Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General what the five largest fines for fraud resulting from Serious Fraud Office corporate prosecutions have been since 1988; and in each such case (a) which company was fined and (b) in which year the fine was levied.
The Solicitor-General (Oliver Heald): Corporate fines are not the only successful outcome for Serious Fraud Office (SFO) cases in relation to companies. Up until 2008, all successful SFO prosecutions were of individuals. The following table shows the fines and civil recovery orders (CROs) in SFO cases involving corporates since then.
Case Penalty
2009 AMEC plc £9.4 million CRO
2010 BAE Systems plc £500,000 fine
2008 Balfour Beatty plc £2.25 million CRO
2011 De Puy International Ltd £4.8 million CRO
2010 Innospec Ltd £12.7 million fine
2009 Mabey and Johnson Ltd £3.5 million fine
2012 Mabey Engineering (Holdings) Ltd £131,000 CRO
2011 MacMillan Publishers Ltd £11.3 million CRO
2011 M W Kellogg Ltd £7 million CRO
2012 Oxford Publishing Ltd £1.9 million CRO
2008 Severn Trent Water Ltd £2 million fine
(1) Figures are roundedIf a company is to be prosecuted, it is usually necessary in SFO cases to demonstrate that the controlling minds of a company were knowing participants in the criminality being alleged. It is therefore far more common to prosecute individuals rather than corporates.
Other outcomes are also possible. In 2010, BAE Systems plc agreed to make a £29.5 million payment for the benefit of the people of Tanzania, following a settlement with the SFO and the US Department of Justice. This year, Oxford University Press (owners of Oxford Publishing Ltd) unilaterally offered to contribute £2,000,000 to not-for-profit organisations for teacher training and other educational purposes in sub-Saharan Africa.