Noticeboard
First conviction of a company for overseas corruption - Mabey & Johnson
On 25 September 2009 Mabey & Johnson Limited was ordered to pay a total of £6.6 million following guilty pleas to charges of overseas corruption and breaching United Nations sanctions against Iraq (http://www.bcl.com/downloads/SFOMabeyandJohnsonsentencing.pdf). This was the first prosecution by the SFO of a company for these offences. The sum of £6.6 million (made up of fines, confiscation, costs and compensation payments) was a figure which had been agreed between the SFO and the company ahead of sentencing under the Attorney General’s’ "Guidelines on plea discussions in cases of serious or complex fraud" (http://www.bcl.com/notice.php?id=1). As made clear in the SFO’s opening statements to the court, BCL represent one of the company’s former directors in the SFO’s ongoing investigation.
