Welcome to Allen & Overy’s Investigations Insight blog, sharing with you our views and insights into the latest trends, risks and developments in business crime and financial services investigations
Pressure mounting for new failure to prevent economic crime corporate criminal offence
15 March 2019 Eve Giles
“Multi-national firms appear beyond the scope of legislation designed to counter economic crime.” This was the damning conclusion of a House of Commons Treasury Committee report on Economic Crime published last week. Those hoping that the UK government has forgotten about its manifesto commitment to reform corporate liability for economic crime will be disappointed. Recent › Read More
06 March 2019 Jason Denisenko
The final report (the Report) of the Australian Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (the Royal Commission) was released on 4 February 2019. The Report provides 76 specific recommendations to the Government, the financial sector, and financial regulators to redress the misconduct revealed by the inquiry. These recommendations reflect › Read More
HMRC makes it easier to self-report (or whistle blow) on facilitation of tax evasion
28 February 2019 Hayley Humphries
There are only five on going investigations by HMRC under the ‘failure to prevent the facilitation of UK tax evasion’ corporate criminal offence introduced by the Criminal Finances Act 2017, according to a House of Commons question and answer earlier this month. There was no mention of any investigations relating to the equivalent facilitation of › Read More
First OFSI penalty for breach of financial sanctions
26 February 2019 Calum Burnett
Details of the first monetary penalty imposed for breach of financial sanctions by the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) was published yesterday. Raphaels Bank has been fined GBP5000 for transferring GBP200 belonging to a ‘designated person’ in breach of an asset freeze in EU financial sanctions on designated persons and entities relating to › Read More
Second Circuit Narrows FCPA’s Reach Yet Enforcement Risk Remains
04 September 2018 Melinda Bothe
The Second Circuit recently ruled that the general criminal statutes of conspiracy and complicity cannot be used to draw non-U.S. persons or companies within the jurisdiction of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the FCPA) where their conduct would not otherwise fall within the statute’s ambit. That is, prosecutions under the FCPA cannot be brought against › Read More