Excellent article by The Guardian on the outcomes of independent review of the UK Serious Fraud Office performance: Serious Fraud Office chief found to have made errors over major corruption trial | Serious Fraud Office | The Guardian
Independent review by a retired High Court judge and former head of public prosecution, Sir David Calvert-Smith, has confirmed what we have been observing about the UK’s Serious Fraud Office throughout the years – failure after failure. While nothing unexpected, I keep wondering why it was allowed to get that bad and for that long.
Let’s be fair, some of it can be attributed to the painful process of establishing enforcement in the country where the fight against corruption has never been a priority. Some might remember how the US DOJ struggled to get it right in the early -2000s (the Holder and Thompson Memorandums; United States v. Stein, where Judge Kaplan found Government violated constitutional rights to counsel and fundamental fairness in criminal proceedings). There is, of course, also a more significant challenge of prosecuting individuals in the context of corporate crime (subject of continuing debate on the US side).
Some will argue that UK SFO had several successes in its recent past: Rolls Royce, Glencore, and a few others. But it is worth remembering that these cases were investigated on the back of an internationally coordinated response primarily led by the US DOJ.
However, for the SFO director to directly deal with a “fixer” representing the suspect –is beyond “just” a mistake or failure of judgement (Serious Fraud Office chief found to have made errors over major corruption trial | Serious Fraud Office | The Guardian). “Culture of distrust”, failures at the top of the agency, lack of accountability, lack of right expertise, and ineffective internal complaints process –to name a few. I am not surprised to find glaring similarities with Sue Gray’s findings in No.10 and Cabinet Office review either (My post a couple of months ago https://lnkd.in/e-cViReh).
It doesn’t help that the surrounding (government) environment is still not conducive to a change – the past few years were marred with ethical scandals at the Top, and past and present senior politicians are so profoundly intervened with the businesses that it is worth asking whom they work for. Remember the story of former PM Cameron lobbying for Greensill Capital?
Once again, change is needed. It’s time for the Government to clean house.
Photo credit The Guardian: Lisa Osofsky conceded it was a ‘sobering’ review of the SFO’s performance. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters
