Search begins for new Serious Fraud Office chief

MINISTERS have launched the search for the next boss of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) as the embattled agency faces questions over the collapse of a decade-long prosecution.

The role of director pays £183,618 over a five-year term, with the possibility of a two-year extension, according to a government job advertisement posted yesterday.

It comes after the SFO’S current director Lisa Osofsky, a former FBI lawyer, confirmed that she would depart in August after taking the reins in 2018.

Headhunters at executive search specialists Gatenby Sanderson have been drafted in to help draw up a list of candidates. But campaigners and legal sources warned that a string of damaging scandals at the agency in recent years would put off the best applicants.

Earlier this month, the SFO’S prosecution of three former executives of G4S over alleged fraud was dropped after the agency admitted it had no evidence to offer.

It prompted criticism that the prosecution, which had been 10 years in the making, amounted to a waste of taxpayer money and drew comparisons with the failed prosecution of former Tesco executives, which was thrown out by a judge in 2018. A separate trial of Serco executives also collapsed in 2021.

Victoria Prentis, the Attorney General, said that the job of director would be expected to deal with “some of the most challenging and high-profile economic crime cases in any jurisdiction”.

Susan Hawley, director of campaign group Spotlight on Corruption, warned ministers against hiring someone without extensive legal experience.