BCL partner, Richard Sallybanks speaks to The Financial Times about the recent ruling that raises serious questions about why Tesco agreed a £129m plea bargain with the Serious Fraud Office since no one has been convicted.

Below is a short excerpt from the article* that can be found in full on the Financial Times website.

Richard Sallybanks, lawyer at BCL who defended John Scouler, added: “Despite his acquittal, Mr Scouler finds himself labelled as culpable in a private agreement, but one which is now made public, which the SFO concluded with Tesco before the SFO’s evidence was heard.”

Richard Sallybanks is a partner at BCL Solicitors LLP specialising in complex business crime and regulatory defence work. Richard has been involved in numerous SFO, FCA, HMRC & CMA investigations and prosecutions, together with associated restraint and confiscation proceedings. His recent SFO experience includes the Alstom, Barclays Qatar, and Tesco investigations (acting for senior individuals under suspicion), as well as acting for Robert Tchenguiz in the SFO’s Kaupthing Bank investigation (including the successful Judicial Review challenge to SFO search warrants). Richard has acted in a number of FCA criminal and regulatory investigations for brokers, traders and senior executives, including in relation to allegations of insider dealing and market abuse. He is experienced in cartel investigations, both domestic investigations conducted by the CMA and cross-border anti-trust investigations (including those conducted by the US DoJ). Richard is also experienced in the international mutual legal assistance regime, and in leading and co-ordinating teams of lawyers in multi-jurisdictional investigations.

*This article was first published by the Financial Times  on 24th January 2019. Full details can be found here.