The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has secured a £10m penalty plus £4.8m in costs from manufacturer Ultra Electronics Holdings, under the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) for failure to prevent bribery
The company must also report to the SFO for the next three years on the effectiveness of its anti-bribery and compliance programme. The agreement, approved by a judge last week, brings to an end an eight-year investigation relating to three of the company’s public sector contracts in Algeria sought through the use of agents.
It is the first DPA in five years and only the 12th since they were introduced in 2014, marking a rare win for the SFO after some turbulent years with collapsed prosecutions against London Mining in February, and previously against Serco, G4S and Unaoil.
Graham McNulty, interim director of the SFO, said the outcome ‘underlines the SFO’s determination to investigate and hold companies to account’.
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