New legislation demands better corporate behaviour. Sir Max Hill KC, Hannah Thorpe & Alex Tivey explain what this means in practice
- Discusses the expansion of the failure to prevent fraud offence across all economic crime, its application to large organisations, and the redefinition of the identification principle to include senior managers.
- Describes the increasing use of civil enforcement methods to recover the proceeds of crime, alongside greater use of deferred prosecution agreements.
- Gives practical guidance on reasonable prevention measures.
Corporate criminal liability has existed in some legal jurisdictions for decades. In England and Wales, there have been legislative efforts to expound this doctrine. But corporate criminal liability, particularly in England and Wales, has been patchy as to scope and as to the success of legislative reform. Things are changing now. Corporate criminal liability has expanded from niche origins in bribery, corruption and money laundering, to encompassing all economic crime. Together with a coming together of civil and criminal enforcement measures by regulators, investigators and prosecuting authorities in England and Wales, new legislation
