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Welcome to the HSF Kramer White Collar Crime and Government Investigations Outlook 2026: Trends in APAC
The risk landscape confronting corporates continues to shift quickly, shaped by geopolitical volatility, ongoing legal reform and common themes in the regulatory trajectory across borders. In this environment, businesses face heightened expectations to detect, prevent and respond to misconduct—while managing complex overlaps across sanctions, anti bribery, anti money laundering, anti fraud, modern slavery and whistleblowing frameworks.
Sanctions remain front and centre. Over the past year Australia's autonomous regime expanded materially, including new export controls, coordinated action against Russia's "shadow fleet", cyber related designations and Magnitsky style listings. Pressure is also building to address gaps, with further alignment sanctions regimes of major international partners likely in 2026. Sanctions regulators have signalled increased enforcement, and guidance continues to evolve around evasion and compliance risks.
Sanctions regulators have signalled increased enforcement, and guidance continues to evolve around evasion and compliance risks.
Modern slavery expectations continue to rise. Australia's reform process and the work of the Anti Slavery Commissioner are driving reporting and due diligence practices. Across APAC, policy momentum is steady—with Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand tightening frameworks—and global measures such as the EU's Forced Labour Regulation to influence supply chains in coming years.
Foreign bribery reform has fundamentally reset corporate exposure. Australia's new "failure to prevent" offence, supported by "adequate procedures" guidance, brings absolute liability where associates bribe for a company's benefit. The AFP's Taskforce Solaris and refreshed self reporting guidance underscore an enforcement posture geared to cross border collaboration.
AUSTRAC's reach is expanding markedly in 2026. Major AML/CTF reforms will require overhauls to risk assessments and programmes, new governance settings, sanctions and proliferation financing integration, a revamped CDD framework, among other significant changes. These occur against a backdrop of assertive supervision and targeted enforcement.
Corporate liability for fraud is also evolving. The UK's new "failure to prevent fraud" offence places large organisations under a strict duty to implement reasonable prevention procedures—an approach Australia will watch closely.
Locally, corporates need to remain vigilant to existing avenues to liability, with expectations around fraud risk systems, data analytics and scam disruption continuing to intensify.
Whistleblowing remains another area where there is a convergence of steady regulatory expectations, calls for greater external oversight, and litigation and enforcement risk. While Australia's laws remain leading in terms of strict confidentiality obligations protecting whistleblower identity, multiple jurisdictions across the Asia Pacific region continue to look at further change and reform around whistleblowing.
Against this backdrop, internal investigations are being re tooled for scale and speed. Generative AI has the potential to be an important enabler when deployed within an integrated technology stack—alongside eDiscovery, forensics and analytics—to accelerate review, surface patterns and streamline reporting. Yet investigation quality and defensibility still depend on human expertise, good governance and independent judgment.
Across all these areas, the call to action for companies, Board and executives has clear and common strands. Companies should reassess risk in light of the regulatory horizon in 2026, and look to uplift and integrate controls across risk areas. Robust whistleblowing and response frameworks, and being prepared to act rapidly—and under privilege—when issues surface, remain important to protect against misconduct and enforcement risk.
The through line for 2026 is clear: proactive, integrated and board led compliance frameworks; technology deployed with discipline; and investigations that are swift, defensible and outcomes focused. Our team will continue to track these developments and share practical guidance to help you navigate the year ahead.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
