Supreme Court judgment in the KBR v SFO appeal – limits to extraterritorial impact of the SFO’s document compulsion powers

In a recent decision concerning the scope of extraterritorial application of the SFO’s section 2 powers, the Supreme Court held that the SFO does not possess the power to compel a foreign company to produce documents held outside the UK: R (on the application of KBR, Inc) (Appellant) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office (Respondent) [2021] UKSC 2.

This overturns a 2018 Divisional Court decision, in which the court had “read in” extraterritorial application to section 2(3) powers, provided that a “sufficient connection” could be drawn between the company which was the recipient of the notice and the UK.

For more information see this briefing from our Corporate Crime and Investigations team.