The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act only applies to those making bribes. It does not apply to the recipients of bribes. Since the recipient must be a “foreign official” you run into the issue of “diplomatic immunity.” Richard Cassin looked at one of the approaches to taking actions against the kleptocrats in Proclamation 7750 Unwrapped on … Read more »
Category: Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
FCPA Compliance & Investigative Due Diligence
EthicsPoint sponsored a webinar with Ellen Zimiles of Daylight Forensic and Advisory LLC, talking about FCPA Compliance & Investigative Due Diligence. This presentation is supposed to provide an overview of current FCPA trends and highlight elements to implement an effective FCPA compliance policy. These are my notes. Ellen started off with a summary of current … Read more »
France Decides Not to Criminalize International Bribery
“France has severely restricted its jurisdiction and its ability to prosecute cases with an international dimension, which, given the country’s importance in the international economy and the scale of many of its companies, is very regrettable,” according to a report by GRECO. The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) was established in 1999 by the … Read more »
Approaching the Sphinx: The DOJ’s Opinion Release Procedure under the FCPA
Alexandra Wrage of the WrageBlog shares her experiences using the Department of Justice’s opinion release procedure under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Approaching the Sphinx: The DOJ’s Opinion Release Procedure. Ms. Wrage takes us through the experiences of TRACE International in obtaining FCPA Opinion Procedure Release 08-03. The opinion release procedure for the Foreign Corrupt … Read more »
Recent Trends and Patterns in FCPA Enforcement
Philip Urofsky and Danforth Newcomb of Shearman & Sterling LLP have released their latest update on the Recent Trends and Patterns in FCPA Enforcement (.pdf). The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been front page news quite a bit lately with the enormous settlement of Siemens. The first to break through $1 billion. The Hallibuton/KBR settlement … Read more »
Morgan Stanley Self-Reports FCPA Violation
In a February 9, 2009, 8-K Filing with the SEC, Morgan Stanley self-reported a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: II. In an unrelated matter, Morgan Stanley announced today that it has recently uncovered actions initiated by an employee based in China in an overseas real estate subsidiary that appear to have violated the … Read more »
Gibson Dunn 2008 Year-End FCPA Update
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP has published its 2008 Year-End FCPA Update. By any measure, 2008 was a monster year in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) enforcement. With thirty-three enforcement actions between the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), the statute’s dual enforcers, 2008 was the second busiest numerical year on … Read more »
Avery Dennison and the Pitfalls in China
Don Lee of the Los Angeles Times has a great story about the pitfalls encountered by Avery Dennison when it was trying to build its road and traffic business in China: Avery Dennison case a window on the pitfalls U.S. firms face in China. It highlights the gray area between building relationships and corrupt transactions, … Read more »
FCPA Trends and Patterns
Danforth Newcomb and Philip Urofsky of Shearman and Sterling have updated their FCPA Digest of Cases and Review Releases and Recent Trends and Patterns in FCPA Enforcement (.pdf). In addition to a general increase in FCPA enforcement activity in recent years, four distinctive new trends can be seen. First, both the frequency and severity of … Read more »
Siemens to Pay Huge Fine in Bribery Inquiry
The DOJ’s Information charging Siemens in the biggest FCPA enforcement action ever tells of more than 4,000 payments worth at least $1.4 billion to foreign officials to obtain or retain business. Siemens also had systematic and intentional violations of the internal controls and books and records provisions that might have prevented or detected the corrupt … Read more »