Richard Reichman writes for Euronews ‘Self-reporting of corporate wrongdoing should be further encouraged’

Richard Reichman writes for Euronews ‘Self-reporting of corporate wrongdoing should be further encouraged’

BCL partner, Richard Reichman writes for Euronews discussing the complex decision of whether or not to self-report corporate wrongdoing.

In the following extract from the article*, which can read in full here, Richard considers the likely impact of self reporting:

‘Encouraging the self-reporting of corporate wrongdoing and motivating responsible corporate citizens has a number of significant benefits. When consulting on the introduction of Deferred Prosecution Agreements in 2012, the UK government outlined obstacles to successfully tackling economic crime, such as legal difficulties in proving corporate criminal liability and long, complex adversarial criminal proceedings. Self-reporting means that more offending can be identified, addressed and remedied with greater speed and efficiency. The creation of Deferred Prosecution Agreements has gone some way to promote self-reporting, but greater certainty and more compelling incentives are required to transform corporate behaviour.

Whether or not to self-report corporate offending is a crucial and complex decision. A company needs to consider the various continually evolving risks and incentives applicable to its individual circumstances.

*This article was originally published by Euronews on 29th July 2019.  If you wish to read the full article please visit the Euronews website here.

If you’d like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article with Richard please contact us in the strictest confidence.

Richard Reichman is a partner at BCL, specialising in corporate crime, financial crime and regulatory investigations. He is recommended by The Legal 500 for his “extensive experience” and being “extremely thorough and appreciat[ing] the big picture issues”. He has experience in a broad range of regulatory offences, such as health and safety (generally following major or fatal incidents), environmental, food safety, fire safety and trading, as well as financial offences such as fraud, bribery, insider dealing and money laundering. Richard is involved in cases involving cybercrime (for example, computer-specific offences such as hacking) or a technological dimension. He has acted for victims of cybersecurity breaches and advises regarding data protection issues falling within the scope of the Information Commissioner’s Office.