Friday, August 19, 2016

Soma Loses U.K. Court Bid to Force SFO to End Bribery Probe

Latest: Corruption and Money Laundering.

Soma Loses U.K. Court Bid to Force SFO to End Bribery Probe.



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Soma Oil & Gas Holdings Ltd. lost a court bid to force the U.K. Serious Fraud Office to end a bribery investigation into the company despite arguing that the firm may become insolvent if the probe continues.
Lawyers for Soma sought a judicial review of the probe from a London court Wednesday, saying the SFO hadn’t properly weighed the risks to the company’s viability of the investigation continuing. The application was denied because the judges didn’t see any "prospect of success."
The SFO publicly opened an investigation into Soma in August 2015 in relation to possible illegal payments to Somali officials under a capacity-building program with the country’s Petroleum Ministry. Soma, which is headed by former U.K. Conservative Party leader Michael Howard, paid about $700,000 to the Somali government as part of the program that allowed it to explore the region for oil and gas...


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