For years many prosecutors in the United Kingdom wished they could use U.S.-style deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) to prosecute corporate crime. That wish is about to become a reality, as the U.K. Code of Practice governing use of DPAs, promulgated pursuant to the Crime and Courts Act of 2013, takes effect later this month.
The timing is fortuitous. The U.K. DPA arrives at a moment of rising global corporate criminal enforcement, of greater coordination between U.K. and U.S. prosecutors, and in the midst of complex multinational investigations ranging from alleged manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and various currency exchange rates to alleged schemes to pay bribes for business. With U.K. prosecutors now gaining the power to use DPAs, the enforcement landscape will shift and the liability picture for companies facing criminal exposure in both the United Kingdom and the United States will be further complicated.
