Sacha Harber-Kelly is a partner in the Dispute Resolution Group of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher’s London office, where he specialises in global white-collar investigations. He is recommended for Regulatory Investigations and Corporate Crime in the Legal 500, 2018/19.

Prior to joining Gibson Dunn Mr. Harber-Kelly was a Prosecutor and Case Controller at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) where he was involved in the investigation and prosecution of international corporate corruption cases since 2007.  He has worked extensively with a range of other enforcement authorities in the U.K., U.S. and beyond, including the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ), the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), the U.K. National Crime Agency, HM Revenue Commissioners (and its forerunner agencies) and the Financial Conduct Authority.

Prior to joining the SFO he was partner and Head of the Professional and Financial Regulation Unit in a specialist criminal defence practice in London.  As a criminal defence lawyer for almost 15 years, Mr. Harber-Kelly defended numerous fraud, money laundering and tax evasion trials and other serious and complex organised crime.

During his time at the SFO he was involved in a number of ground breaking cases, including:

• Leading the SFO’s largest ever single investigation consisting of a multi-disciplinary team of over 70 lawyers, investigators, and accountants and engaged with numerous international law enforcement agencies including the USDOJ. The corporate aspect of this investigation was concluded by way of a DPA in January 2017, with the largest ever penalty outside of the USA and was the U.K.’s first tripartite global enforcement;
• Successfully prosecuting the first U.K. DPA,  also the first resolution of charges under the transformative new offence in the Bribery Act of corporate failure to prevent bribery, which included extensive engagement with USDOJ, SEC and Financial Conduct Authority on regulatory and AML matters;

A series of other innovative achievements as the Investigative Lawyer or Prosecutor include:

• Central involvement in each of the U.K.’s simultaneous global corporate corruption resolutions whether by prosecution, civil asset recovery or DPA;
• Prosecution of both the first individual and the first multinational company in the U.K. for overseas corruption (which included engagement with USDOJ, SEC and OFAC);
• Prosecuting successfully the U.K.’s first contested overseas corruption case; and
• Deploying the first SFO co-operating offender.

Mr. Harber-Kelly has worked both independently and in collaboration with the USDOJ in directing the scope and methodology of independent monitoring and compliance remediation imposed as part of bilateral global settlements. In this context he has received reports, assessed companies’ remediation and ultimately signed off successful completions. Mr. Harber-Kelly has experience of leading teams that have assessed compliance programmes in particular testing adequacy and implementation in the context of the Bribery Act.

Mr. Harber-Kelly’s extensive experience of investigating and prosecuting global white collar crime means that he has regularly worked with overseas law enforcement agencies on nearly every continent as a method of securing overseas evidence.  As such Mr. Harber-Kelly is able to counsel clients on the use by U.K. enforcers of foreign evidence or intelligence gathering avenues assessing consequent risks in individual cases.

Other achievements include:

• Mr. Harber-Kelly was appointed to lead the SFO’s engagement in the cross governmental working group which devised the DPA legislative framework, and subsequently appointed to draft the DPA Code of Practice – the primary document setting out how prosecutors will operate the DPA regime.
• Mr. Harber-Kelly has fulfilled a series of high-profile speaking engagements on behalf of the SFO on corporate investigations, settlements, DPAs and asset recovery, both domestically and internationally, to high-level audiences including the USDOJ, OECD and the United Nations.
• Mr. Harber-Kelly led the team awarded as Prosecution Team of the Year by the Attorney General of England and Wales, 23 November 2016 in recognition of its work securing the first DPA and failure to prevent corruption enforcement. In 2017 the team he led and which concluded the January 2017 DPA was shortlisted for the same award.
• Mr. Harber-Kelly was honoured by Her Majesty the Queen in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List with an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for services to the Serious Fraud Office, in particular in the investigation and prosecution of fraud, bribery and corruption.

Representative engagements include:

• Instructed by the compliance department of a multi-national company to conduct an internal investigation in respect to fraud allegations.
• Instructed to investigate whistle blower allegations involving financial misconduct, health and safety breaches, corruption and corporate governance weaknesses in the sports sector.
• Instructed by multinational company in respect to an internal investigation of FCPA and Bribery Act allegations.
• Conducting an internal investigation and advising a multi-national company in the authorised and regulated sector with respect to Proceeds of Crime Act obligations.
• Conducting due diligence and advising on Bribery Act, Proceeds of Crime Act and Criminal Finance Act risks in numerous M&A transactions across various industries and service providers including in the authorised and regulated sectors.
• Advising multi-national companies and law firms on anti-bribery and money laundering compliance and procedures including third party due diligence processes.
• Advising a multi-national company on its dawn raid response policy and processes across multiple jurisdictions.

Representative speaking engagements include:

• “The New Normal of Global Enforcement – Recent Developments and Trends”, International Compliance, Legal Risks and Corporate Integrity, C5, Frankfurt, January 2018.
• “Regulatory Developments and the Challenges for D&Os”,  D&O Liability Insurance Forum, C5, London, April 2018.
• “Managing bribery and anti-corruption: from investigation to enforcement, compliance to conclusion”, Commercial Disputes Resolution Business Crime Symposium, London, June 2018.
• “The Enforcement Landscape – Past Lessons and Future Prospects”, C5 Anti-Corruption Conference London, June 2018.