Tag Archives: Bribery

The UAE Continues to Combat Bribery and Corruption

The United Arab Emirates (the “UAE”) continues to lead the Arab world in terms of its anti-bribery and corruption (“ABC”) endeavors. The UAE offers a business-friendly environment with an effective and efficient public administration; it criminalizes active and passive bribery, embezzlement, abuse of functions, and facilitation payments, it enforces its domestic ABC legislation and it … Continue Reading

Compliance Prevents Corporate Casualties in Trade Wars

Tariffs are not the only weapon of retaliation countries may wield in a trade war.  Governments can pressure trade adversaries at the bargaining table by opening other fronts, such as limiting foreign investment, halting drug enforcement cooperation, or, of particular concern to the corporate world, scrutinizing companies doing business within their jurisdictions.  What does this mean?… Continue Reading

Summary of U.S. Department of Justice’s Guidance, “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs”

Summary of Compliance Guideline The Criminal Division’s Fraud Section of the U.S. Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) has released guidance on how the DOJ will determine the effectiveness of a company’s corporate compliance program.  The guidance, entitled Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs[1] (the “Compliance Guideline”), provides examples of topics and sample questions that are frequently … Continue Reading

Details of the Rolls-Royce DPA emerge

Last week, we published the details of the expected Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) that was yet to be approved by the UK’s High Court on 17 January 2017. The Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) has since now confirmed, that the DPA was approved by Sir Brian Leveson, President of the Queen’s Bench Division, and the DPA, … Continue Reading

Fighting Corruption and Fraud- the ICU and SFO

The United Kingdom’s regime against bribery, corruption and fraud is operating in a new landscape following the introduction in August 2015 of the International Corruption Unit (ICU), a new governmental agency created under the auspices of the Department for International Development (DFID). The latest step in the clampdown on nefarious business practices came as the … Continue Reading

First Company Convicted of Bribing Foreign Officials Ordered to pay £2.2 million

Smith and Ouzman Ltd and two of its directors, were convicted by a Jury under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 (POCA) in December 2014, although the company was finally sentenced on 8 January 2016. The company was convicted under the previous legislation because the offences pre-dated the Bribery Act 2010. The small family run … Continue Reading

Cooperation is Key – Scottish Company receives civil penalty for contravention of Bribery Act

Brand-Rex Limited, a Scottish company specialising in developing cabling solutions for network infrastructure and industrial applications, has become the first UK Company to be penalised for contravention of Section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010. The company avoided criminal prosecution and was instead ordered to pay £212,800 by way of a civil recovery order after … Continue Reading

SMEs and the UK Bribery Act – Compliance may not be as difficult as you fear!

Despite the fact that the Bribery Act 2010 (the “Act”) came into force on 1 July 2011, a recent government study has found that only two-thirds of SMEs are aware of the Act or its corporate offence for failure to prevent bribery (under section 7 of the Act). Of those that were aware of the … Continue Reading

New EU directive allows public contract suppliers convicted of corruption to “self-clean” their bad behaviour

The Public Contacts Directive (2014/24/EC – the “2014 Directive”)[1] sets out the legal framework for public procurement when contracting authorities seek to acquire supplies, services, or works (e.g. civil engineering or building). The intention is that procurement rules become simpler and more flexible. Despite the 2014 Directive not requiring transposition into Member States’[2] law until … Continue Reading

Is the First UK Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) on the Horizon?

The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has publically announced that it has sent out the first invitation letters offering DPAs to corporations. In this blog we discuss: the definition of a DPA; the new attitude in relation to DPAs and movement towards the first DPA; and co-operation with the SFO– dos and don’ts. Quick Recap: … Continue Reading

UK company director jailed for bribing public officials in Africa

In order to win a contract worth £2.26m for making ballot papers, Smith and Ouzman Ltd, a printing firm based in Sussex, gave £395,074 in corrupt payments to public officials in Kenya and Mauritania. In February 2015, Southwark Crown Court jailed Nicholas Smith, the Sales and Marketing Director, for three years and handed his father, … Continue Reading

Malaysian Graftbusters

Malaysia scored 4.3 in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2011 (PDF/2.69MB/7 pages) which indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 10 means that a country is perceived as very clean. Malaysia ranks number 60 out of the 183 … Continue Reading

Russian Federation Accedes to Antibribery Convention (Россия присоединилась к Конвенции по борьбе с коррупцией)

On February 1, 2012 Russia ratified the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (the Convention)   The Convention was adopted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1997. It provides that signatories undertake to amend national legislation to criminalize bribery of foreign public officials by … Continue Reading
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