The Tainted Assets Initiative: Encouraging dialogue to agree on guidelines

Toby Duthie, one of FRA's founding partners, was on the panel on Standards and Guidelines in Corruption Prevention at the Ethic Intelligence: 2^nd Annual International Conference this month.

The panel was chaired by Katrina Litvack, Non-Executive Director of ENI and founder of the Tainted Assets Initiative. Speaking alongside Toby was Michaela Ahlberg, formerly Chief Ethics and Compliance officer at Telia Company, Nathaniel Edmonds, partner at Paul Hastings and Alexandra Gillies at Natural Resource Governance.

Companies looking to acquire an asset where due diligence has revealed that there is evidence of corruption in its history are unsure of what is the next move. If ignored it can lead to prosecution and high fines for the new potential owner.

The panel discussed practical tools for companies looking at acquiring assets and how companies can avoid landing in court. Corruption is rampant throughout many industries with no law enforcement body likely to accept the idea of corruption being absolved if you change corporate form. There needs to be a process in place that highlights potential corruption matters and allows it to be reasonable and efficient for companies to dispose of tainted assets.

Toby discussed payments to tax havens and looking at the financial data of a company to gage the robustness of the financial controls.

Watch the full panel discussion here.