Alaco

15.08.2013 | SFO brings first charges under UK Bribery Act

Two years and two months after it came into power the UK’s leading anti-corruption body has brought its first charges under the Bribery Act.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said yesterday that it had brought charges against four men connected to Sustainable AgroEnergy Plc, a biofuel investment company.  The individuals, three directors and a financial advisor, are now due to appear before Westminster Magistrates Court on 23rd September 2013.  The progress of the case against the four men will be scrutinised intensively by members of the regulatory and legal professions keen to understand how the new law will be interpreted by the courts.

David Green, the director of the SFO, has said the agency is working on a number of cases that could fall under the new act.  What is not known is whether those cases will be against individuals, such as the charges brought yesterday, or will be corporate offences.

In theory the Bribery Act makes it much easier to prosecute a company for corruption under the relatively new offence of failing to prevent bribes taking place.  Barry Vitou, a partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, said: “Those waiting for the first corporate prosecution for failure to prevent bribery … are still waiting. We expect that the wait will be over quite soon.”