FCPA Roundup: Another Speech, Lighthouses and Buoys, and an FCPA Triangle

[Editor's note: Our latest contribution from Foreign Corrupt Practices Act expert Mike Koehler is a roundup of the latest FCPA news and notes from his blog FCPA Professor. The titles above the excerpts are links that will take you directly to his blog where you can read the full article.]

Another FCPA Speech

Last week it was the Annual Pharmaceutical Regulatory and Compliance Congress and Best Practices Forum (see here), this week the audience for Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer was ACI’s National Forum on the FCPA

The ACI conference (see here) is a signature event for the FCPA bar and FCPA compliance community. Breuer participated in past ACI events as a private FCPA practitioner at Covington & Burling and yesterday he gave the keynote luncheon address.

The link to the speech on the DOJ website is inactive, but the speech is embedded in this piece from the WSJ Law Blog (see here).

The speech covers a wide range of topics and will be of interest to all FCPA practitioners and others interested in following FCPA developments.

Here are a few highlights:

Of Course It’s Because of the Oil

“Bribe takers” get a free pass under the FCPA as the statute only applies to “bribe givers.”

However, in 2004, President Bush signed Proclamation 7750 “To Suspend Entry As Immigrants or Nonimmigrants of Persons Engaged In or Benefiting From Corruption” (see here). The Proclamation states:

“…that it is in the interests of the United States to take action to restrict the international travel and to suspend the entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of certain persons who have committed, participated in, or are beneficiaries of corruption in the performance of public functions where that corruption has serious adverse effects on international activity of U.S. businesses, U.S. foreign assistance goals, the security of the United States against transnational crime and terrorism, or the stability of democratic institutions and nations.”

Section 2 of the Proclamation says that its prohibitions “shall not apply with respect to any person otherwise covered [...] where entry of the person into the United States would not be contrary to the interests of the United States.”

So what happens when the Forest and Agriculture Minister of Equatorial Guinea and the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president shows up at the U.S. “doorstep” on his way to his $35 million Malibu estate?

Jefferson Sentenced / When a Jury Verdict is Relegated to a Footnote

Today, former Congressman William Jefferson was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison. He was convicted in early August of a variety of charges (solicitation of bribes, honest services wire fraud, money laundering, racketeering, and conspiracy)(see here for the DOJ release).

However, he was acquitted on the substantive FCPA antibribery charge.

Lighthouses and Buoys

Every so often, things sort of appear out of “left field.”

This is not the only blog which covers the FCPA and several law firms keep rolling statistics as to FCPA enforcement actions, indictments, pleas, etc.

Even so, has anyone ever heard of Charles Paul Edward Jumet or Ports Engineering Consultants Corporation?

Forget the indictment (that was apparently filed on November 10th – see here), Jumet pleaded guilty today to conspiring to violate the FCPA (among other charges). See here for the DOJ release.

Get ready to a make flow chart, because the facts are rather confusing.

An FCPA Triangle

First it was the company – Willsbros Group Inc. (see here).

Then, it was the company’s employees – Jim Bob Brown (seehere) and Jason Steph (see here).

Finally, it is the company’s consultant – Paul Novak (see here).

An FCPA triangle of sorts.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for an FCPA square because, as has been noted in previous posts, the final piece of the puzzle … the “foreign official” will not be happening anytime soon as the FCPA only applies to the “briber-giver” not the “bribe-taker.”

A Few Questions From the Back Row

Today, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer gave a keynote address to the 10th Annual Pharmaceutical Regulatory and Compliance Congress and Best Practices Forum (see here for his address).

In addition, to talking about the unique FCPA compliance risks facing the pharmaceutical industry, Breuer also discussed general FCPA topics such as compliance and voluntary disclosure. Whether you are in the pharma industry or not, you probably want to take a look at what he had to say.

Here is what Breuer had to say about the “foreign official” element of an FCPA anti-bribery violation.

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The above post was contributed to Corporate Compliance Insights by Mike Koehler, an Assistant Professor of Business Law at Butler University. It was reprinted from his blog FCPA Professor.

Mr. Koehler is also CCI’s Featured FCPA Columnist. He has a wide range of experience and expertise on this emerging topic, and he contributes regularly to our discussion of current FCPA matters.

Follow the link to his bio page to learn more about Mike Koehler.

Tags: fcpa, foreign corrupt practices act, Mike Koehler