14 DAY TRIAL // The United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has admitted losing 32,000 pages of documents, 81 audio tapes and digital files related to an investigation on BAE Systems – a major British defense, security and aerospace company.
The material, which represents only 3% of all the data collected in this case, was accidentally sent to the wrong person and the organization didn’t notice the incident for almost a year.
It’s uncertain who received the documents gathered by the SFO during a six-year period from 59 sources that helped the agency with its investigation into BAE. However, the agency says no material related to matters of national security have been exposed.
The documents were lost sometime between May and October 2012. The incident was discovered in May 2013.
Around 98% of the misplaced documents are said to have been recovered.
“Any loss of data is a serious matter and the SFO has taken action to ensure no further material can be wrongly sent out,” the SFO stated.
“At the request of the Director of the SFO, the former Director of Security at the Palace of Westminster, Peter Mason CBE, has conducted an initial review of the incident and made some recommendations,” the agency added.
“More generally, the Director of the SFO has instigated an independent wide-ranging review of all the organisation's business processes by Alan Woods, a former senior civil servant.”
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has also been notified of the incident.
The investigation focused on alleged bribes paid by BAE to secure arms contracts all over the world. According to The Guardian, BAE has paid almost £300 million ($466 million / €348 million) to put an end to the investigation.