Steven Francis Comments on SFO’s Growing Software Issues With Financial News

In an article for Financial News, London insurance partner Steven Francis discussed key developments relating to the Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO) investigating software. 

According to the article, the SFO has had to review at least 60 cases after it found potential issues with software it uses to search for evidence. After discovering that two software programs it uses to parse through evidence for disclosure, the SFO began updating defendants about potential issues related to their cases. If the software updates are found to be significant, past convictions could be overturned.

“The SFO only brings serious cases, so it’s clearly a concern if there is any risk at all of miscarriages of justice,” Francis noted. “A key issue for me is who knew what and when. It is essential that staff didn’t proceed with reliance on Autonomy [Introspect], knowing or suspecting that there were issues with its outputs. The burden is on the SFO to assure the public.”

Francis added that large cases the SFO brings are based on a great amount of documentation, often requiring the agency to use search terms or use software to sort through what’s relevant to a case. Francis said that “any defect” in the agency’s process can be problematic. 

The full article is available to Financial News subscribers.