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OFT appoints Enforcement Directors in system shake-up

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has appointed four Enforcement Directors in a revamp of the regulators investigative processes and management.

Former police officer and investigator at the Serious Fraud Office, Lee Craddock, will be OFT’s first criminal investigations director, as the organisation makes changes to its system.

Reforms were sparked by the failure of a high profile case against British Airways in 2010, during which OFT’s criminal cartel against four of the airline’s executives fell through.

OFT admitted it had made mistakes in its case against BA two years ago, and had failed to gain adequate evidence against the firm for price-fixing claims, after Virgin Atlantic Airways admitted it had agreed to fix passenger fuel surcharges with the accused airline.

The watchdog said it failed to find critical email evidence, and as a result OFT has brought in four new roles “as part of its continued focus on enforcement and delivery.”

Gaucho Rasmussen, who currently works for Tesco’s Group Competition Counsel, has been appointed as Competition Enforcement Director in the Goods and Consumer Group.

He will be joined by OFT’s Geoff Steadman in a parallel role, along with Nelson Jung, who is the former Senior Associate in the Antitrust practice for law firm Clifford Chance.

The collapse of the regulators case against BA was a also catalyst for Government reforms that hope to simplify the way criminal cases of price-fixing are dealt with, and to remove the need for prosecutors to prove an element of dishonesty.

As an alternative, the Government has proposed prosecutors must give evidence that those accused have acted in an “opaque” manner.

Competition law partner at Addleshaw Goddard, Bruce Kilpatrick, commented: “This appointment underscores the OFT’s determination to bring prosecutions in future against individuals for their participation in cartel-type conduct.

“The OFT faced strong criticism following the collapse of the criminal prosecution against four British Airways employees and it was not clear at the time what their appetite would be for future prosecutions.

“Since then, the OFT has advocated removing the requirement to prove “dishonesty” on the part of the individual in order to prosecute the cartel offence, and this is now enshrined in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, which is currently before Parliament.

“Lee’s appointment shows that the OFT is serious about recruiting white collar crime experts, who have experience of running criminal prosecutions.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .