Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

SFO’s ‘carrot and stick’ compliance outreach: growth-focused data-sharing and training, corporate settlement incentives, and prosecutorial risks under the failure to prevent fraud regime

Published on: 20 June 2025

Published by a Law360 reporter

Legal News

Article summary

The white-collar prosecutor’s pitch to ‘collaborate’ with businesses on complying with economic crime laws

White-collar prosecutors’ plan to “work with” companies on meeting economic crime obligations—by sharing data, insights on trends and analysis—seems to dovetail with ministers’ rhetoric that every UK regulator should champion growth to revive the flagging economy, according to lawyers. While the government has told certain regulators, including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to factor growth into their core objectives, it has not, at least overtly, tried to steer the SFO or recast its duties. “For the SFO it’s a tricky balance: at its core it investigates and prosecutes, it isn’t a regulator, and it has long stressed that distinction,” said Ben Morgan, a partner at Freshfields LLP and the agency’s former joint head of bribery and corruption. Unlike the FCA and other oversight bodies, the SFO’s role is set in statute under the Criminal Justice Act 1987, limiting it to inquiring into and, where justified, bringing cases for serious or complex fraud. Its director, Nick Ephgrave, reports to the UK’s politically appointed law officers (the attorney general and solicitor general) under a framework agreement that underscores the importance of safeguarding the organisation’s independence...

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