The Serious Fraud Office has made a new case for whistleblowers to receive financial incentives. Of the 1,450 referrals made to the SFO last year, just over 10% came from whistleblowing disclosures, the office has revealed in its annual report. 

In his introductory statement to the report, director Nick Ephgrave (pictured above) acknowledged said the SFO is ‘driving the argument for the incentivisation of whistleblowers’. Ephgrave last year said giving financial incentives for whistleblowers was one possible way of speeding up SFO cases from investigation to prosecution.

The annual report also notes the SFO’s creation of a ‘dedicated crypto cadre’ which would ‘increase the agency’s ability to respond to the use of cryptoassets by creating new operational guidance and training for staff’.

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The report, the first under the SFO’s new five-year strategy, covers the year to 31 March 2025. During this period, the SFO opened around 35 criminal cases, charged 11 people across two cases including the upcoming criminal trial into alleged wrongdoing of former executives of closed law firm Axiom Ince, and spent more than 90 days at trial across three different cases.

The SFO currently has a total caseload of around 130 which include criminal, civil, proceeds of crime and international assistance cases.