Speak up and other internal investigations are on the rise (see our article here) amid increasing scrutiny from the media, public, authorities and other stakeholders of how investigations are conducted. Indeed, in higher profile matters the way in which an investigation is conducted can receive as much attention as the underlying issues.
The recent
The UK failure to prevent fraud offence has been long awaited. We are receiving a number of queries from clients about when the UK government’s “reasonable procedures” guidance is due to be published, when the offence will come into force and what they should be doing now to prepare.
In short:
This is the third article in our series breaking down the steps that organisations will need to take to put in place “reasonable procedures” to prevent fraud. Our previous posts, focusing on how to conduct effective fraud risk assessments and enhance polices and procedures, can be found here and here.
The new UK failure
In the first episode of the Global Investigations Podcast Series, Andrew Reeves (Partner, Investigations, Enforcement and Compliance team, London) is joined by Ruth Cowley (Head of Disputes and Investigations, London), Keith Rosen (Head of Risk Advisory, US) and Sharon Oded (Head of Investigations, Amsterdam) to discuss the early stages of an investigation; best practice in
Introduction
Whistleblowing is on the rise – both within organisations and to authorities. An increase in whistleblowing is positive: it shows employees feel able to speak up, allows issues to be escalated, investigated and where necessary remediated. However, the increase in whistleblowing also presents challenges for companies to ensure that they are dealing effectively and
This is the second article in our series breaking down the steps that companies will need to take to put in place “reasonable procedures” to prevent fraud. Our first post, which focussed on how to conduct effective fraud risk assessments, can be found here.
This comes ahead of the new UK failure to
The government have confirmed that the guidance in relation to what constitutes ‘reasonable procedures’ for the prevention of fraud is likely to be published in ‘early summer’, meaning that the new Failure to Prevent Fraud Offence would come into force by the end of the year.
See here for our article summarising the new offence
Many companies are currently considering what steps they need to take in relation to the new UK failure to prevent fraud offence (which is expected to come into force later this year or in early 2025).
By way of recap, a company will be liable for failing to prevent fraud by its associated persons (e.g.
The SFO has published its 5-year strategy document (the Strategy Document), highlighting a number of areas of focus, from international coordination with counterparts to capitalising on technology and incentivising their workforce.
This follows Director of the SFO, Nick Ephgrave’s, speech in February 2024 setting out key priorities (see our recent Investigations and Enforcement horizon
As anticipated in our previous horizon scan (see here), the end of 2023 has brought about significant developments in financial crime enforcement and a real focus on fraud. Looking ahead to 2024, we predict that developments affecting organisations doing business in the UK will include: