The Serious Fraud Office has just published its 2013/2014 Annual Report. Anyone reading it in the
hope or expectation of gaining some insights into what the SFO does
or what causes it concern may be a trifle disappointed: of the 72
pages of the report, I could find only 4 that contained anything of
interest. In four paragraphs on page 1, David Green CB QC,
the Director of the SFO since April 2012, sets out his mission: to
take on the really difficult fraud cases, as envisaged by Lord
Roskill in the Fraud Trials Committee Report in the 1980's,
better cooperation with law enforcement partners in the UK and
abroad, and to build up an intelligence capability. No one
could argue with that. He states that high quality staff have
been recruited and retained. On page 3 there are some
statistics about the number of cases in progress (12 new
investigations, and 5 trials, of which 3 were completed during the
relevant period). On page 5 there is some analysis of the
SFO's
