Unveiling Bermuda's New Bribery Act

Bermuda's Bribery Act 2016 (Bribery Act) came into force on 1 September 2017, completely overhauling Bermuda's anti-bribery legislation by criminalising bribery and creating new offences of bribing a foreign public official or failing to prevent bribery by an associated person.

Further, the new Act goes beyond the United States' Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in a number of ways, so that even companies with robust FCPA compliance programmes must decide whether those programmes would be viewed as adequate for the purposes of the Bribery Act.

Based on the United Kingdom's Bribery Act 2010, Bermuda's new legislation abolishes existing anti-corruption laws and replaces them with four offences: bribing (offering, promising or giving a financial or other advantage); being bribed (requesting, agreeing to receive or accepting a financial or other advantage); bribery of foreign public officials; and a corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery.