The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), National Crime Agency (NCA) and Serious Fraud Office (SFO) have agreed on some rules to help them identify cases in which HM Government should compensate victims of economic crime overseas.

The SFO and the NCA (originally set up under another name by David Blunkett during his term as home secretary) have already secured £49.2 million in compensation for overseas victims in five cases since 2014. The amounts are as follows.

• £28.7 million of assets recovered by the CPS following the conviction of Ao Man Long, former Secretary of Transport and Public Works in the Macao Special Administrative Region, for corruption offences. The CPS ensured that Mr Ao’s assets in the UK – part of the US$100 million hidden in offshore companies and more than 100 bank accounts – were successfully returned to the Region’s authorities.
• £349,000 paid to the Government of Kenya following the SFO's prosecution of senior executives at the printing firm of Smith & Ouzman.
• £4.9 million (US$7 million) compensation to the Government of Tanzania included as part of the terms of the SFO’s first deferred prosecution agreement, which it signed with Standard Bank.
• £4.4 million recovered by the SFO from corrupt oil deals in Chad which has now been transferred, for some reason, to the Department for International Development.
• £10.9 million in a mystery case.

The principles

If compensation is appropriate, the three organisations will use whatever legal mechanisms are available to secure it. These include the following.  

• In cases resolved by prosecution, the CPS and the SFO seeking remedies available under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (another Blunkett initiative) for confiscation and the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 for compensation.
• In cases resulting in deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs), the SFO and the CPS seeking compensation as part of the terms.
• In cases disposed of civilly, the three bodies attempting to return funds to victims, if the mood takes them.

As we have heard, the bodies will consider the question of compensation in all 'relevant' cases. In 'relevant' cases they will work with the Home Office, Foreign Office and HM Treasury to identify potential victims overseas. They might assess the case for compensation, obtain evidence in support of compensation claims, ensure that the process for the payment of compensation is fair, and identify a suitable means by which they can pay compensation without inviting further corruption.

The three quangos have announced: "Under these principles we have committed to ensuring that the question of compensation is considered in every case and to using all available legal mechanisms to secure it whenever appropriate. It is vital that those who perpetrate bribery, corruption and economic crime are not only brought to justice but that their illicit gains are returned to the overseas victims of their criminality.”