Key takeaways

• The UK Government has outlined initial proposals to expand corporate liability for serious economic crimes, including fraud, false accounting and money laundering.
• Reforms are likely to result in new strict liability offences for companies failing to prevent economic crime by their employees, representatives and agents, similar to the corporate offence in section 7 of the UK Bribery Act 2010, with a defence if a company had in place adequate procedures designed to prevent the wrongdoing.