Corporate Crime weekly highlights—15 October 2020

Article summary

This week's edition of Corporate Crime weekly highlights includes analysis of calls by the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for extended section 2 powers under the Criminal Justice Act 1987 (CJA 1987) including a potential tipping off offence, consideration of the first use by the National Crime Agency (NCA) of a civil recovery order (CRO) against property subject to an Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO), and assessment of whether more regulation of private prosecutions is needed. In the fifth and final part of the deciphering crypto series, crypto regulation in foreign jurisdictions is also analysed, alongside the Lord Chancellor’s announcement of the white paper proposing changes to sentencing laws, the role of Companies House in the fight against economic crime and consideration of the volumes of sanctions breaches reported by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI). At a crucial time for Brexit negotiations, we also have analysis of the uncertainty surrounding a UK-EU data adequacy decision and highlight further transition government guidance which will be of interest to corporate crime lawyers. We also cover news of the sentencing of former Unaoil executive, Basil Al Jarah, for three years and four months in prison for paying more than $17m in bribes in order to secure approximately $1.7bn worth of contracts in Iraq and a report published by Transparency International showing a significant decrease in active enforcement against foreign bribery. The usual round-up of key news and developments relating to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is also provided as well analysis of the increase in cybercrime during the COVID-19 pandemic. All this, and more, in this week’s Corporate Crime highlights. Sign in or take a trial to read the full analysis.