SFO and ENRC conclude long-running civil proceedings in confidential settlement

The UK Serious Fraud Office said ENRC, the SFO, Dechert LLP and David Neil Gerrard reached a confidential out-of-court settlement. The settlement concludes civil proceedings; no settlement terms were disclosed.

The SFO investigated ENRC between 2013 and 2023 over suspected bribery and corruption linked to mining assets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere, but the investigation ended without charges because of insufficient admissible evidence. The court found the SFO had breached its duties, including by engaging with and taking unauthorised information between 2011 and 2013, and said the investigation would not have opened but for that conduct.