The US Department of Justice shouldn’t get away with acting as the bully of anti-bribery enforcement: lessons from the Tom Martin employment tribunal.

On 17th February 2021, a UK employment tribunal found that Tom Martin - a former case controller at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) - had been unfairly and wrongfully dismissed. Martin had been responsible for the agency’s investigation into bribery by oil services...

The UK’s framework for regulating ethical standards in government is not working. It’s time for an independent Ethics Commission.

Introduction The UK’s approach to regulating ethical standards in government is in dire need of reform. The patchwork of regulatory bodies has developed in response to scandals rather than as a coherent approach to tackling corruption risks. Covid-19 and Brexit have...

Mozambique and the “Tuna Bond” Scandal

An overview of all the UK litigation related to the Mozambican Tuna Bond scandal, with relevant court documents. This is an example of just one of the many case overviews (with documents) we will be publishing on our website as part of a cases database. Court...

Policy Briefing: The UK needs a new national strategy in handling conflicts of interest in public procurement

Policy Briefing: Ammendment to the Financial Services Bill

Covid-19 Economic Crime Tracker

Soon after a global pandemic was announced in March 2020, it became clear that the international response to Coronavirus also came with a major economic crime threat. We therefore started recording all news articles, academic publications and statements by...

Government must get a grip on conflicts of interest in public procurement or risk losing the UKs reputation as a fair place to do business

Last week’s much anticipated National Audit Office report into the government’s handling of emergency procurement during COVID-19 effectively corroborated widespread allegations of cronyism in the dishing out of PPE contracts. The report, covered extensively in the...

Cleaning up the audit sector: why the government should consider banning Ernst & Young from public contracts

16th November On Friday 13th November, Spotlight on Corruption wrote to the government’s procurement body, the Crown Commercial Service, asking it to review whether the accountancy firm Ernst & Young (EY) should be banned from bidding on public contracts for...

The UK’s corporate crime rules – why urgent change is needed

Summary The Law Commission’s recent announcement that it will review corporate crime rules is a welcome and important step towards reforming the UK’s antiquated principle for prosecuting companies; The government has given the Law Commission until the end of 2021 to...

What can we learn from COVID-19 loan transparency in the United States?

Publishing the names of COVID-19 loan recipients could be a crucial way of recouping billions of pounds lost to fraud and wrongful claims. Last week, the National Audit Office (NAO) published a report into the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) that revealed the taxpayer...

We track how the UK enforces its anti-corruption laws
We research ways in which they can be improved
We investigate cases where anti-corruption laws have been broken
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Delve into our work on the UK’s anti-corruption laws, enforcement and emerging issues