Proposed Amendment to Australian Bribery Offence

/ Global Compliance Solutions Group LLC/

On December 6, 2017, the Australian government proposed to amend the Criminal Code Act of 1995.  The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combating Corporate Crime) Bill 2017 proposes to amend the offence of bribery by:

  • Extending the definition of foreign public official to include a candidate for office
  • Removing the requirement that the foreign official must be influenced in the exercise of the official's duties
  • Replacing the requirement that a benefit and business advantage must be 'not legitimately due' with the concept of 'improperly influencing' a foreign public official
  • Extending the offence to cover bribery to obtain a personal advantage
  • Creating a new offence of failure of a corporation to prevent foreign bribery
  • Creating a new deferred prosecution agreement scheme  

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