Second UK Deferred Prosecution Agreement Has Implications For US Corporates

On July 11, the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced that it had secured its second deferred prosecution agreement (DPA). The first DPA was secured in November 2015 when Standard Bank agreed to meet financial penalties of US$25.2 million. The second concerns an as-yet-unidentified UK company (referred to as "XYZ Limited" for purposes of the case) that secured a number of contracts in various parts of the world through bribery. The bribery was said by the judge to be "part of XYZ's established business conduct" and that within XYZ it was "an accepted way of doing business." The bribery took place over a period of eight years, and subterfuge and deception were employed to keep the truth secret from auditors and XYZ's US parent.