The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has announced that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) “has made significant progress” in implementing the recommendations made in the wake of the Unaoil and Serco failings. This article considers this progress and asks whether the SFO can make meaningful changes, or whether its hands are tied? Detailed recommendations The SFO […]
Carbon credits feature high on the agenda at the recent COP 27 in Egypt. Once presented as a panacea for corporations struggling to keep apace with net zero targets, awareness is growing on the extent to which fraudsters are able to abuse carbon credit markets, and the need for tougher regulation. In this article for […]
By publishing the fifth iteration of the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) on 21 November 2022, the World Benchmarking Alliance continues to publicly rank companies with the aim of incentivising certain industries to improve their human rights performance by helping them to better understand the current level of practice among competitors. Methodology The CHRB focuses […]
At the end of September 2022, almost seven years after the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, standard 25700:2022 of the British Standards Institution (BSI) came into effect, offering guidance and recommendations on organisational responses to modern slavery. As explained in this series, the standard provides a practical roadmap for navigating the complex modern […]
Two recent reviews from the Commons Justice Committee into the infamous collapse of a couple of Serious Fraud Office (SFO) cases both concluded that the collapses were due to significant disclosure failures. Both reviews also identified serious organisational issues, which were addressed in evidence from SFO Director Lisa Osofsky and Chief Operating Officer Michelle Crotty. […]
When offenders are convicted of serious acquisitive crimes, such as fraud, statutory mechanisms are in place to deprive them of the benefit of their criminal conduct. Courts will determine the appropriate order, but if the defendant does not pay, the order is often enforced against their assets and results in an additional period of imprisonment. […]
In the summer, a UK politician became one of the latest public figures to face questions about their tax affairs, joining the ranks of numerous personalities, including actors, politicians, singers and comedians, who over the years have faced similar scrutiny. In this article for Tax Notes, Rachel Cook and James Tyler explain how a taxpayer […]
In this article for The Law Society Gazette, Jason Woodland and David Mohyuddin KC review the recent Supreme Court case of R v Luckhurst, which clarified the extent to which restraint orders will be varied to allow for payment of legal expenses incurred in related civil proceedings. The case also highlighted the different approach between […]
From left: Fabrice Dubest, Ben Fischer, Frédéric Bellanca, Brian Moore, Bob Quick, Laetitia Piroddi, Dave Wood, Andrew Wallis, Paul Johnson, Lee Whiteing On 15 November, together with our partners, we hosted a seminar on the legal implications for travel risk management (TRM) arising from the publication of ISO 31030. The seminar was aimed at senior […]
Following detailed representations from Peters & Peters, INTERPOL has deleted a diffusion request from the Russian Federation, in respect of a prominent Russian businessman. The Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files (CCF) found that maintaining data on Peters & Peters’ client may have adverse implications for INTERPOL’s neutrality, and that the data failed to […]
