ANTICORRUPTION DEVELOPMENTS -

Convicted Printing Company Ordered to Pay £2.2 Million -

On January 8, 2016, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced that Smith & Ouzman Ltd, a U.K. security printing company, was ordered to pay a £2.2 million penalty for corrupt payments to public officials in Africa. The sentence came after a four­ year investigation that culminated in the company’s 2014 conviction under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 (“the Act”). As we reported in our February 2015 Red Notice, the company was found guilty of making corrupt payments to secure business contracts. The company’s chairman, Christopher Smith, and his son, sales and marketing director Nicholas Smith, were convicted and sentenced last year for agreeing to make payments to public officials in Kenya and Mauritania in violation of the Act.