An Eerie Silence

There's an eerie silence in the world of fraud prosecutions in the UK. A Libor trial is about to start, a FCA land banking prosecution is on trial at Southwark, but with reporting restrictions, and a couple of weeks ago David Dixon, author of a Ponzi Scheme, pleaded guilty; and Julian Rifat, having entered a guilty plea in the long-running Operation Tabernula case, was sentenced to 19 months in prison for insider dealing. But the City Slicker pages of Private Eye have not been full of critical comment about the 'Serious Farce Office' for some weeks - no doubt to the hearty relief of SFO Director, David Green QC - and apart from the odd reference to continuing enquiries, and the recent embarrassing fine by the Information Commissioner, there is indeed little to report in the Spring of 2015.

The 2014 year end produced a slew of good results for the SFO: there were convictions in JJB Sports, Arck LLP, Smith and Ouzman Ltd and Sustainable Growth Group in November and December. Although these were comparatively minor cases by SFO standards, and did not receive much media coverage, they were undoubtedly complex and serious cases which required skillful and determined preparation and presentation. Less welcome was the dismissal in February of a savagely criticized application for a Voluntary Bill of Indictment in the case against six directors of Celtic Energy.

In the pipeline are some challenging cases. Decisions are awaited about the Qatari refinancing of Barclays in 2008, which might involve some senior Barclays executives, corporate prosecutions arising out of the Libor scandals, not to mention Tesco and FOREX. The Rolls Royce corruption enquiry and a number of other Bribery Act enquiries are being pursued. No doubt consideration is being given to disposing of some of these cases by way of Deferred Prosecution Agreements. Although this form of Alternative Dispute Resolution, imported from the US, was originally touted as an economic way of sanctioning large corporations, without running the risk of causing the kind of collateral damage that saw the demise of Arthur Andersen in the wake of the Enron scandal, in practice it appears that the process is neither quicker nor cheaper than simply bringing a prosecution.

It is now nearly a year since DPAs were made available to some UK prosecutors, but none has so far been deployed. Part of the reason for this might be the level of judicial supervision, from a very early stage, that has been seen as a...