The UK Serious Fraud Office’s second application for a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) was approved today. The firm involved is a UK SME with a US parent company but it cannot currently be named due to ongoing, related legal proceedings.
The SME was the subject of an indictment alleging conspiracy to corrupt, contrary to section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977, conspiracy to bribe, contrary to section 1 of the same Act, and failure to prevent bribery, contrary to section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010, all in connection with contracts to supply its products to customers in a number of foreign jurisdictions.
As a result of the DPA, the company will pay financial orders of £6,553,085, comprised of a £6,201,085 disgorgement of gross profits and a £352,000 financial penalty. £1,953,085 of the disgorgement will be paid by the SME’s US registered parent company as repayment of a significant proportion of the dividends that it received from the SME over the indictment period.
To have been indicted under Section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010 for failing to prevent bribery the SME in question must have been unable to demonstrate it had adequate procedures to prevent bribery. There are 6 simple steps that firms can take to put in place those adequate procedures and our resource centre can guide you through them and also provide tools and resources to help you to practically put them in place.
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