In Cordery’s newsletter, Partner Jonathan Armstrong shares recent developments in bribery and corruption.
It has been a busy few months in the world of bribery and corruption and I thought you might be interested in hearing about some of the developments.
Data & investigations
As you probably already know the European Court handed down its judgment last month in the latest round of the Schrems litigation. The court struck down Privacy Shield and curtailed the use of Standard Contractual Clauses. The result will have an impact on the way in which many corruption investigations are handled. We’ve set out some thoughts on this here alongside some practical steps when dealing with an investigation – https://bit.ly/gdprinvest
Unaoil
The SFO recently secured convictions in the Unaoil case which involved allegations of bribery in Nigeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya and Syria. Two individuals were found guilty by the jury. One pleaded guilty before the trial. One of them has been sentenced to five years imprisonment and another 3 years. This links into related proceedings in the US. You can see our thoughts on the case here www.bit.ly/sfounaoil Whilst the case was in some respects a win for the SFO, the SFO’s director was criticised by the trial Judge for her conduct.
COVID-19
We have updated the note that we did in May about the likely effects of the pandemic on the world of bribery and corruption – www.bit.ly/covbribe. Unfortunately, some of our predictions have come true with large investigations in Bolivia and Brazil into kickbacks allegedly paid to buy unsuitable or overpriced medical equipment. There are also rumours of investigations involving China and Africa. These allegations also involve a development bank and at least two companies based in Spain…Read more
