There are few court cases involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Most of those accused quickly settle and move on. With few court cases that means the appellate decisions helping to interpret the FCPA are rare. Yesterday we had one of those rare sightings. Frederic Bourke was convicted of FCPA violations in 2009. Bourke co-founded … Read more »
Tag: FCPA
FCPA as a Strike Breaker
The United Steelworkers sent a request to investigate to the U.S. Justice Department. The union believes Freeport-McMoRan has violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by engaging the bribery of security forces in Indonesia. The Jakarta Post said national police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo admitted his personnel had received ‘meal money’ to guard the company’s gold … Read more »
Another FCPA Opinion Procedure Release on Corporate Hospitality
The Department of Justice released the latest Opinion Procedure Release on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The releases are great tool to help you figure out if a proposed corporate action could lead to an enforcement action. Anyone with an interest in the FCPA looks to the existing body of opinion releases as a way … Read more »
Sovereign Wealth Funds, Bribery, Corruption, Hospitality and the FCPA
The FCPA seems to be most closely associated with shady oil operations, mining, defense contractors and infrastructure transactions. The image is a big company coming in and bribing an official for access to the country’s resources. The other side to that investment is that the countries build up big supplies of capital. Many deploy some … Read more »
Private Equity Portfolio Companies and Bribery Charges
The U.S. is investigating Allianz SE, for possible bribery by a German printing press company in which it holds a majority stake according to a story by Joe Palazzolo in WSJ.com’s Corruption Currents. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bars US companies from paying bribes to foreign officials to keep or obtain business. The SEC claims … Read more »
The International View on US Anti-Bribery Efforts
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s report on U.S. anti-bribery efforts released their Phase 3 Report on the United States. In its report, the Working Group commended the United States for its engagement with the private sector, substantial enforcement, and commitment from the highest levels of the U.S. Government. In addition to the recommendation … Read more »
Real Estate, China and the FCPA
China is hotbed for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The real estate industry is not immune from the dangers. In February of 2009 Morgan Stanley’s real estate group reported an employee based in China in an overseas real estate subsidiary that appeared to have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. My company has … Read more »
Corruption Currents: The Wall Street Journal’s New Corruption Blog
“Corruption Currents, the Wall Street Journal’s corruption blog, will dig into the ever-present and ever-changing world of corporate corruption. It will be a source of news, analysis and commentary for those who earn a living by finding corruption or by avoiding it.” Apparently corruption has become such a big topic that the Wall Street Journal … Read more »
FCPA Release 10-03: Foreign Agents as Foreign Officials
The Department of Justice released its latest FCPA Opinion Release. The requesting company for this opinion release is stepping into a situation full of FCPA red flags. In the end, the DOJ opined that it would not bring an enforcement action based on the safeguards put in place by the company. The company is involved … Read more »
FCPA Opinion Procedure Release 10-02
A continuing quirk of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is the ability to ask the Department of Justice whether a particular set of facts would be a violation of the Act. Given all of the recent FCPA activity I expected there to be an uptick in Opinion Procedure Releases under the FCPA. So far that … Read more »