United Kingdom | Publication | February 2020
We have set out below key recent global investigations trends and updates.
Please contact the authors if you would like to discuss any of the issues raised.
Kind regards,
The Norton Rose Fulbright team
Was signed by the UK and the US in October 2019. The agreement will enable American and British law enforcement agencies, including the DOJ and SFO, to request electronic data related to terrorism, child sexual abuse and other serious crimes directly from technology firms in the respective countries.
Read the article by Susan Ross and David Kessler (US) together with Andrew Reeves (UK) here.
Sets new requirements for businesses in the EU. EU member states will have until the end of 2021 to incorporate the new rules into their national law. But what will happen in the UK after Brexit?
Read the article by Amanda Sanders and Lauren Pullen Stanley here.
A £2m DPA between the Serious Fraud Office and Güralp Systems was announced on December 20, 2019 following the acquittal of senior individuals. This means that, again, a company has entered into a DPA with the SFO in circumstances where no employees have subsequently been convicted.
Subsequently, on January 17, 2020 the SFO has published guidance on “Evaluating a Compliance Programme”. This summarises the points at which a compliance programme will be assessed by the SFO and by what means it will be assessed. It emphasises the importance of a compliance programme in seeking to defend an organisation when wrongdoing is alleged but does not provide any practical guidance on what the SFO is looking for when assessing compliance programmes.
Read the articles by Ruth Cowley, Andrew Reeves and John Coley here and here.
A non-US citizen was convicted of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act despite no practical ties to US. This case raised significant questions about the jurisdictional reach of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) as the non-US citizen was not employed by a US company, and never set foot on US soil while working for the French multinational.
Read the article by Kevin J. Harnisch, Jeffrey W. Cottle, Keith M. Rosen, Samuel R. Ramer and Niamh Ni Cheallachain (US) here.
The Dutch court has ruled that attorney-client privilege may not apply to in-house counsel admitted to a non-Dutch bar unless independence from their employer is sufficiently safeguarded.
Read the article by Sharon Oded and Britt van Breda (NL) here.
Our team in South Africa explores the increasing use of fake consultancy agreements in Southern Africa and how these mechanisms facilitate fraud or corrupt dealings.
Read the article by André Vos and Andrew Keightley Smith (SA) here.
The first German National Money Laundering Risk Analysis identified that real estate is a high risk sector for money laundering in Germany.
Read the article by Alexander Cappel and Christina Hund (DE) here.
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On February 6, 2024 the Council of the EU and the European Parliament agreed a provisional version of the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), which is now expected to be formally adopted by the end of April 2024.
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On 22 February 2024, Belgium became the EU frontrunner in the fight against ecocides by being the first EU member state to criminalise ecocide, in the new Belgian Criminal Code.
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The Pensions Regulator’s General Code has arrived and will apply from March 27, 2024. In this briefing, we take a step back from the detail. We set out why the General Code really matters and how pension scheme trustees can best make it work for them.
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