Foreign bribery police unit leading more investigations and fines

Tuesday, 02 February, 2010

Government plans to fight foreign bribery
The fight against foreign bribery has stepped up a level following new plans announced in January to combat global corruption.

The Foreign bribery strategy builds on the government's anti-corruption work over the past three years and is designed to help the UK fight against bribery and corruption.

The Foreign bribery strategy aims to:
* Strengthen the law through the new Bribery Bill
* Encourage and support ethical business
* Enforce the law against foreign bribery
* Reduce the demand for bribes through international cooperation and capacity building.

Earlier investment in a dedicated foreign bribery police unit and new powers for the Serious Fraud Office has led to increased investigations, multi-million pound fines and criminal prosecutions. Last year the Serious Fraud Office obtained the first conviction of a UK company for foreign bribery, with the company agreeing to pay £6.6 million.
The Foreign bribery strategy aims to ensure the new Bribery Bill, introduced to Parliament in November, builds on these early successes and supports a wider culture change in international business conduct.

The new foreign bribery strategy complements existing international corruption strategies on anti-money laundering and asset-recovery.

The government's Bribery Bill builds on a solid foundation of international anti-corruption work established through annual Anti-Corruption action plans in 2006/7 and 2007/8. This includes the establishment of the City of London Police's dedicated Overseas Anti-Corruption Unit, which led to the first UK conviction for foreign bribery last September. The Serious Fraud Office was also granted new civil asset recovery powers in April 2008, leading to a multi-million pound fine of a UK construction firm last October for inaccurate accounting of payments by one of their overseas subsidiaries.

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