27 October 2025
Corruption costs the global economy an estimated £2 trillion a year, and solicitors and accountants may be the only people able to stop it.
In this time of great economic uncertainty, we can expect to see a rise in bad actors taking advantage of a volatile situation for their own personal gain.
To understand corruption, and the role that you can play in preventing it, it is important to break down the two main ways that corruption may manifest.
These are the facilitation of corruption and the ignoring of corruption.
This may be the type of corruption that one imagines upon hearing about the subject.
The legal definition of corruption is relatively broad but the principle offences are accepting a bribe and bribing another person, particularly a foreign public official.
Recent research has emerged suggesting that accountants and solicitors need to enhance the level of scrutiny with which they perceive high value clients.
Given that economic sanctions often form part of global politics, there is a rise in high wealth individuals and companies attempting to circumvent economic restrictions through manipulation of solicitors and accountants.
There appears to be a clear effort on the part of bad actors to single out solicitors and accountants with whom they feel able to conduct business.
Those who fail to conduct the necessary degree of vigilance when working with a new client may find themselves embroiled in corruption as time goes by.
Considering the legality of the source of funds while reflecting on the rationale for legal constructions may be increasingly necessary before taking on new clients.
The global landscape continually changes and it is important to keep ahead of the new strategies and developments created by those wishing to engage in corruption.
By engaging in regular training, you and your employees can learn to spot the warning signs that will prevent you from working with a client who is at high risk of corruption.
They can also safeguard you from falling victim to corruption by shielding you against bribery and ensuring your employees know what to do if they are placed in challenging situations.
If you have detected that a new or existing client may be attempting to engage in corruption, it is inadequate to simply ignore them.
Once you are aware of potential corruption, it is your responsibility to alert the authorities immediately so that the corruption can be rooted out.
Failure to do this will ensure you are complicit in corruption and may help criminals succeed in their endeavours.
Despite the legal requirement to report instances of corruption, The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales note that only 46 per cent of organisations investigate detected fraud and 37 per cent report such incidents to law enforcement.
This means that over half the instances of corruption that are being detected by companies are being entirely ignored.
You would not turn a blind eye to someone being robbed in the street, so why do so many companies turn a blind eye to corruption?
One answer could be a simple lack of knowledge and insight into the necessary processes.
The notion of tackling corruption may seem like a daunting or intimidating task for many, but understanding the system may remove this concern and highlight how important a united effort is.
Every employee has a chance to bear witness to corruption and each of them have a responsibility to report it when they see it.
By delivering effective, informative training regularly, you can ensure that your employees are remaining vigilant.
If over half the instances of detected corruption are going unpunished, how much more corruption is happening undetected?
Tackling corruption is an obligation we all share and our training programmes are a vital weapon that you can wield.
Our training programmes are dynamic and digestible ensuring that your employees will know exactly how to handle any of the situations in which they may find themselves.
Make sure your company is on the right side of the battle against corruption and book in a training programme today!