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The updated guidance puts a heavy emphasis on self-reporting and clarifies how corporates under investigation can earn cooperation credit from UK prosecutors.

By Pamela Reddy, Clare Nida, Annie Birch, and Matthew Unsworth

On 24 April 2025, the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) published a long-awaited update to its Guidance on Corporate Co-operation and Enforcement (the Guidance). The Guidance outlines the agency’s key considerations when deciding whether to prosecute a corporate or invite it to negotiate a deferred…

UK Supreme Court

The judgment concerns the circumstances in which fiduciaries must account to their principals for the profits they make from their fiduciary relationships.

By Oliver Middleton and Duncan Graves

The UK Supreme Court in Rukhadze v. Recovery Partners GP Ltd has unanimously rejected an attempt to introduce a caveat to the longstanding “profit rule” that such fiduciaries could retain their secret profits if it could be shown that they would have earned them without breaching the duties to their principal.1…

UK Supreme Court

The ruling, which narrows the UK’s jurisdiction over money laundering offences, will impact how cross-border money laundering offences are prosecuted going forward.

By Pamela Reddy, Clare Nida, and Annie Birch

The UK Supreme Court’s decision in El-Khouri1 has clarified the territorial limits of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA). The ruling confirmed that the primary money laundering offences under Sections 327 to 329 POCA do not have extra-territorial effect, narrowing the UK’s jurisdiction over money laundering…

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A landmark judgment from the Court of Appeal has clarified when representative proceedings may be issued on a bifurcated basis and the application of the regime to securities claims.

By Oliver Middleton and Duncan Graves

The English Court of Appeal has confirmed the strike out of a bifurcated representative action under CPR 19.8 for claims under Section 90A FSMA,1 a statutory regime that has formed the basis of a large number of group actions in recent years. Section 90A…

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The US executive order halts new and existing foreign bribery investigations — but enforcement risk in the UK and Europe remains.

By Pamela Reddy, Nathan Seltzer, Clare Nida, Annie Birch, and Matthew Unsworth

On 10 February 2025, President Trump issued an executive order titled “Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement to Further American Economic and National Security” (the Order). Among other things, the Order pauses new prosecutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) at the…

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The decision confirms that an arbitration agreement will be upheld in the face of insolvency proceedings only if it can be shown that the petition debt is genuinely disputed on substantial grounds.

By Martin Davies, Dominic Geiser, and Oliver Middleton

The Privy Council’s decision in Sian Participation Corp (in liq) v. Halimeda International Ltd [2024] UKPC 16 (Sian Participation) is the latest in a series of judgments clarifying the common law position on whether the court can…

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The ruling propels UK law enforcement to increase its investigative powers under POCA, and businesses to enhance their supply chain due diligence.

By Paul A. Davies, Clare Nida, Pamela Reddy, Michael D. Green, James Bee, Annie Birch, and Esha Marwaha

On 27 June 2024, the UK Court of Appeal found that the National Crime Agency’s (NCA’s) decision not to launch an investigation into the importation of cotton products originating from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous…

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Proposed rule would be implemented by statute and would give primacy to parties’ choice of governing law and jurisdiction.

By Stuart Davis, Nell Perks, and Matthew Unsworth

There is at least a tentative consensus in English law that cryptocurrencies and other digital assets are capable of giving rise to property rights.[1] However, there remains considerable uncertainty around which laws should govern proprietary disputes about digital assets and which courts should have jurisdiction over those disputes.

The Financial Markets Law Committee (FMLC) explained the crux of this problem in their initial report on digital assets in 2018.[2] Traditionally, a question as to rights or entitlement to personal property is governed by the law of the place where the property is situated (lex situs).  But this rule is ill-suited to digital assets which, by their nature, are intangible, digitised, and constituted on a decentralised ledger shared across a network of participants in potentially any number of jurisdictions.

View Of Bridge Over River Against Cloudy Sky

The sentencing of Romy Andrianarisoa, the first ever foreign public official to be convicted under the Bribery Act 2010, provides important takeaways.

By Pamela Reddy, Robin Spedding, and Matthew Unsworth

On 10 May 2024, Romy Andrianarisoa was sentenced to three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for soliciting bribes contrary to Section 2 of the Bribery Act 2010 (Bribery Act). Andrianarisoa, former Chief of Staff to President Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar, requested substantial cash payments in exchange for helping UK-headquartered Gemfields Group…