Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
According to the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog, And the FCPA Party Continues:
“U.S. government had open investigations into 84 companies at the end of last year, up from three in 2002, according to Shearman & Sterling. “In the 30-plus years I have followed these matters, there were long periods of little activity and few prosecutions in the early years. Recently there has been a dramatic increase in such activity,” says Danforth Newcomb, a Shearman partner.”
The United States Department of Justice has put together a Lay Person’s Guide to FCPA on the the Department’s site on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The 1988 Trade Act directed the Attorney General to provide guidance concerning the Department of Justice’s enforcement policy with respect to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (“FCPA”), 15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1, et seq., to potential exporters and small businesses that are unable to obtain specialized counsel on issues related to the FCPA. The guidance is limited to responses to requests under the Department of Justice’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Opinion Procedure (described below at p. 10) and to general explanations of compliance responsibilities and potential liabilities under the FCPA. This brochure constitutes the Department of Justice’s general explanation of the FCPA.
Sources:
UPDATE: The Layperson’s Guide to the FCPA has been replaced by A Resource Guide to the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (.pdf)
Kay v. United States (Docket: 07-1281) is on the docket of the Supreme Court’s opening conference on September 29, 2008 for the Court’s October 2008 term. The petition for certiorari and all cert-stage briefs are available at scotusblog.com.
David Kay and Douglas Murphy were sentenced in 2005 to 37 and 63 months in prison respectively for violating the FCPA. They bribed Haitian officials in order to reduce their company’s taxes.
Richard L. Cassin over at The FCPA Blog has an excellent background article on the case