A troublesome area appears to be the obtaining of personal information - as Mr Humphrey was found guilty of illegally obtaining information on Chinese citizens in the course of work he was doing for pharmaceuticals giant GSK. The Financial Times reports that ‘lawyers and private investigators’ working for or with multinationals and financial groups have been ‘shocked’ by what happened to Mr Humphrey and have had to consider changing the way they do due diligence.

Stopped receiving police files

A lawyer in a private equity group told the newspaper that it had stopped obtaining police files which might include personal information when it was appraising risk. There is a debate, however, as to whether the Humphrey case holds broad lessons or really reflects particular issues related to GSK. Source: Financial Times