Corporate crime

Corporate crime is a topic that crosses the legal boundaries of criminal and commercial law. It penalises companies and individuals for crimes committed in their commercial capacities.

This area of law attracts high profile cases and a lot of media attention, which we will cover for you in this section of the blog. Corporate crimes include bribery and corruption, fraud, and corporate manslaughter.

Corporate crime also is subject to a lot of legislative and regulatory reform. Businesses are advised to keep up-to-date with these changes to ensure they have the necessary precautions and procedures in place to prevent corporate crimes from being committed.

UBS ‘rogue’ trader faces charges at crown court

Kweku Adoboli, the UBS trader who is accused of losing the Swiss bank a record £1.5billion, is due before Southwark Crown Court in November 2011 to face charges of fraud and false accounting. The 31-year-old ‘rogue’ trader was arrested on Thursday 15 September after the loss was discovered by UBS on Wednesday 14 September afternoon.

City trader arrested over $2bn Swiss bank loss

A 31-year old man was arrested in central London at 3.30am on Thursday 15 September in connection to a $2bn loss by the Swiss banking giant UBS, City of London police have confirmed. The substantial loss comes at a time when the bank was finally regaining some of the trust it had lost when it [...]

FSA fines insurance broker record £7m for corruption failings

The financial services watchdog has fined Willis Limited a record fine of £7m for failing to have adequate and robust anti-bribery systems in place. The fine was issued after an investigation into the company’s activities in Russia and Egypt revealed suspicious payments to the tune of £27m had been made.

‘Crisis? What is a crisis?’: Fifa’s president remains defiant

Fifa’s president, Sepp Blatter, has denied there is a crisis in football after new allegations of corruption within Fifa emerged on Monday 30 May 2011. The vote for a new president of Fifa is due to be held on 1 June 2011. With the suspension of a presidential candidate earlier this week, Blatter now stands [...]

Top commercial fraud lawyer fired for false expenses claims

Christopher Grierson, a commercial fraud and asset tracing expert, has been sacked by one of the world’s top law firms for falsely claiming more than £1m in expenses. Mr Grierson has worked on a number of high-profile investigations and was hired to recover funds for Bernie Madoff’s creditors after the collapse of the American’s Ponzi [...]

New Bribery Act guidance fails to reassure firms

The Government has published the long-delayed guidance  on the new Bribery Act which is due to come into force on 1 July 2011. The delay to the publication was caused by intensive lobbying from the business community. The Act was described as ‘not fit for purpose’ and there was much concern over the creation of [...]

Arrests made in connection with collapse of Iceland’s banks

Seven men have been arrested in the UK by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in connection with the collapse of the Icelandic bank, Kaupthing.

First company convicted of corporate manslaughter under new legislation

Cotswold Geotechnical (Holdings) Ltd has become the first company to be successfully prosecuted and fined under the new corporate manslaughter legislation, after a jury found it guilty of failing to ensure the safety of a young geologist, Alexander Wright, who died in one of their pits.

New agency to be set up to fight economic crime

A new agency is to be established and given extra powers in order to battle economic crime, such as bribery and corruption, in the wake of the new Bribery Act.