Enforcement in the UK The UK’s now defunct Office of Fair Trading hit three real estate agents with a parting gift of fines for ‘significant and widespread failures’ in implementing the UK Money Laundering Regulations 2007. The firms dropped their guard in terms of customer due diligence, ongoing monitoring of business relationships, policies and procedures on record-keeping, […]

2015 may see an extension of the corporate offence under the Bribery Act to make companies liable for “failing to prevent” any economic crime. In 2015 we are likely to see the introduction and/or prosecution of a range of new offences, including energy market manipulation and insider dealing offences and a strict liability cartel offence, […]

2015 may see an extension of the corporate offence under the Bribery Act to make companies liable for “failing to prevent” any economic crime. In 2015 we are likely to see the introduction and/or prosecution of a range of new offences, including energy market manipulation and insider dealing offences and a strict liability cartel offence, […]

The corporate governance framework for listed companies in the UK is constantly evolving. Companies need to be aware of EU and UK legislative changes, Corporate Governance Code changes, revised guidance and views from the institutional investor bodies and certain consultations and proposals. The Herbert Smith Corporate Governance Advisory Team periodically produces a table which summarises […]

The UK government is fighting to keep secret details of how it handled allegedly corrupt transactions related to a contract to equip Saudi Arabia’s national guard, saying that to disclose the information would jeopardise counter-terrorism co-operation. Two top officials this week testified before a tribunal in London in support of the Ministry of Defence’s decision […]

How the UK’s property market is serving as a money-laundering vehicle for the world’s criminal and corrupt. The son of former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev lives in a £3.5 million mansion in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, despite being convicted in his homeland of the attempted murder of a UK citizen and […]

A widely-held suspicion that UK banks are covering up the true scale of cybercrime has been confirmed by the City of London Police chief Adrian Leppard, who says that up to 80% of online crime goes unreported to the authorities. Speaking at a Tech UK conference, Leppard says that the vast gap between what is […]

Jersey has been ranked as the least complex country for multinational enterprises to do business in for the second year running, according to TMF Group’s 2014 Global Benchmark Complexity Index. The far-reaching annual study has ranked 81 jurisdictions across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas according to how complex they are to […]