The new director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), former FBI lawyer Lisa Osofsky, begins her term today.

Lisa osofsky

Lisa Osofsky: ‘leading emboldened SFO’

Osofsky’s appointment was announced by the then Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC MP, on 4 June. She was originally due to begin her five-year term on 28 August but the appointment has been brought forward a week. Interim director Mark Thompson will now return to his role as chief operating officer.

Osofsky was formerly at financial crime, risk and compliance company Exiger, where she was a managing director and was also deputy general counsel at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. She is a UK registered barrister, called to the bar in 1997.

Osofsky said: ‘I am honoured to be the next director of the SFO. I look forward to building on the SFO’s successful record in the fight against economic crime and leading an emboldened SFO to even greater heights’.

Osofsky previously suggested she backed Theresa May’s idea of merging the SFO with the National Crime Agency but later reined back on those comments by clarifying she supported an independent SFO.

The last full-time SFO director was David Green QC who developed a reputation for encouraging companies to be transparent in their cooperation with the office with the aim of reaching a deferred prosecution agreement.