The Serious Fraud Office in the United Kingdom commenced an investigation into Unaoil, a company providing oil and gas services in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, following the receipt of information indicating that members of the company paid or conspired to pay bribes to high-ranking Iraqi public officials on behalf of Unaoil clients.
Shortly after the Serious Fraud Office commenced its investigation, a suspect was arrested in the United Kingdom in possession of cheques in the sums of GBP 950,000 and 925,000. After learning that a international news website was about to publish the main allegation covered by the investigation and to avoid relevent evidence being destructed, the Serious Fraud Office requested mutual legal assistance from Monaco, where other suspects were residing at that time.
Monegasque authorities searched the office and the home of the Chairman, the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Operating Officer of Unaoil. Documents and computers were seized and the three suspects were arrested by Monegasque authorities.
The three suspects as well as the Holding company of Unaoil and its Monegasque subsidiary sought before the London High Court the quashing of the Letter of Request seeking the assistance of the Monegasque authorities, as well as the return of all material obtained pursuant to the Letter of Request and the destruction of any copies held by the Serious Fraud Office.
大不列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国
伊拉克
摩纳哥Seizure of documents, computers and other property.
Article 18(3)(c) of the United Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
Article 3 of the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters.
Property seized by Monegasque authorities acting on a Letter of Request sent by the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office.
大不列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国摩纳哥On March 23rd 2016, the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office sent a Letter of Request for mutual legal assistance to authorities in Monaco, requesting the search of premises, seizure of business records and search and arrest of alleged offenders in a corruption case involving an oil company and Iraqi public officials.
Acting on the Letter of Request, Monegasque authorities raided the office and the home of the alleged offenders and seized documents, computers and other property.
High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, Administrative Court
After the execution by the Monegaque authorities of the mutual legal assistance requested by the Serious Fraud Office of the United Kingdom, the alleged offenders sought in front of the London High Court the quashing of the Letter of Request as well as the return of materials obtained by authorities in Monaco and the destruction of any copies of those materials held by the Serious Fraud Office.
The High Court was required to decide whether or not the common law duty of disclosure of evidence applied to Letters of Request to foreign authorities. The Director of the Serious Fraud Office argued that the duty of disclosure, which applies to domestic search warrants, did not apply to such letters. The Claimants held that the duty of disclosure should be applied or that, at least, a "heightened procedural obligation" should be imposed on Letters of Request to foreign authorities.
The High Court rejected the claimants request, holding that there was no duty of disclosure to apply to letters of request. The High Court also rejected that a "heightened procedural obligation" should be imposed on Letters of Request.
The court stated that the "object of the international scheme is that as between friendly states with whom there are treaty obligations of mutual cooperation, requests for [mutual legal assistance] will be acted upon - and as quickly as possible". As such, a heightened procedural obligation would create complexity and slow down "the working of the international scheme".
The court also noted that other protections where available as the investigators in both the requesting State and the Requested State must comply with their domestic legislation.
Holding company of the Unaoil Group
Monegasque subsidiary of Unaoil Group
Chairman of Unaoil Group
Former Chief Executive Officer of Unaoil Group
Chief Operating Officer of Unaoil
United Kingdom authority responsible for investigating and prosecuting serious and complex fraud. The Serious Fraud Office is a designated prosecuting authority for the purposes of Section 7 Requests for assistance in obtaining evidence abroad of the Crime (International Co-operation) Act 2003.
High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, Administrative Court
The High Court was required to decide whether or not a common law duty of disclosure applied to Letters of Request to foreign authorities. To resolve this issue, the High Court refered to both Article 18(15) of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and Article 14 of the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters.
The High Court held that a common law duty of disclosure did not exist in relation to Letters of Request and should not be developed by the court as the international law framework already required prosecuting authorities to set out that there were reasonable grounds for suspecting that offences had been committed. The court added that introducing this new obligation would introduce unwarranted complexity and would not assist in pursuing expeditious mutual legal assistance, which is the object of the international law framework.