- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Neil Hodge2020-01-23T20:25:00
New internal guidance from the U.K. Serious Fraud Office outlines what the regulator considers in determining if a company’s compliance procedures are adequate enough to defend against U.K. Bribery Act charges or qualify for a deferred prosecution agreement.
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The Serious Fraud Office announced deferred prosecution agreements worth £2.5 million (U.S. $3.4 million) with two unidentified U.K.-based companies for bribery offenses.
The U.K. Bribery Act marked its 10th anniversary this month, but views are mixed about how the legislation and its enforcement have fared in the decade since it came into force.
In another blow to the agency’s credibility, the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office cannot attempt to force foreign companies to hand over evidence held overseas, according to a recent court ruling.
The United States broke from a three-year downturn in bribery-related enforcement actions, while Brazil continued its emergence in the space, according to the results of the latest annual Global Enforcement Report by nonprofit TRACE.
The number of U.S. foreign bribery enforcement actions slowed notably in 2021, while the overall pace of transnational anti-bribery enforcement actions and investigations lagged worldwide, according to TRACE International’s latest enforcement report.
A payment by a U.S.-based company to a third-party intermediary under circumstances that placed an employee’s life and well-being at “significant risk” would not trigger enforcement under the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA, the Department of Justice stated in an opinion procedure.
