Former US federal prosecutorto head Britain’s fraud buster

LONDON: Former US federal prosecutor Lisa Osofsky was named the head of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on Monday and said she wanted to embolden an agency whose future has been in doubt.

Senior lawyers gave the news a guarded welcome, some saying she would be a fresh face for Britain’s top white collar crime-fighting organisation just over a year after it saw off threats to its independence. Osofsky, a dual US -British national, joins from Exiger, a financial crime compliance company, where she was a managing director and head of investigations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Before that she prosecuted more than 100 cases for the US government. “Lisa Osofsky is not one of the usual establishment faces so will bring new insight and fresh thinking,” said Louise Hodges, Head of Criminal Litigation at Kingsley Napley. “The question on everyone’s lips however is whether she will protect the organisation from political interference,” Hodges added.

The ruling Conservative Party had pledged in May last year to scrap the agency and fold it into the broader National Crime Agency (NCA), as part of a shake-up after a series of setbacks in high-profile cases. But that plan drew fierce criticism from lawyers and anti-corruption groups who said it would weaken the fight against white collar crime in Europe’s leading financial centre.