In the recent case of Jimenez, the Court of Appeal held that HMRC has the power to send an information notice to a UK national and former UK resident who was at the time of sending the notice living in Dubai. This is part of a recent trend for English courts to support UK authorities’ assertion of extraterritorial information-gathering powers by applying a purposive and contextual interpretation to legislation granting those powers. Case background HMRC…

In a speech earlier this week  Lisa Osofsky announced that the SFO will shortly publish guidance on its expectations in relation to self-reporting and cooperation. The speech suggested that waiver of privilege over internal investigations material will be seen by the SFO as a strong indicator of, if not a precondition to, cooperation for the purposes of the SFO initiating DPA negotiations: “….companies can waive that privilege if they wish to cooperate… I will soon be…

Earlier this month, the House of Lords Select Committee (the Committee) on the Bribery Act 2010 published its Post-Legislative Scrutiny Report. The Report provides a useful summary of prosecutions under the Bribery Act and the debate surrounding “adequate” and “reasonable” procedures,  and offers insight into the limited extent to which Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) lead to bribery investigations. Surprisingly, however, the Report considers the use of deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) but does not deal with…

On 18 February 2019, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office and FCA published an updated memorandum of understanding setting out the terms of the relationship between them, including the exchange of information in relation to potential failures of systems and controls in relation to data security and related investigations. The MOU comes in the context of the FCA’s increased focus on and enforcement of data protection and cyber security issues and follows the ICO and FCA’s…

Earlier this year, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) together with the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) published a report analysing the financial flows associated with human trafficking. The report: summarises indicators of financial transactions that are laundering the proceeds of human trafficking (e.g. multiple wages being paid into one account, rapid in/out transactions following receipt of wages); identifies challenges and good practices in detecting, investigating and prosecuting money laundering from human trafficking;…

The production of recreational cannabis was legalised in Canada in October 2018. As a consequence, UK corporates and financial institutions wishing to invest or be involved in activity relating to Canadian cannabis businesses face a real obstacle: doing so could technically constitute a criminal offence under UK money laundering legislation (see our previous blog here). Even before this change took effect, Lloyd’s of London announced that, having taken advice from leading counsel, it is…

In September 2018, Lisa Osofsky delivered her first speech as the new Director of the UK Serious Fraud Office. In a wide-ranging speech she focused on three key areas: Increasing the SFO’s collaboration with UK agencies and agencies from other jurisdictions (and in particular, the NCA, HMRC, FCA and agencies from the US, France, Argentina, Canada and Australia) – both to investigate matters but also to resolve them. This ties in with the increasing international coordination that…