SFO fines a British defence supplier £10m

In its first Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) in four years, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has secured a £10m payment from a defence systems manufacturer following its failure to prevent bribery. The company was also required to pay an additional £4.8 million in SFO costs.

The manufacturer accepted that it had failed to have in place and implement adequate measures to identify and prevent bribery.

In line with the DPA, the company must also provide annual reports to the SFO for the next three years, alongside meet other conditions. The company must ‘demonstrate genuine and sustained reform under the scrutiny of the court’.

The investigation was opened in 2018 following the company’s report into suspected offences of corruption relating to conduct in Algeria. The investigation was subsequently extended to cover all jurisdictions in which the company operated.

The investigation related to the company’s failure to prevent bribery in relation to three public sector contracts, including a contract worth c.£200m awarded by the Omani Ministry of Transport and Communications.