All Topics

The corporate offence of Failure to Prevent Fraud (FtPF) in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 creates criminal liability for in scope organisations where an “associated person” (employees, agents, subsidiaries or others acting for or on behalf of the firm) commits a “specified fraud offence” intending to benefit the firm or its customers, unless the firm can demonstrate, on the balance of probabilities, that it had reasonable prevention procedures in place at the time or that it was not reasonable in all the circumstances to have any procedures.

That was how Stephen Houseman KC, sitting as a deputy Commercial Court Judge described the claimants’ conduct when he struck out an application for summary judgment on their US$300m fraud claim.

In recent days, the legal community and broader public have been closely following Justice Secretary David Lammy's proposals to reform jury trials in England and Wales. After initial reports suggesting a dramatic reduction in jury trials, Lammy has now unveiled a more measured but still significant "Swift Courts" plan that will fundamentally alter access to jury trials for many defendants.