Lloyd’s broker charged with bribery by UK government

Mashrukh Khan: United Insurance Brokers Limited, a London-based Lloyd’s of London insurance and reinsurance broker, was charged by the UK Serious Fraud Office on April 17, 2025, with failing to prevent bribery under Section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010.

The charge relates to events between October 2013 and March 2016, when the company allegedly allowed its US-based intermediaries to bribe a senior Ecuadorian state official. The bribes, estimated at approximately $3 million, were paid to secure reinsurance contracts worth $38 million for state-backed insurers covering parts of Ecuador’s public sector, including water and electricity companies.

United Insurance Brokers earned around $6.2 million in commissions from these contracts, of which about $3 million was transferred to the intermediaries.

The intermediaries then allegedly used part of those funds to bribe the Ecuadorian official in exchange for awarding the business.

The case, which followed a four-year SFO investigation, marks a significant prosecution of the corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery.

If it proceeds to a contested trial, it could become the first such case heard before a jury in the UK, potentially testing the “adequate procedures” defence available to companies.

Representatives of United Insurance Brokers appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court shortly after the charging. The full trial has been scheduled for June 2027. The company has not yet entered a plea, and the matter remains ongoing.