Anne-Marie Ottaway focuses on white collar and economic crime and government and internal investigations. Acknowledged for her criminal defence work, Anne-Marie provides clients with advice on all aspects of investigations relating to allegations of fraud, bribery, and corruption, as well as providing advice in respect of the implementation of effective anti-fraud, bribery and corruption compliance programmes and related anti-money laundering issues. She is recognized by Chambers & Partners for her “growing reputation for defending corporate clients subject to fraud and bribery allegations.”
Formerly a prosecutor at the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), where she had 13 years of experience working on some of the UK’s largest fraud and corruption investigations and prosecutions, Anne-Marie led multidisciplinary teams of police, lawyers, investigators, and accountants, and had overall responsibility for case strategy and progression. Among her duties at the SFO, she provided legal advice during prosecutions and related restraint and confiscation proceedings, engaged with multi-national companies and their legal representatives in connection with corruption self-disclosures and related internal investigations, and assessed reports of bribery of foreign public officials by UK companies and individuals. She was on the senior management team for the SFO’s Bribery and Corruption Business Area and worked on international corruption, including cooperation with the U.S. DOJ, SEC, European and Swiss Federal Prosecutors, the Australian Federal Police, and organisations such as the World Bank. She also served as SFO representative on the cross government strategic group for PEP money laundering and the law enforcement co-ordination group on overseas corruption.
Anne-Marie was appointed in June 2018 as Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Bribery Act 2010, which is conducting a post-legislative review of the Act, its impact on companies and the effectiveness of enforcement, including scrutiny of the use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements. The committee is due to report on its findings in March 2019.
