Accounting For Bribes: A Jersey Update

The law in Jersey relating to the consequences of receiving a bribe has been recently clarified in the case of Lloyds Trust Company (Channel Islands) Limited v Fragoso and Others [2013] JRC 211 concerning a Jersey trust known as the Rex Trust.

The Rex Trust itself had been established in 1999 by a Mozambican national, Mr Fragoso. He told the professional trust company which would act as trustee that he was a civil engineer who had earnt the funds to be settled into trust from various engineering consultancy contracts he had undertaken in different parts of the globe.

In 2010, the trustee became aware that an English construction company had been convicted in England of paying bribes in Ghana and Jamaica in order to obtain construction contracts. Whilst there were no charges which related specifically to Mozambique, the company accepted in the course of the prosecution that it had in various countries, including Mozambique, made corrupt payments to public officials