On 30th October 2020 the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced it had entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with Airline Services Limited (ASL) in respect of three counts of failure to prevent bribery.
SFO Deferred Prosecution Agreement | Rosenblatt’s Financial Crime Team
Under the terms of the DPA, ASL agreed to pay £2,979,685.76, consisting of a financial penalty of £1,238,714.31, disgorgement of profits representing the gain of the criminal conduct of £990,971.45, and a contribution to the SFO’s costs of £750,000. The DPA relates to ASL’s use of an agent to win three contracts worth more than £7.3m to refit Lufthansa’s commercial airliners. The agent in question was a project manager for Lufthansa and was part of the team evaluating tenders. The agent used their position to gain access to commercially sensitive information to give ASL an illicit competitive advantage.
Lisa Osofsky, Director of the Serious Fraud Office, said: “Airline Services Limited failed in its duties to implement adequate procedures to prevent bribery, allowing one of its agents to pervert what should have been a fair tender process and corruptly win business for the company. I am pleased that our actions hold the company to account and enable us to recover the proceeds of its crimes.”
“It is to the credit of this now-dormant company that it voluntarily disclosed this conduct to the SFO and will remain in existence to fulfil the terms of the DPA.”
The public hearing at which the DPA was approved was held on 30th October 2020 at Southwark Crown Court before Mrs Justice May.
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