Former director of public prosecutions, Sir David Calvert-Smith, will lead an independent review of the SFO’s prosecution of former Unaoil executive Ziad Akle, The review will look at the Serious Fraud Office’s disclosure failings at the trial of a former oil executive, whose conviction for bribery was overturned by the Court of Appeal.
The review will consider what went wrong in the Unaoil case and what changes are needed at the SFO to ensure that the failings identified by the Court of Appeal cannot happen again, especially in relation to contact with third-parties and disclosure as well as failings in policy, practice, procedure and culture.
Sir David Calvert-Smith has previously conducted an inquiry into the SFO’s investigation of Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation amongst other independent reviews for numerous organisations.
The report is expected at the end of May 2022.
Sir David Calvert-Smith