Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
The recent PTC Case caught my attention for a few reasons. First, the company is based near my house and I biked past it’s headquarters this past weekend. Second, the actions stated in the headline were not good, but seemed to be at the extreme of what I thought would be considered bribery. According to…
In the case of BNY Mellon, it was an illegal bribe in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged BNY Mellon that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by providing internships to family members of foreign government officials affiliated with a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund. The unnamed…
If your are trying to figure out whether a company is a private company or an “instrumentality” of a foreign government under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act you are already in trouble. To reach that point in the FCPA analysis you’ve already paid a bribe, or are thinking of paying a bribe. (If you’re just…
Tom Fox is prolific writer on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He publishes the excellent FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog. One of the downsides to a blog is that it’s a running commentary and not a narrative guide. Blogs are great for sharing ideas among practitioners. But a blog does not come together as a…
The US Supreme Court struck down some campaign finance limitations in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. My first question was whether this court ruling would impact the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Rule 206(4)-5. The answer is “no.” Mr. McCutcheon wanted to contribute $1776 dollars to a long list of political candidates. Each individual contribution is…
There are obstacles when trying to buy a business from a foreign official. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits giving or offering anything of value to any foreign official with a corrupt intent to assist in obtaining or retaining business. It is not a flat prohibition on business relationships. But all of the recent FCPA…
The James Mintz Group has updated the firm’s infographic of Where the Bribes Are. In addition to the electronic-interactive version, the firm produced a .pdf FCPA Map – Update as of Feb 2013. Previously: FCPA Visualization
Maxim Mironov of the IE Business School in Spain, has some research showing that corruption can lead to success. At least it appears to be successful in Russia. Mironov devised a method for measuring a Muscovite’s “propensity to corrupt” using data on traffic accidents and traffic violations from 1997 to 2007. He then used this…
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice jointly released A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (.pdf). The 120-page guide provides a detailed analysis of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and closely examines the SEC and DOJ approach to FCPA enforcement. The guide addresses a wide variety of…
The latest Opinion Procedure Release from the Department of Justice comes from a group of non-profit adoption agencies. Based on the stories I’ve heard from friends who have adopted from overseas, I’m not surprised that adoption agencies are concerned about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Opinion Release No. 12-02 is focused on an event hosted…