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ICBC Standard Bank embarks on first UK plea deal

Businessmen chat in front of a Standard Bank logo in Sandton outside Johannesburg October 25, 2007. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese and African lender ICBC Standard Bank Plc is the first company in Britain to embark on a new form of plea deal to avoid prosecution on fraud, bribery or corruption allegations, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) prosecutor said on Thursday. The SFO said the proposed deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) had already been approved in principle by senior judge Brian Leveson. It said it would apply for final approval at Southwark Crown Court at a 1000 GMT on Monday, Nov. 30. No further details of the case were immediately available. "The SFO is unable to provide any further comment until after the hearing on Monday," the agency said. A DPA is a court-approved deal under which a company admits wrongdoing but sees legal proceedings suspended in return for a range of sanctions that can include a fine, payment of compensation and monitoring. Introduced last year, DPAs offer another tool for prosecutors struggling to bring to book corporate wrongdoers who rely on the cost and complexity of cross border investigations to evade justice. (Reporting by Kirstin Ridley, editing by Huw Jones)