The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) reports another successful year with increased prison sentences for white collar criminals and more than GB pound 50 million pounds in assets recovered from the proceeds of crime.
In its Annual Review of 2011-2012, the SFO says that its actions have secured prison sentences averaging 55 months for each convicted fraudster (up from an average of only 30 months in 2010-2011).
Meanwhile, over GB pound 50 million of assets were recovered from the proceeds of crime (up from GB pound 42.5 million the previous year).
The average time it takes to charge is now 19 months, down from over four years in 2007-2008 (before the current director, Richard Alderman, was appointed).
Commenting on his last annual report before stepping down later this month (David Green CB QC has been appointed as director of the SFO effective from 23 April 2012), Alderman said: “I’m proud to be leaving behind an organisation that’s far stronger, indeed transformed beyond recognition, from the one I took over in 2008. The advances would have been impossible without the support and commitment of my CEO, Phillippa Williamson, and our chief capability officer Chris Bailes.”
With the overall budget reducing for the fifth successive year to GB pound 36.8 million, successes have been achieved as the SFO continued its drive to provide better value for money. The average cost of cases fell from GB pound 910,000 in 2010-2011 to an estimated GB pound 669,000 in the past financial year.
Move to harness advanced technologies
The SFO’s move to new premises (at Cockspur Street near Trafalgar Square in London) before the end of this year will save a further GB pound 4.3 million of public money by 2015-2016.
In “doing more for less” it has been vital to harness advanced technology particularly in helping the SFO deal with massive increases in data handling.
In 2011, the SFO’s Digital Forensic Unit processed around 13 Tb of data – the equivalent of 650,000 trees’ worth of paper or more than 5.5 billion single-spaced typed pages which, if stacked, up would tower over 858,000 miles high.
Phillippa Williamson acknowledges that part of the SFO’s success is based on increasing its data processing capability by more than 1800% in the past three years, but it’s also about looking beyond traditional adversarial approaches.
“The GB pound 29.5 million payment that BAE Systems made to Tanzania under its settlement with us is a prime example,” suggested Williamson, “as is the Mabey & Johnson case, where we helped new management draw a line under the malpractice they found. In this case we also forced shareholders to pay back dividends derived from contracts won through unlawful conduct.”
Williamson added: “In future, shareholders and investors in other companies should satisfy themselves about the business practices of the companies they invest in or face the prospect of the SFO taking civil action against them to recover money. “
A full copy of the SFO’s Annual Report can be viewed here
