Business Crime Quarterly Spring 2019
Welcome to the last ever edition of Business Crime Quarterly. We will shortly be moving our business crime publications to a new blog, BusinessCrimeLinks, available on Linklaters.com. Please look out for the email with details on how to sign up and make sure you don’t miss out on topical articles and expert commentary from our business crime practice about issues and developments in financial crime enforcement across the globe.
A lot has happened in the four years we have been publishing Business Crime Quarterly. Deferred Prosecution Agreements, new in the UK and untested in 2015, have now been used four times to deal with financial wrongdoing. Since then, they have also been introduced in several other jurisdictions, including France, Singapore and Australia. We have seen individuals handed lengthy prison sentences for Libor and Euribor manipulation and fines for corporate wrongdoing increase, although debate still rages in the UK as to whether the law on corporate criminal liability needs reform. A raft of new legislation tackling economic crime has been introduced in Germany. Meanwhile the adoption of an “adequate procedures” defence to corporate criminal liability in jurisdictions such as the UK, Spain and Belgium has led to increased focus on compliance and procedure and – some would say – an increasing reliance by governments on private business to enforce anti-bribery and corruption legislation.
But in many ways, the issues topping the business crime agenda remain very much the same. In this final edition of Business Crime Quarterly we report on prosecutions of individuals in the UK, U.S. and Hong Kong, moves to enhance anti-money laundering law in Russia and guidance on sanctions compliance from the U.S. authorities. Meanwhile, the long arm of U.S. jurisdiction continues to alarm businesses worldwide. We report on reports that France is looking to enhance the efficacy of its Blocking Statute and on EU proposals to increase protection for whistleblowers across Europe. The UK’s Bribery Act is given a gold star for leading the way in anti-bribery legislation but how cross-border enforcement of ABC law will be affected by Brexit remains anyone’s guess.
To access this edition of Business Crime Quarterly, please log on to the Linklaters Knowledge Portal or contact your usual Linklaters’ contact.