Zulfi Meerza wrote an article that assessed Serious Fraud Office Director Lisa Osofsky’s calls for changes to be made to the disclosure regime

In his article, which was published by The European Financial Review, Zulfi considers the Director’s arguments alongside the SFO’s disclosure failings in both the Serco and Unaoil cases. He also considers her references to both the agency’s successes in 2022 and its 2022-25 strategy and highlights other areas which need to be examined before passing judgement on the SFO.

Zulfi, a former SFO senior investigative lawyer, queries Lisa Osofsky’s claim that there needs to be changes to the disclosure regime to “rebalance the system for victims and justice’’. He explains that the Director has called for reform of disclosure in the past and has spoken of the need to allow prosecutors and defendants to exchange evidence earlier in complex economic crime cases.

He argues that her citing the digital age and the volume of papers in such cases to support her disclosure argument should be weighed against the fact that there have been Attorney General’s Guidelines on Disclosure, going at least as far back as 2013, which have provided advice on such matters

As regards Lisa Osofsky highlighting what she sees as the SFO’s successes this year, Zulfi says a true assessment of the agency’s 2022 track record can only be made at the end of the year, as several high-profile trials are due to start in coming weeks.

You can read Zulfi's full article in the The European Financial Review.