Campaign lawyers challenge Serious Fraud Office over BAE
Fresh challenge launched by the Corner House and Campaign Against Arms Trade
The controversial plea bargain settlement with the arms company BAE Systems is the target of a fresh challenge from two campaign groups, the Corner House and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). The groups have instructed their solicitors to ask the director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to revoke the settlement in which BAE pleaded guilty to accounting offences and the SFO dropped more serious charges.
Solicitors Leigh Day & Co, who represent CAAT and the Corner House, argue that the SFO director Richard Alderman has acted unlawfully. ‘The guidance under which the director must operate makes clear that once the decision to prosecute has been taken, the charges agreed in any plea agreement must reflect the seriousness of the offending concerned’, said the law firm in a statement.
BAE has managed to avoid a possible conviction for bribery in the case of the Tanzanian military air traffic control system that it sold to the country. The company is paying a £30m fine, part of which will go to Tanzania in compensation for alleged losses suffered through the BAE deal.
