Slaughter and May acts for Olympus on successful defence of the prosecution brought by the SFO

Slaughter and May acted for Olympus and its subsidiary, Gyrus Group Limited, in defence of the prosecution brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the Crown Court which has today resulted in not guilty verdicts being entered in their favour. Preliminary legal arguments were heard by a High Court judge sitting in the Crown Court in February 2014 and the Court of Appeal Criminal Division in December 2014. We prevailed in those arguments and today the prosecution was brought to an end.

In a statement concerning the prosecution, Olympus said: "The company and GGL co-operated fully with the Serious Fraud Office’s investigation but did not accept that the offences with which they were charged could, as a matter of law, be made out against them. Both the Crown Court and the Court of Appeal have accepted this argument of the company and GGL."

The Slaughter and May team comprised Jonathan Cotton (partner) and Jerry Healy (associate), who instructed Cloth Fair Chambers’ John Kelsey-Fry QC and Clare Sibson along with Matrix Chambers’ Lord Ken Macdonald QC  in the Court of Appeal. In the investigation phase of the case the team also included Ewan Brown (partner) and associates Angela Taylor, Laura Benghiat and Simon Osborn-King. Slaughter and May worked in combination with Bingham Tokyo (which during the course of the case became part of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune) on Japanese aspects and with Sullivan & Cromwell on US aspects.