Ongoing fraud investigations into Barclays, Rolls-Royce and Libor rigging have forced the Serious Fraud Office to ask the government for an extra £26.5m.
The cost of paying compensation to Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz, who built their fortune through investments in property, is another factor for the claim for extra funds. The fraud agency is paying £6m to Vincent Tchenguiz after a botched raid in a now collapsed investigation relating to the 2008 banking crisis.
Solicitor general Robert Buckland announced the requirement for a “cash advance from the contingencies fund” in a written ministerial statement.
There was no update from the SFO on the conclusions of its investigations into Libor rigging – sparked by the 2012 fine imposed on Barclays by regulators in the UK and the US for manipulating the benchmark rate – or into Barclays for the way it raised funds from Middle Eastern investors during the 2008 banking crisis. The investigation into Rolls-Royce is related to bribery allegations.
David Green, the head of the SFO, told a conference on Thursday that the agency was handling the “most demanding caseload the SFO has ever shouldered”.
He said: “We have blockbuster or ringfenced funding to protect our most expensive investigations. The arrangement recognises that the SFO is demand-led and honours the pledge that on my watch the SFO will never turn down any investigation simply on grounds of cost. The mechanism is not perfect, but it does the job.”
