Monthly Archive for May, 2010

Robert Dougall’s Sentence Overturned

Published on 13/05/2010. Closed Tags: , .

We have previously reported on Robert Dougall’s jail sentence here.  In this case, despite the SFO all but agreeing a suspended sentence for him as a result of his co-operation, the Courts declined to follow the SFO’s recommendation and sentenced him to a year at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. 

His appeal however has just been allowed, and the Court of Appeal, in a welcome bout of sanity, reduced the conviction to a suspended sentence after all.   The Court however warned that there would be no automatic expectation of suspended sentences for bribery whistleblowers in the future.

The Court of Appeal remained critical of the SFO’s approach to the sentencing.  The SFO was reminded in no uncertain terms that they can only provide comments to the Court, and that the decision on sentencing must remain with the Court.  It is not in the SFO’s power to agree or recommend sentences. 

The Court provided the following useful insight about sentence levels and the justification for suspending the sentence:

In effect it arises from the relatively low maximum available sentence. On the view adopted in this case, following a guilty plea, the sentence would have been 2 years’ imprisonment. The defendant would then have to serve no longer than 12 months, and might well have been subject to (fluctuating) early release and similar provisions. The allowance for him entering into the SOCPA agreement, and taking on the considerable burdens involved in it, led to a halving of the sentence appropriate after the guilty plea.

…… What then is the difference in practice between the defendant who pleads guilty at the first available opportunity, but does not give the co-operation and assistance involved in the SOCPA agreement, and the defendant who takes on the full burdens involved in being a party to such an agreement?  There will still be a prison sentence, but no more than an additional few months, say 4-5 months, in actual custody. The consequence is that the reward for the full co-operation involved in the SOCPA agreement is relatively small, while the burdens taken on are substantial. 

The Court of Appeal judgement can be found here. 

 

 

 

 

 

Macmillan Debarred by the World Bank

Published on 06/05/2010. Closed Tags: , , .

UK-based publishers, Macmillan, which operates through 350 companies in over 80 countries, has been debarred by the World Bank after admitting bribery in Sudan. The debarment is under the bank’s rules and lasts initially for 6 years, reducing to 3 for good behaviour, which  involves appointing a compliance monitor.

Macmillan is fully owned by the Germany publishing giant Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck.

There are only sparse details of the unlawful payments, but it is clear that  Macmillan admitted engaging in bribes between 2008 and 2009 in an attempt to get a contract from a Sudan trust fund to print textbooks for the education rehabilitation project in the south of the country.  The fund had been set up by the World Bank  in 2006 to finance the rebuilding of South Sudan’s economy, government, health and education systems devastated by decades of civil war.

We understand the the SFO are now investigating, so it is likely that we have not heard the last of this.

The World Bank press release can be found here. More information about the World Bank compliance monitoring proram can be found here.