International businesses operate in an increasingly complex matrix of jurisdictions and compliance regimes. Managing all these requirements across the world can present many challenges.

UK Bribery Act 2010

The UK Bribery Act 2010 (the "Bribery Act") has brought new focus to the prevention of bribery and corruption.

The Act will introduce some of the toughest anti-bribery legislation in the world. This fact combined with the delayed release of the official guidance has raised the temperature of the debate surrounding the introduction of the Act.

The Act contains new offences including the key new offence of the failure to prevent bribery by any organisation that has a presence in the UK no matter where they are incorporated. This means that a business may be liable for a bribery offence committed by others associated with the organisation including employees, agents and business partners. However, under the act companies will be able to use the defence of having introduced and maintained appropriate and sufficient policies and procedures to prevent bribery and corruption.

Expert Advice

The speed of modern communication means that any questions around business integrity can become worldwide knowledge in minutes, resulting in damage to both business perception and confidence. Adequate policies and procedures are essential to ensuring your business integrity is not compromised and potential threats can be robustly defended.

Clyde & Co's multi-disciplined business integrity and compliance team understands that you operate in an increasingly fast paced and competitive world. Your legal support needs to ensure there is a minimum of disruption to your business and give you advice in a proactive manner on both contentious and non-contentious issues. Our team can advise you on:

  • industry regulation
  • trade sanctions
  • corporate governance
  • prosecutions and dawn raids

They can assist your in-house team with specialist advice, help you assess, formulate and monitor your compliance processes and provide you with a complete compliance service. This includes providing a compliance product that can be seamlessly integrated into your business operation and existing compliance policies. This product can be tailored to your operational needs. The main components include: training, tailored procedures, due diligence, record keeping, templates, legal updates and the opportunity to use us as a sounding board for any grey area issues. So you can establish processes that protect your business integrity, allow you to operate commercially and respond effectively to new opportunities.

We have a particular understanding of the challenges and risks of working in the emerging and new markets of Russia and CIS, Africa, India, China, S. America, India and the Middle East. In these markets on the ground expertise of local laws can prove vital when shaping compliance policies and procedures. Particularly as, under the act, long-standing 'usual' business practices may be viewed as offences. This means a careful review of longestablished ways of working will help to ensure your procedures remain compliant.

Practical, commercial support

Clyde & Co has a well established reputation for providing straight forward, practical advice that takes into account the commercial needs and ambitions of your business. We have an in depth knowledge of our core sectors, in particular energy, international trade and commodities, transportation, infrastructure and construction and insurance. This deep sector understanding means we give advice tailored to meet the exact needs of your business.

Recent Experience

Our team advises a wide range of organisations from small entrepreneurs to large multinationals. Some recent examples of our business integrity and compliance experience includes advising:

  • An African/Middle East focused energy company on developing and implementing anti-corruption and anti-money laundering policies and procedures.
  • A major commodity trader on its world-wide bribery and corruption procedures and auditing established procedures on a regular basis.
  • A construction services company in relation to US and EU investigations into cartel offences
  • The claimant in a US$2bn claim regarding an alleged fraudulent dilution of interests with regards to a joint venture in various Russian oil fields.
  • The CEO of an oil company under investigation by the FSA for alleged misleading statements to the market regarding yields from discoveries.
  • Numerous insurance companies and brokers regarding the international issues around introductory offers and commissions as well as internal fraud, including the procedures to be put in place to prevent future issues and address failings identified by the FSA
  • Two insurance companies in the conduct of internal investigations after allegations of secret commissions in return for placing insurance contracts.
  • The defence of the trading partners of an aluminium plant in Tajikistan accused of bribery and corruption.
  • The CEO and directors of a large Eastern European/Russian Bank in a multimillion dollar fraud case.
  • The defence of numerous whistleblowing claims against regulated bodies.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.