Resources: Press release

In October 2004, activists representing diverse organizations and networks from around the globe came together in Durban, South Africa to strategize about the risks of the then-emerging carbon markets.

Now, after 20 years of violence, fraud, human rights abuses, ever-increasing fossil fuel burning, climate disasters, land grabs, ecological destruction and violation of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and communities located near polluters, the Durban Group for Climate Justice has been proved correct in its early warnings.

Italy's recent acquittal of oil multinationals Shell and ENI for bribery in Nigeria has been severely criticised by the body that acts as guardian of one of the main international anti-bribery conventions.  Details of this important case can be found in the attached press release.

A submission on the case co-authored by HEDA, a Nigerian human rights and anti-corruption group; Re:Common, an Italian non-governmental organization and The Corner House is also available above.

Environmental and social justice groups have condemned Italy’s anti-corruption laws as unfit for purpose following the acquittal of oil multinationals Shell and Eni on international corruption charges in Milan. Thirteen other defendants were also found not guilty.

The Corner House and others have written to the UK's Foreign Secretary to urge immediate action to address the worsening humanitarian crisis in northern and eastern Syria where tens of thousands now lack water due to the actions of Turkey and its proxies following their military occupation of border areas in 2019.

The Corner House and Global Justice Now are calling for a parliamentary inquiry following a report from the BBC's award-winning Africa Eye team on concerns about alleged fraud, bribery and other highly-questionable business practices by two British managers appointed by a UK aid-backed private equity fund to run its investee Kenyan firm Spencon.

See the downloadable press release above.

Campaigners slam government’s development approach as DfID-backed private equity fund comes under criminal investigation in Nigeria

Campaign Against Arms Trade and The Corner House are challenging the blanket immunity from prosecution given by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to BAE Systems as part of its February 2010 plea bargain settlement with the company.

Arms company BAE Systems today pleaded guilty at the City of Westminster magistrates court in London to minor charges of false accounting relating to its controversial sale of military radar equipment to Tanzania in 1999. The sale has been surrounded by allegations of corruption.

Campaign Against Arms Trade and The Corner House withdrew their application for a judicial review of the 5 February 2010 decision by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to enter a controversial plea bargain settlement with BAE Systems and to drop "conspiracy to corrupt" charges against a BAE former agent. They concluded they were unable to appeal against the 22 March 2010 refusal by a High Court judge to grant permission to bring the legal challenge. Nonetheless, both CAAT and The Corner House will continue to raise questions about the settlement and the process leading up to it.

The High Court granted an injunction prohibiting the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) from taking any further steps in its February 2010 plea bargain settlement with BAE Systems. The injunction is in force until the Court decides whether or not to give permission to Campaign Against Arms Trade and The Corner House to apply for a judicial review of the settlement.

PRESS RELEASE

Lawyers acting on behalf of Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and The Corner House issued a letter to the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) laying out their intention to request a judicial review of the 5 February 2010 decision by the SFO to enter a plea agreement with BAE. The basis for the legal challenge is that the SFO failed properly to apply prosecution guidance (including its own guidance). In particular, the plea agreement reached fails to reflect the seriousness and extent of BAE's alleged offending, which includes corruption and bribery, and to provide the court with adequate sentencing powers.

1 October 2009: Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and The Corner House welcomed the decision of the Director of the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to begin prosecution proceedings against BAE Systems for "offences relating to overseas corruption". The SFO has been investigating the business activities of BAE Systems in African and Eastern European countries.

BAE Systems, the UK's largest arms company, has cancelled all its public insurance for its controversial arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The company's decision came to light as a result of legal correspondence between The Corner House/Campaign Against Arms Trade with the UK Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) and subsequent parliamentary questions tabled by Vince Cable MP. By cancelling its insurance, BAE has let the ECGD off the hook from possible legal action over its support for the Saudi deals.

On 17 October 2008, the OECD's Working Group on Bribery issued a report, which holds that the UK authorities did breach their obligations under the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention when the Serious Fraud Office cancelled its investigation into arms deals between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia in December 2006. The Corner House and the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) issued this press release of the report, which vindicates their judicial review of the decision.

The Corner House and CAAT issued this press release after the House of Lords (the UK's highest court) overturned the High Court's ruling of April 2008 that the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had acted unlawfully when he terminated a corruption investigation into BAE Systems' arms deals with Saudi Arabia. The law lords judgment confirms that the UK is in flagrant breach of its duty to implement and give force to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

On 24 April 2008, the UK High Court formally quashed the Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) decision to drop its corruption investigation into arms deals between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia. It also gave the SFO permission to appeal to the House of Lords against its 10th April 2008 ruling that the SFO's termination of the investigation was unlawful.

The Corner House and Campaign Against Arms Trade issued this press release after the High Court ruled, in response to a judicial review brought by both groups, that the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had acted unlawfully when he stopped a corruption investigation into BAE Systems' arms deals with Saudi Arabia.

This press release highlights the documents released in the High Court on 14 February 2008 revealing that Britain's biggest arms company, BAE Systems, wrote to the Attorney General on a "strictly private and confidential" basis urging him to halt the Serious Fraud Office investigation into allegations that BAE had bribed Saudi officials to secure the Al Yamamah arms deal.

Documents released in the UK High Court indicate that the Serious Fraud Office investigation into BAE's Saudi arms deals was dropped only after the then Prime Minister Tony Blair sent a personal minute to the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith. They show that Goldsmith did not believe that the case should be dropped in response to alleged Saudi threats to withdraw intelligence and security co-operation.

At an oral hearing in the UK High Court on Friday 9 November 2007, lawyers for Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and The Corner House will argue that permission should be granted for a full judicial review hearing against the UK Government's decision to cut short an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into alleged corruption by BAE Systems in recent arms deals with Saudi Arabia.

On Friday 19 January 2007, CAAT and The Corner House received the Government's formal response to their proposed judicial review challenge of the Serious Fraud Office decision to discontinue the investigation into BAE Systems.

The letter sent by the Government's solicitors seeks to defend the decision. There is nothing in that letter which has dissuaded CAAT and The Corner House from their view that the decision was unlawful and is susceptible to challenge in the High Court.

On 18 December 2006, The Corner House and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) began a legal challenge to the decision by the UK's Serious Fraud Office to drop the investigation into bribery allegations involving BAE Systems Plc in Saudi Arabia.

In June 2005, several trade unions and NGOs signed a joint statement calling on the UK government to take immediate steps to meet its international obligations on corruption by taking 12 detailed actions.