John Bramhall & Eleanor Mumford-Smith delve into regulatory investigations, whistleblowing & bribery
The trend for increased regulatory investigations and follow-on criminal proceedings in both the US and UK has shown no sign of abating. With it has also come an eye-watering level of punitive sanction, with fines imposed in the hundreds of millions of pounds or dollars. The threat of financial and criminal penalties is always a great driver in changing business practices, and they do help to focus the business community’s collective mind. In turn, legal advisers have identified this need, and there is a noticeable trend towards firms bulking up expertise, as they ready themselves to meet an increasing demand for regulatory advice to steer them and their employees through unfamiliar waters.
Hold the front page
Regulatory investigations and prosecutions now dominate the broadsheet business sections in a way previously unheard of—energy market rigging, manipulation of LIBOR, and maybe next, ISDA fixing. In June 2013, the criminal investigations arising out of the alleged manipulation of LIBOR led to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) charging former UBS trader, Tom
