Building bridges

Timon Molloy, Editor

The Mabey & Johnson guilty plea to charges of overseas corruption and breaching sanctions in Iraq, which cost it UK£6m in fines and compensation on 25 September, is a “landmark outcome” as Richard Alderman, Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), claimed. A question remains though over his observation that the conviction was “satisfyingly, achieved quickly.” After all, the firm was named in the Independent Inquiry Committee report on the UN Oil for Food Programme back in October 2005. But, by the grindingly slow standards of fraud litigation, perhaps he’s right.