"Now you tell us?"
That is what a lot of companies may be saying this week after David Green, Chief of the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office, announced that his agency has no real interest in pursuing cases concerning corporate hospitality under the Bribery Act:
We are not interested in that sort of case. We are interested in hearing that a large company has mysteriously come second in bidding for a big contract. The sort of bribery we would be investigating would not be tickets to Wimbledon or bottles of champagne. We are not the “serious champagne office."
Although that is probably welcome news for many businesses, it comes a bit late in the game. This summer, while the Olympics and Wimbledon were being played in London, corporations were reportedly quite wary of entertaining clients at such events because of uncertainty as to what was prohibited under the Bribery Act. As discussed often in the UK media, cautious compliance departments imposed strict entertainment regulations on employees. Peter King, a partner at law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, told The Telegraph back in July 2012 that "a lot of people are refusing hospitality at the Olympics. It is getting quite difficult to get people to go based around concerns over the Bribery Act."
Going forward, the SFO's statement will likely provide a sense of relief to companies that want to wine and dine clients, but many companies probably wish it had come a month or two earlier.
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