The British government has finally given prosecutors the green light to start enforcing the country’s tough new Bribery Act starting July 1—and also given eagerly awaited guidance to corporate compliance departments suggesting that the anti-corruption law may not be enforced so toughly. The guidance, published last week, appears to retreat from the Bribery Act’s originally […]
Anti-Bribery
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
OECD Raises Concerns Over Germany’s Anti-Bribery Controls
Germany, the country whose engineering giant Siemens AG paid over $1.6 billion to U.S. and German regulators for a huge bribery scheme, got some recognition from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Developments’s peer-review monitoring group for its crackdown efforts—in addition to a host of recommendations for improvement. The agency’s working group on bribery—this time […]
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U.K. to Make Bribery Law Easier for Foreign Companies
*/ /*–>*/ The U.K. government is about to significantly weaken the impact of its tough new Bribery Act, especially as it affects foreign companies, if press reports based on leaks of draft guidance are accurate. The Act came into effect last year, but the start date of controversial provisions that would leave companies open to […]
Posted inAnti-Bribery
Report: Compliance Risks Growing in Emerging Markets
Sure, emerging markets offer numerous growth opportunities for multinational companies, but they also bring an increasing amount of compliance and integrity risk. A survey of 500 executives at companies in North America conducted by Deloitte and Forbes Insights found that 85 percent said their level of concern over the potential for compliance and integrity risks […]
Posted inAnti-Bribery
OECD Attacks U.K. Bribery Delay
*/ /*–>*/ The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has criticized the United Kingdom’s decision to delay the start date of its long-awaited anti-bribery laws, branding the move “very disappointing.” Mark Pieth, chairman of the OECD’s working group on bribery, said U.K. companies could be put on a corruption “blacklist” if the laws were not […]
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U.K. Warns Cos. Against Paper Compliance on Bribery
The U.K. government has started consultation on how a key part of its new Bribery Act will work in practice, warning companies that they will need to “go beyond paper compliance” when the Act takes effect next April. Companies will face prosecution under the Act if staff or third-party agents pay or offer bribes and […]
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U.K. Bribery Law Gets April 2011 Start Date
The U.K.’s new corporate offense of failure to prevent bribery will take effect from April next year, the country’s new government has announced. The offense came onto the statute book when the previous government finalized the Bribery Act 2010 in its last days in office this May, but a date for its implementation was left […]
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Jailed Corruption Whistleblower Wins Sentence Appeal
A U.K. appeals court has overturned a controversial decision to jail an executive who cooperated with the Serious Fraud Office in a high-profile corruption case. Robert Dougall, former marketing director at healthcare company DePuy International, pleaded guilty to corruption charges last month under a plea deal agreed upon with the SFO. The SFO told the […]
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U.K. Modernizes Bribery Laws, Finally
The U.K. finally modernized its anti-bribery laws this week when Parliament approved long-awaited new legislation. The Bribery Bill had to be rushed through before Parliament shut down ahead of a General Election on May 6, but lawyers say there were no last-minute amendments of any note. However, some uncertainty remains about when the most important […]
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Judge Puts U.K. Plea Deals in Doubt
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office’s strategy for tackling financial crime has been thrown into doubt after a senior judge criticized the plea deal that the agency reached with a company guilty of paying bribes. In his judgment on the case, Lord Justice Thomas, the U.K.’s deputy head of criminal justice, said the SFO “had no […]
