In the Republic of Ireland, the Law Reform Commission recommends that a Corporate Crime Agency should be established, without undue delay, on a statutory basis and should comprise multi-disciplinary personnel similar to the multi-disciplinary model used when the Criminal Assets Bureau was set up.
That new Agency should have its own statutory mandate to investigate corporate criminal offences independently of any referrals it may receive from financial or economic regulators, with whom there should be suitable co-ordination, the Commission says in a report. Where the jurisdiction of different regulators overlaps, the regulators should implement a Framework Agreement or Memorandum of Understanding.
The report makes over 200 recommendations for further reform on regulatory powers and corporate offences. That includes that economic regulators should have the power to impose significant (seven or eight-figures in euros) financial sanctions and to make regulatory enforcement agreements, which should include consumer redress schemes; covering banks, and besides in competition law, communications regulation and health products.
The Commission’s two reports run to 837 pages. Visit http://www.lawreform.ie/.
