On 23 April 2015, the Financial Conduct Authority imposed a financial penalty of £226m on Deutsche Bank AG in accordance with section 206 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The penalty was imposed because of Deutsche Bank’s attempted manipulation of the IBOR rates, system and control failings and deficiencies in the way the bank dealt with the FCA. Continue reading
The Volkswagen investigation continues (see previous blogs on 25 September and 4 November).
Although no UK authority has publicly acknowledged an investigation, the Transport Select Committee have been taking a keen interest in the matter. Various individuals, including the Managing Director of Volkswagen Group UK, Paul Willis, gave evidence before the committee on 12 October 2015. This was followed by a letter sent by Louise Ellman MP, the Chair of the Transport Committee, to Mr Willis on 20 October 2015 requesting further information.
Relations seem to have soured since October. In a letter dated 7 December 2015, Ms Ellman expressed her disappointment at previous questions being only partially answered.
The most intriguing question is number seven:
The letter requests a response by 21 December 2015. Perhaps the response will reveal whether Volkswagen is facing a criminal investigation in the UK.
In the meantime, two further developments in Europe have occurred this week.
On 10 December 2015, three former bankers at RBS and a financial broker were acquitted by a jury at Southwark Crown Court of a single count of conspiring to cheat HM Revenue and Customs. The acquittal enables the reporting of convictions of three traders in September 2015 who claimed to be active members of a film finance partnership. The three traders were each jailed for four and a half years. Continue reading
Lord Justice Treacy provided the keynote address to the Criminal Law Review Conference on Thursday 3 December 2015. His address covered four themes:
The African Development Bank Group, the group dedicated to sustainable economic development and social progress in its member countries, has reached a settlement with Hitachi Ltd over allegations of bribery. Hitachi previously agreed to pay $19m to settle charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in September 2015, considered in a earlier blog. Continue reading
The joint head of bribery and corruption at the SFO, Ben Morgan, gave a speech to the Managing Risk and Mitigating Litigation Conference on 1 December 2015. The speech was timely: the previous day Lord Justice Leveson approved the UK’s first ever deferred prosecution agreement, between the SFO and ICBC Standard Bank plc. The subject matter of the indictment was, for the first time in England and Wales, the section 7 corporate offence under the Bribery Act 2010( BA 2010). There has been a previous case recorded against a company in Scotland (see previous blog). Continue reading
The first Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) was approved today by Sir Brian Leveson, the President of the Queen’s Bench Division at Southwark Crown Court sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice. See Legal update, First DPA approved (Crown Court) and Legal update, First deferred prosecution agreement hearing in court on Monday.
The agreement is with Standard Bank Plc (now known as ICBC Standard Bank Plc) and relates to the activities of a subsidiary in Tanzania. The case is not only the first DPA but also the first case of an offence under section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010 going before a criminal court, which penalises a failure by a company to prevent corruption.
Transparency International have published a document entitled Don’t look, won’t find: Weaknesses in the supervision of the UK’s anti-money laundering rules.
The document is very stark. It makes the following points:
The Ministry of Justice has given the green light for an increase in the number of criminal cases held remotely, following the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. Continue reading
It has been a busy week for the Serious Fraud Office.
On Monday, it was reported that the company Arriva could be subject to an investigation after incorrectly self-reporting figures on a deal to provide non-emergency patient transport in the Greater Manchester Area, earning £1.5m in incentive fees. Continue reading