Attorney General’s office denies widespread reports of Lisa Osofsky’s appointment.

Former FBI lawyer and UK-qualified barrister Lisa Osofsky is widely reported to have been appointed as the new director of the Serious Fraud Office.

Osofsky is currently a managing director at risk and compliance consultancy Exiger. Her track record includes high-profile work on money laundering and sanctions compliance, but it is her time as deputy general counsel at the Federal Bureau of Investigation that some see as significant.

UK regulators and law enforcement agencies have periodically sought to model their approach on their hardline opposite numbers in the US. The SFO’s recently departed director, David Green QC, oversaw the first US-style ‘plea deals’.

Osofsky is on the record as supporting the merger of the SFO with the National Crime Agency, a controversial move supported by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary.

The SFO yesterday refused to confirm Osofsky appointment, and the Attorney General’s office told the Gazette the news was ‘not correct’, noting she was one of ‘quite a lot of names’. At the time of writing, the office said their would be ‘no announcement in the next week’. In recent days, however, Osofsky has emerged as the most heavily-tipped name among the City’s specialist fraud and financial crime specialists.