SFO director Lisa Osofsky to depart function subsequent summer time

The pinnacle of the Severe Fraud Workplace is stepping down subsequent summer time after 5 years, drawing an finish to a tenure that featured some successes however has additionally been marked by two high-profile failures.

Workers had been advised on Wednesday afternoon that Lisa Osofsky, a twin US-UK citizen and former FBI lawyer, would go away the fraud company on the finish of her five-year contract in August 2023.

Osofsky’s time period as director has been blended. Final week, a London decide ordered the UK subsidiary of Glencore to pay £276mn for operating a bribery and corruption community to safe beneficial entry to grease throughout Africa after the SFO secured a conviction towards the commodity dealer on seven counts of bribery in June. The order was the largest monetary penalty ensuing from a company conviction within the UK.

Beneath her tenure, the SFO additionally secured a document €991mn company settlement, or deferred prosecution settlement, with Airbus to settle a sprawling corruption probe. Nevertheless, she dropped quite a lot of high-profile circumstances, together with long-running investigations into aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce and pharmaceutical group GSK.

Her time on the SFO was additionally marked by scandal. In December, then attorney-general Suella Braverman launched an impartial inquiry into failings throughout the company’s probe of oil and fuel consultancy Unaoil after the Courtroom of Enchantment dominated the SFO had denied a convicted government the fitting to a good trial.

That evaluation discovered that Osofsky was partially chargeable for permitting a suspect’s “fixer” to develop into embroiled within the case, the place he tried to affect the end result. The appeals courtroom finally quashed three convictions in that case after discovering that the SFO had withheld proof about conferences and cellphone calls with the fixer from the defence.

The SFO additionally torpedoed its fraud case towards two former Serco executives in April final 12 months after it failed handy over paperwork to the defence, which led to the collapse of the trial.

Osofsky was employed in 2018 after a drawn-out recruitment course of to exchange David Inexperienced, whose time period was prolonged by two years in 2016. The company has struggled to draw and retain workers, who can command far larger salaries in non-public apply. The director’s wage is round £180,000.

Osofsky left a job at Exiger, a personal threat and compliance agency, to hitch the SFO. Her profession has included stints as a former assistant US legal professional in Chicago and deputy basic counsel with the FBI, targeted on white-collar investigations. She additionally labored at funding financial institution Goldman Sachs.

The attorney-general’s workplace, which oversees the company, stated in an announcement: “Lisa Osofsky will stand down in August 2023 after serving her full five-year time period. Recruitment for the following [director] will start shortly.”

A person with data of the state of affairs stated the attorney-general, Victoria Prentis, and Osofsky had agreed she would stay in submit for a short while after that date if required to make sure continuity of management.

The SFO declined to remark.