US investigators continue to pursue new regime (BAE)

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/31/bae.armstrade1

Ever since the Guardian exposed allegations of a BAE slush fund in 2004 the politically influential arms company has been under investigation from a variety of directions. But its troubles in Britain are probably now over, leaving the Serious Fraud Office, which tried to pursue it, weakened, demoralised and humiliated.

One senior legal figure said yesterday: "A long-term result of the Guardian's exposures may ironically probably turn out to be the destruction of the SFO itself."

Its director, Robert Wardle, has stepped down. The assistant director in charge of the BAE investigation, Helen Garlick, has decided to resign. Both have been snapped up as consultants by private law firms.

The new SFO director, Richard Alderman, is reported to have so far failed to provide any extra funding for the backlog of unresolved corruption cases steadily building up. His first act was to drop a proposal to bring corruption charges in a separate case involving a Bosnian energy entrepreneur.