Box 6.8. Enforcement authorities ensuring victim compensation through non-trial resolutions: Examples of cases in the United Kingdom

Compensation has been provided to States or communities affected by bribery in cases prosecuted by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO). The 2016 UK Anti-Corruption Summit brought together nine nations that pledged to establish shared principles for compensating countries impacted by corruption. The UK’s policy rationale for pursuing compensation payments is outlined in the summit’s communique as “an important method to support those who have suffered from corruption”. In 2018, the SFO, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), and the National Crime Agency (NCA) published joint principles on the compensation of victims of economic crime overseas. More recently, the SFO published on its website a guidance on the “General Principles to Compensate Victims (including affected States) in bribery, corruption and economic crime cases”. Some non-trial resolutions that included victim compensation obligations were described in the OECD Working Group on Bribery Phase 4 evaluation report of the United Kingdom as follows:

Smith & Ouzman – Compensation was not ordered by the court, but the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) made a policy decision to transfer £ 395,000 ($ 505,000) to Mauritania and Kenya. For Mauritania, where the public official in question had remained in post since the corruption was discovered, the United Kingdom made a payment to the World Bank to fund infrastructure projects in the country. For Kenya, the United Kingdom agreed the funds would be spent on purchasing ambulances for the country.
Standard Bank – As part of the court-approved Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA), $ 7 million compensation was ordered to be paid directly to the Government of Tanzania. In providing the payment to Tanzania, the SFO was assisted by the FCO and DFID working in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Tanzania.

Oxford Publishing Limited – In addition to the £ 1.9 million ($ 2.4 million) civil recovery order, Oxford Publishing Limited unilaterally offered to contribute £ 2 million ($ 2.6 million) to not-for- profit organizations for teacher training and other educational purposes in sub-Saharan Africa. This benefit to the people of the affected region has been acknowledged and welcomed by the SFO, but the SFO decided that the offer should not be included in the terms of the court order as the SFO considers it is not its function to become involved in voluntary payments such as this.
Amec Foster Wheeler Energy Limited – As part of a court-approved DPA, the company was ordered to pay financial penalty and costs amounting to £ 103 million ($ 132 million) to the United Kingdom, including payment of compensation to the people of Nigeria of £ 210,610 ($ 270,000). This settlement is part of a $ 177 million global settlement with authorities from the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazil.

Source: OECD Working Group on Bribery Phase 4 evaluation report of the United Kingdom, https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/anti-corruption-and-integrity.html; OECD (2019), Resolving Foreign Bribery Cases with Non-Trial Resolutions: Settlements and Non-Trial Agreements by Parties to the Anti-Bribery Convention, https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/topics/policy-sub-issues/fighting-foreign-bribery/Resolving-foreign-bribery-cases-with-non-trial-resolutions.pdf; SFO news release, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/serious-fraud-office, “New joint principles published to compensate victims of economic crime overseas”; SFO, Information for victims, witnesses and whistle-blowers, Compensation Principles to Victims Outside the United Kingdom; SFO case updates “SFO enters into £103m DPA with Amec Foster Wheeler Energy Limited”, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/serious-fraud-office.

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UNODC Business Integrity Portal

Box 6.8. Enforcement authorities ensuring victim compensation through non-trial resolutions: Examples of cases in the United Kingdom