Our global team of lawyers has extensive experience advising financial sponsors, global corporates and financial institutions on business crime due diligence and compliance. Many of our lawyers have worked within the world’s most significant enforcement bodies, including the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which enables us to offer clients a unique perspective on their objectives and approach.

Transaction Due Diligence

We work alongside our transactional teams to perform bespoke business crime due diligence. We identify issues relating to business crime matters (including bribery and corruption, fraud, money laundering and sanctions), recommend contractual protections in transaction documents and advise on potential criminal and civil exposure and remedial actions.

Due diligence is not simply a “tick-box” exercise to comply with regulatory requirements. It provides clarity on the true condition of the target. We have worked on numerous transactions where the discovery of issues has required important strategic decisions to be made about whether and how a transaction can continue.

Compliance

As part of our Risk and Resilience practice, we regularly assist clients to design and implement robust yet practical tailored governance, risk management and compliance programmes aimed at mitigating key regulatory and other risks to the business, including in relation to business crime. Our experience of business crime due diligence and regulatory and criminal investigations gives us a deep understanding of what best practice looks like, as well as the challenges and pitfalls in this area. We work to put clients in the strongest position to prevent, detect and address business crime issues, including by assisting with the delivery of bespoke training. We have particular expertise in “high risk” sectors including defence, finance, fast moving consumer goods and energy and natural resources.

We also regularly advise financial services clients on issues relating to money laundering, market abuse, tax evasion and conflicts of interest.

Business crime is just one of the areas of potential risk that we advise on. To learn more about how our Risk and Resilience practice can help you to manage risks to your business, click here.