The British SFO publishes guidelines for reinforcing the persecution of crime of economic crime

The United Kingdom's serious office of the United Kingdom has recently published updated guidelines about how companies can best avoid or reduce the risk of persecution in cases in which economic crimes such as bribes and corruption are involved (the guidelines). The guidelines are building on the guideline design published last year and updates the previous instructions from 2019 by determining the SFO position on self-reporting and the importance of “real” cooperation by companies in order to secure “cooperation loans”. For the first time in this updated guidelines, the SFO has set clear time frames to react to a report within 48 hours and to make a decision on the opening of an examination within six months of the first report.

Corporation Credit

The guidelines claim that companies that have suspected that companies have suspected the misconduct and work completely and “really” with investigators, “cooperation loans”, which enable them to negotiate a push -enforced law enforcement agreement (dpa) instead of the law enforcement, subject to exceptional circumstances. These extraordinary circumstances include a lack of cooperation and inadequate remedial measures, repeated insult, a violation of the conditions of a previous dpa agreement and if the alleged criminal behavior is so serious that it would be a law enforcement in the public interest.

As part of the DPAS, the public prosecutors agree to suspend court proceedings in exchange for the company, which agrees to conditions such as fines, compensation payments and corporate compliance programs.

Why self -report?

Before the publication of the guidelines, companies that reported themselves to the SFO continued to carry out the risk of a criminal conviction if the SFO decided that a dpa was not appropriate. The updated instructions promote and emphasize the need for self -reporting as a sign of a reasonable and reflective organization with legitimate expectation that this will lead to a dpa if possible. An failure to report yourself, or the failure to do so in a reasonable time, could affect the assessment of the cooperation by the SFO and thus threaten the authorization for the negotiation of a dpa. What corresponds to a reasonable time for the self -report depends on the circumstances and is evaluated on a case -by -case basis.

Cooperation

Companies that work completely and “really” with SFO investigations can be invited to negotiate a dpa. Cooperation during an investigation means that the SFO that goes beyond what the law requires. This is case -specific, but probably includes behaviors such as the provision of access to documents (digital and hard copy), which are likely to be relevant for the investigation, identify potential witnesses, identify people who are involved in the alleged misconduct and an early examination of the SFO. A non -exexhusty list is defined here in the instructions. Examples of the cooperation are the immediately suspected misconduct; Conservation of data; Provision of information to the SFO in a structured, user -friendly way; identify potential witnesses; Identification of flows and the briefing of the SFO on the background of the problem. A company that maintains a valid claim to right -wing privileges (LPP) is not punished. However, a notification of LLP will be an important cooperative law and would help accelerate the matters. This can be an essential problem in which witness accounts were accepted before the self -report during an internal examination.

The instructions also determine what the SFO sees as uncooperative. This includes the search for the overload of the investigation and the tactical delay through unnecessarily large amount of material or “forum shopping”, in which they inappropriately report on another responsibility and thereby want to exploit differences between international law enforcement authorities or legal systems.

Internal studies and practical guidelines for self -reporting

The SFO has recognized that the instructions do not show sufficiently detailed what levels of the companies should carry out before self -reporting. However, the instructions contain a number of core principles. The SFO expects the company to follow the following self -reporting procedures and expectations as soon as the company provides direct evidence that indicate that corporate violations:

1. Register directly to the secret service department, which includes a legal team that is directed by a senior lawyer who will manage the initial commitment to the companies and their legal representatives. The first contact can be made using a secure report form (found here). With this report form, companies or their legal representatives can discuss the reporting process with a representative of the secret service before being submitted to portal.
2. The self -report should identify all relevant known facts and maintain all evidence for the evidence:
   1. The alleged crimes;
   2. The people involved (both within and outside of the organization);
   3. The relevant jurisdiction;
   4. The whereabouts of key material and any risk associated with the destruction of the material;
   5. Every earlier relevant corporate behavior and how it was remedied; And
   6. If digital material is provided, the company should agree to the SFO in the right digital format for receiving such a material.

It is important that companies present a thorough analysis of all compliance programs and procedures at the time of the crime, as well as the explanations or planned remedial measures. Information that may not be available immediately during the initial self -report should be made available as soon as possible in order to display the full cooperation.

The self -reporting through a suspicious activity report to the National Crime Agency or another authority (domestic or foreign) does not correspond to self -reporting in the SFO, unless this does so at the same time or after self -reporting in the SFO.

Clearer deadlines

The instructions also bear transparently for the responsibility of the SFO if you receive a secure report form. In return for self -reporting, a company can expect the secret service department to make the following:

• Personally establish contact within 48 hours of report or another initial contact with the intelligence department.
• Enter regular updates to companies to the status.
• Specify a decision about whether an examination should be opened within six months of the self -report.
• Complete the examination within a reasonable time frame. The length of the examination depends on the complexity and level of proactive cooperation.
• Complete the dpa negotiations within six months of sending an invitation.

Diploma

This instructions make the SFO position more clear: the best way for companies to avoid law enforcement is to prevent misconduct through prevention, transparency and accountability by proactively reported misconduct. In return, the SFO has committed itself to a timely deadline for the decision to examine and concluded dpa negotiations that were initiated after the start. This sharpens the periods involved at the beginning and at the end of the process. But what about the examination process? The length of an SFO examination can still take a lot of time depending on the complexity.