EA/2023/0538 - [2024] UKFTT 001054 (GRC)

The background to the appeal is as follows.

It is also appropriate for us to refer briefly to the background to the Unaoil case which was the subject of the Request. The material aspects of the background were not in dispute. The Unaoil case was a criminal investigation by the SFO into Unaoil, a Monaco-based group of companies owned and run by certain individuals, and the investigation focussed on allegations of extensive bribery and corruption in the oil industry. There was controversy regarding the way in which the case was handled by the SFO and although the SFO’s investigation led to the conviction of three individuals, those convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal. Following the Court of Appeal’s decision, the Attorney General commissioned Sir David Calbert-Smith to lead an independent review into the SFO’s handling of the Unaoil case. Amongst other things, in his report (published in July 2022), he found that the Director of the SFO had made “a number of mistakes and misjudgments” and he considered the case to be “unique” for its “significant number of fundamental failures”.