Business Crime Quarterly Summer 2017

With Summer nearing its close, in the Northern Hemisphere at least, end of term reports for the globe's major enforcers make for interesting reading. According to Global Investigations Review's Due Process Guide for 2017, top of the class are Germany's Public Prosecutor and the SEC in Hong Kong, while trailing towards the bottom are the enforcement authorities of some of the world's major emerging economies. A lack of transparency and coercive requests for cooperation are among the areas needing particular improvement by these agencies.

The high position of Hong Kong's enforcement body is reflected by other developments in the region. In this edition of Business Crime Quarterly we report on the bolstering of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regimes in Hong Kong, the establishment of a partnership between agencies in Singapore to address similar concerns and a plethora of prosecutions across the Asia-Pacific region, against both individuals and companies. In Europe, the German Supreme Court has endorsed the importance of corporate compliance systems to prevent wrongdoing, while allegations that criminal proceedings in Belgium had breached an individual's human rights have been dismissed by the ECHR.

In the UK, new laws to criminalise the facilitation of tax evasion come into force imminently and plans for the implementation of existing and new sanctions regimes post-Brexit have been published. Meanwhile in the U.S., topics including the need for "a meaningfully close personal relationship" and the use of foreign compelled testimony have been considered by the courts. The guiding principles for the SEC have been set out by new chairman, Jay Clayton, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions has issued his own memorandum on the charging and sentencing policy of the DOJ.

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