Developments In Fraud And Corruption Litigation: 2024 - 2025

Two months in and the Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") has already begun to set the tone for 2025 as a 'year of firsts'. Fast out of the gate, the SFO has obtained its first ever Unexplained Wealth Order, has been given the green light to apply to the Court to deal – for the first time – with a breach of a Deferred Prosecution Agreement, and has said it wants to be the first to bring a prosecution under the statutory provisions which will come into force later this year introducing a new corporate offence of Failure to Prevent Fraud.

All of this might be evidence of the "bolder, more pragmatic, more proactive" SFO that Nick Ephgrave talked about when he took the helm as Director in late 2023; an SFO that, in Mr Ephgrave's words, would not shy away from "new tactics, new methodologies".