The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has successfully obtained a confiscation order for over £1m against Timothy Schools, a convicted solicitor implicated in a £100m fraud scheme. The order, secured in January 2025, targets criminal assets that Schools had concealed with family members under the guise of loans. This action exemplifies the SFO's commitment to tracing and recovering proceeds of complex economic crimes. The recovered funds will be used to compensate victims, with Schools facing an additional five-year prison term if he fails to comply with the repayment order. This case is part of a series of recent successful asset recovery actions by the SFO, demonstrating its ongoing efforts to combat financial crime and ensure that perpetrators do not benefit from their illicit activities.

Law360, London: An expert working for the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) paid bribes to public officials in Sierra Leone to secure evidence for the SFO’s London Mining prosecution, three defendants cleared of charges have alleged.

Law360, London: Britain's top white-collar prosecutor unveiled on 12 June 2025 new details about plans to share data and offer training to companies to prevent economic crime, in a shift to 'assist growth' in line with government plans to kindle the sluggish economy.

The Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Nick Ephgrave QPM, and the Head of the US Department of Justice (DOJ)'s Criminal Division, Matthew Galeotti, recently met to explore ways to strengthen their partnership in addressing financial crime. The meeting covered the DOJ's new white collar crime policies, both agencies' mutual commitment to encouraging voluntary corporate self-disclosure, and ways to reduce the duration of complex investigations. The meeting follows the recent publication of the DOJ's white collar crime enforcement plan.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Parquet National Financier (PNF) and Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) announced the formation of an International Anti-Corruption Prosecutorial Taskforce. The taskforce creates formal structures for cross-border cooperation, including a Leaders' Group for strategic exchange and a Working Group for case collaboration. The agreement leverages existing anti-bribery legislation in all three jurisdictions that enables prosecution of overseas criminal conduct if there is a link to the prosecuting country.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has announced an investigation into Internet Mobile Communications Limited (IMC), a technology company based in Chelmsford, Essex that collapsed in 2024, on allegations of suspected fraud, false accounting and money laundering. The investigation, which had been conducted covertly prior to announcement, includes a June 2026 interview under caution of a man in his sixties. The SFO is working alongside the District Attorney's Office of New York, which is conducting a parallel investigation.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has announced an investigation into the suspected fraudulent collapse of Basis Markets, a cryptocurrency scheme that raised approximately US$28m through two public fundraisers in November and December 2021. The SFO conducted property searches in Herne Hill and near Bradford, arresting two men on suspicion of multiple fraud and money laundering offences. Basis Markets raised funds through non-fungible token (NFT) sales and a second fundraiser to create a crypto hedge fund, before informing investors in June 2022 that the project could not proceed due to proposed US regulations. The SFO has appealed for investors to come forward with information about the scheme's collapse. This represents the SFO's first major cryptocurrency investigation.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has announced an investigation into three UK companies: (1) Warmfront; (2) JJ Crump and (3) South Coast Insulation Services—over suspected fraud relating to Energy Company Obligation 4 (ECO4) contracts between 2022 and 2024. Working with the National Crime Agency, the SFO arrested four individuals on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and searched six properties across Cannock, Chilworth, Killamarsh, Southwell and Wolverhampton on 22 April 2026. The investigation centres on allegations that the companies were involved in a conspiracy to undermine the government energy efficiency scheme by submitting claims where little or no work was undertaken, with energy companies suspected to have been defrauded of at least £44 million. The SFO has launched a public appeal for information regarding the three companies' ECO4 projects during the relevant period.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has announced that City of London Police launched Report Fraud, a new service replacing Action Fraud as the national platform for reporting cyber crime and fraud. The service comprises three components: (1) a Contact Centre and online reporting tool; (2) the Report Fraud National Crime Analysis Service (N-CAS), which replaces Action Fraud's backend reporting analysis system and provides access for all police forces and (3) the Report Fraud Victim Service, which continues to offer specialist support to victims. Reports can be submitted online or by calling 0300 123 2040 (the same number used under the previous system). Over the coming months, traffic from the former Action Fraud website will automatically redirect to the Report Fraud platform to facilitate a smooth transition for users.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has announced that Matthew Pickard, Stephen Greenaway and Paul Laver, former directors of Ethical Forestry Ltd, have been sentenced to a combined 15 years and nine months’ imprisonment for their roles in a £70 million investment fraud. The SFO said the Bournemouth-based scheme defrauded more than 3,000 investors, the majority of whom were pensioners, by persuading them to transfer pension savings into a Costa Rica tree-planting scheme. All three were also disqualified from acting as directors for ten years.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has announced that it successfully recovered £59,000 in laundered proceeds of crime through court orders at Westminster Magistrate's Court, with £36,000 recovered from BHUR Ltd and £23,000 from Mansa Corp Ltd. The funds were linked to the 2008 RGB Resources metal trading fraud case, where three executives received prison sentences totalling 25 years. The money had been moved through multiple shell companies registered in Harrow to conceal its origin.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has closed its investigation into British American Tobacco (BAT) Plc. It announced its decision to begin investigating BAT in August 2017, but after reviewing all available evidence found that the evidential test requirements for prosecution had not been met. The relevant test can be found in the Code for Crown Prosecutors.