New measures to crack down on fraud and money laundering would “represent a massive shake-up—even bigger than the introduction of the Bribery Act five years ago”, lawyers have said.
Prime Minister David Cameron announced proposals to extend the corporate offence of “failing to prevent” to fraud and money laundering, last week at the Anti-corruption Summit 2016. Failing to prevent bribery and tax evasion is already an offence.
Barry Vitou, head of global corporate crime at Pinsent Masons, says: “The criminalisation of corporate law continues to snowball—these ‘failure-to-prevent’ clauses represent the most sweeping changes to corporate law in over hundred years and a substantial burden for businesses.
“Reforms to liability will place multinationals and other companies under new pressures—executives will need to show that they had robust policies in place to prevent wrong-doing in the event that an employee is found guilty of misconduct. Ensuring oversight at all levels of an organisation will present a challenge—especially where an organisation operates across several jurisdictions.”
The proposals also include requiring foreign companies owning land and property in the UK to join a public register of beneficial ownership, and creating an international anti-corruption coordination centre to help police and prosecutors work together cross-border.
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