Consultant Sweett Group has announced it expects to be prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office following an investigation by the bribery watchdog into allegations of bribery related to the firm's Middle East division. In an update to investors last Wednesday, the firm also disclosed it has decided to exit the Middle East and restructure into five new divisions, as it posted an increased half-year pre-tax loss of £548,000 for the six months to September 2015. Sweett said the Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) investigation into the firm - prompted by bribery allegations first published in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in June 2013 - was "at an end". Sweett said that during its own investigations, "two related contracts within the Middle East were identified as suspicious and were duly reported to the SFO". These contracts were "entered into in 2013", the firm's chief executive Douglas McCormick (pictured) said.
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