Attorney General written question – answered on 20th May 2022.
Emily Thornberry
Shadow Attorney General
To ask the Attorney General, how many investigations the Serious Fraud Office has opened in each calendar year between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2021.
Emily Thornberry
Shadow Attorney General
To ask the Attorney General, what the individual value of each (a) fine and (b) Deferred Prosecution Agreement issued by the Serious Fraud Office was in the last ten years.
Alex Chalk
The Solicitor-General
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) opened a total of 49 criminal cases from January 2016 until December 2021. Ten (10) cases were opened in 2016, eleven (11) cases were opened in 2017, ten (10) cases were opened in 2018, five (5) case were opened in 2019, eight (8) cases were opened in 2020, and five (5) cases were opened in 2021.
These numbers do not include cases that are related to the SFO’s Proceeds of Crime, International Assistance and/or Mutual Legal Assistance efforts.
The below table shows the fines issued by the SFO since 2016:
Date of Outcome | Monetary value of fine or financial penalty |
January 2016 | £1,136,799 |
February 2016 | £1,400,000 |
June 2016 | £6,375,000 |
October 2017 | £20,000 |
October 2017 | £20,000 |
October 2017 | £20,000 |
January 2019 | £5,000 |
January 2019 | £20,000 |
January 2019 | £15,000 |
June 2019 | £850,000 |
November 2019 | £15,000,000 |
January 2020 | £800 |
April 2021 | £7,521,920 |
October 2021 | £47,197,640 |
The SFO does not hold data on fines issued prior to 2016. These results do not include costs awarded to the SFO nor any confiscation orders.
Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) were introduced on 24 February 2014, under the provisions of Schedule 17 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013. They are available to the Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious Fraud Office. Since 2014 the SFO has entered in to a total of 12 DPAs.
Date of Outcome | Currency | Total (Per DPA) |
November 2015 | US$ | 32,576,197 |
July 2016 | GBP£ | 6,553,085 |
January 2017 | GBP£ | 510,252,645 |
April 2017 | GBP£ | 132,062,451 |
July 2019 | GBP£ | 22,900,000 |
October 2019 | GBP£ | 2,069,861 |
January 2020 | EUR€ | 990,963,712 |
July 2020 | GBP£ | 44,400,000 |
October 2020 | GBP£ | 2,979,686 |
July 2021 | GBP£ | 103,310,424 |
July 2021 | GBP£ | 1,994,071 |
July 2021 | GBP£ | 515,994 |
The above includes all financial amounts within each DPA, which could consist of:
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