GPT Special Project Management Ltd

On 30 July 2020, the SFO announced it had brought charges against GPT Special Project Management Ltd and three individuals. GPT, Jeffrey Cook, former Managing Director of GPT, and John Mason, the financial officer and part owner of the foreign-registered companies Simec and Duranton, subcontractors to GPT, were charged with corruption between January 2007 and December 2012 in relation to contracts awarded to GPT in respect of work carried out for the Saudi Arabian National Guard. 

Jeffrey Cook was also charged with misconduct in public office between September 2004 and November 2008 in relation to commission paid to him on contracts he placed with ME Consultants Ltd for the Ministry of Defence, by which he was employed. 

Terence Dorothy was additionally charged with aiding and abetting that offence. In April 2022, the SFO obtained a Nolle Prosequi for Terence Dorothy from the Solicitor General, meaning he will no longer be prosecuted alongside Mason and Cook.

On 28 April 2021, GPT pleaded guilty to corruption between December 2008 and July 2010 in relation to contracts awarded to GPT in respect of work carried out for the Saudi Arabian National Guard.

The company entered a guilty plea to one count of corruption, contrary to section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906, before the Honourable Mr Justice Bryan at Southwark Crown Court.

In sentencing GPT, the judge ordered the company to pay a confiscation order of £20,603,000, fine of £7,521,920, and costs of £2,200,000.

Update – 6 March 2024

On 6 March 2024, a jury convicted former Ministry of Defence (MoD) official Jeffrey Cook for misconduct in public office in relation to commission paid to him on contracts he placed with ME Consultants Ltd for the MoD. The jury acquitted Cook and John Mason on charges of corruption.

Between 2004 and 2008, Cook was found to have concealed payments and payments in kind totalling more than £70,000 while he was employed at the MoD and seconded to a defence contractor, called Paradigm, that was owned by Airbus.Cook used his position as a civil servant to commission six work packages which resulted in five reports for the MoD on its “SANGCOM” project to provide military communications equipment and services to the Saudi Arabian National Guard. ME Consultants Ltd, registered in the Cayman Islands and where Cook held personal contacts, were paid £700,000 for this work, with at least ten percent of this fee going back to Cook directly.  Cook received over £44,000 in cash and two cars worth over £30,000.

Cook will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 12 April.

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