Finance
Activists Worry Britain’s Financial Watchdog Is Losing Its Zeal
The biggest cases are noticeably absent from new Serious Fraud Office probes.
Lisa Osofsky, director of the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office.
Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/BoombergThis article is for subscribers only.
About seven years ago, the U.K. agency set up to prosecute errant executives and publicly traded companies started taking on some meaty cases. The Serious Fraud Office investigated everything from derivative traders to top brass at blue-chip darlings Barclays Plc and engine maker Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc.
Now some academics, anticorruption activists, and lawyers are wondering whether the SFO’s zeal for the biggest cases has waned over the past two years. “It’s focusing on small cases, and you’re left asking, ‘Where is the ambition?’ ” says Susan Hawley, executive director of Spotlight on Corruption, a transparency group. “It feels a bit like it’s lost its mojo.”