The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has dropped corruption probes into Kazakh miner Eurasian National Resources Corporation (ENRC) and Australian-British miner Rio Tinto, according to a Reuters report.
The investigation into ENRC, related to alleged bribery for mining contracts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was dropped due to insufficient evidence. The SFO also dropped its investigation into suspected corruption by Rio Tinto in the Republic of Guinea, stating it wasn’t in the public interest to proceed with a prosecution in the UK. These decisions come after the SFO has faced a series of challenges and defeats in recent cases, while also achieving successes in other high-profile investigations.
In addition to the reasons stated above, it is possible that this change of tone on the part of the SFO is the result of several factors such as the lengthy time commitment these cases take to investigate and try, and the corresponding financial resources that must be deployed into these high-profile cases against companies with billions of dollars in revenue.
Moreover, the SFO’s director, Lisa Osofsky, is departing the agency in September which she has been leading since 2018.
This change in leadership is likely to slow down the SFO’s efforts to prosecute cases until a new leadership is announced. In addition, the agency will most likely have to adjust to its new leadership when it comes to selecting cases to investigate.
