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At the end of January 2020, Airbus was given a Deferred Prosecution Agreement in the UK as part of a global settlement involving the US and France, under which Airbus paid a fine of €3.6 billion. This is the largest global settlement for a foreign bribery case by a company so far. In light of the DPA agreed with Airbus, Spotlight on Corruption and Transparency International UK have written to the Serious Fraud Office asking the prosecuting body to look at how consistently the DPA regime is...

Author: Alex ClemensOn 20th January 2020, UK courts started hearing the case against three former employees of Unaoil, a Monaco-based and British Virgin Island registered consultancy firm in the oil and gas sector. They are charged with paying bribes on behalf of large Western oil companies, in connection with the reconstruction of Iraq following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. After the Iraq war, Iraq turned into an adventure playground for Western companies that wanted to make large...

This blog in the Law Gazette by Susan Hawley, Professor Nicholas Lord and Colin King raises some questions about how the current UK Deferred Prosecution Agreement regime is working. Read the blog here.

In November 2019, the UK's longest running corruption trial, Alstom, came to an end. This Spotlight on Corruption briefing looks at the lessons from the case, and asks whether the case has created perverse incentives to companies to fight it out in the courts rather than come clean to law enforcement.As the longest running corruption trial in the UK, the Alstom case has thrown up some important lessons about the UK justice system – lessons that have major implications for the investigation and...

On December 20th, the SFO announced a DPA with Guralp Systems Ltd - the day that three individuals were acquitted by a court for the same wrongdoing outlined in the DPA. This blog looks at the implications and lessons.

Blog by Susan Hawley for Centre for Study of Corruption at Sussex University on whether aid funded enforcement efforts in the UK to track corrupt assets and investigate bribery by UK firms is working - looking at a new evaluation of the DFID programme that has funded UK efforts for 13 years. It's working but more convictions are needed.

We made the following statement to the OECD's Working Group on Bribery external stakeholders event, urging action by the Group on: having sanctions for members that fail to implement the Convention properly; greater protection for the independence and integrity of the judiciary and prosecution; ensuring there is not political interference in foreign bribery investigations; greater monitoring of export credit agencies' role in bribery; compensation for victims of corruption; and tackling those...

Spotlight’s Sue Hawley gave a presentation to the OECD about the role of Export Credit Agencies in fighting corruption, looking at whether the new 2019 OECD Recommendation on Bribery and Officially Supported Export Credits goes far enough and what the next steps are.Resources Next steps in the fight against bribery for Export Credit Agencies

The National Crime Agency successfully saw off an appeal against new anti-money laundering powers created in 2017, the Account Freezing Order, used in the Moldovan ‘theft of the century’ case. This blog looks at how the case should give the agency a green light to use these powers more freely to tackle the UK’s notorious dirty money problem.Resources UK’s new ‘freeze and seize’ powers upheld in Moldovan money laundering case via The FCPA Blog

UK anti-corruption groups came together in October to launch a manifesto for fighting corruption. This blog lays out what needs to happen now to keep the UK clean, and make sure it doesn’t exacerbate corruption elsewhere.Resources 10 actions for the UK to fight corruption via Bond

Report by Dr Judith Townend commissioned Spotlight on Corruption and the Open Government Network to develop a series of recommendations for the next UK government Open Government Partnership National Action Plan on improving open justice data. A blog by Dr Townend on the report is here. Resources Towards a national commitment on open justice data in the United Kingdom – October 2019

Spotlight on Corruption and Transparency International wrote to the UK’s Attorney General to express serious concerns that he has been sitting on a decision whether to prosecute an Airbus subsidiary for Saudi related bribery, and urging him not to interfere in the case or use national security as grounds for closing it down.Resources Letter to the Attorney General