FCPA

When faced with an allegation of corruption and a related investigation, your organization will be better protected by a strong compliance program – and one that requires staff to document their actions, reasoning and good faith effort to act in keeping with the law and the program. Proving corrupt intent can come down to inferences, and it’s best not to...

Olympus, the world’s largest manufacturer of optics products, has demonstrated that its culture of corruption is endemic. Having violated the FCPA, the anti-kickback statute and the False Claims Act in a bribery and kickback scandal stretching back several years, the corporation has entered into a strict corporate integrity agreement aimed at ensuring Olympus has an effective anti-corruption compliance program going...

Having violated the accounting provisions of the FCPA on several occasions, Qualcomm has been the target of an SEC investigation for some time. Last week the regulatory body concluded its enforcement action against Qualcomm, and there are some key lessons to be learned for the compliance practitioner.

Organizations doing business with Pemex have long faced FCPA risks, as the company is controlled by the Mexican government and thus considered an “instrumentality” thereof. As a result of recent energy reforms, however, Pemex is now one of many actors in the oil and gas industry, and other companies operating in Mexico may face new risks in their interactions with...

The annual Corruption Perceptions Index is out, and Asia-Pacific showed little improvement overall in 2015. Only a fraction of the 27 countries in the region “passed” in Transparency International’s scoring system, and while several nations did show slight increases in their scores and rankings, others took a tumble.

The cost of FCPA violations can really pile up, from penalties levied by enforcement agencies to reputational damage when wrongdoing is made public to prison time for perpetrators. Companies must remain vigilant to recognize the signs of bribery. Guilty parties tend to hide the evidence after all. (Or try, at least.) Do you know where to look and what to...

Maintaining compliance with global anti-bribery and anti-corruption legislation is no easy undertaking. Laws vary from one jurisdiction to another, implementing a corporate social responsibility program can complicate matters, and putting in place a charitable giving program can give rise to compliance issues. Fortunately, there’s a wealth of guidance available.

There are basically three varieties of corporate scandal. Volkswagen may have the dubious distinction of having pioneered a fourth, however. VW's emissions-testing scandal is result of its top leadership and senior engineers intentionally deceiving the public. This was no slow slide into fraud; there was at one point a specific decision made to cheat.

Some are foaming at the mouth about the outcome of the FCPA trial of former PetroTiger CEO Joseph Sigelman. However, while the Department of Justice isn't overjoyed with how the case turned out, the outcome isn't at all unusual. The key takeaway here: you win some, you lose some. Will the DOJ overhaul it's FCPA enforcement strategies because of this...

We all have at least a cursory understanding of attorney-client privilege, whether through our own legal dealings or from catching an episode of Law & Order now and then. Latin-American countries are beginning to learn the importance of the concept in the midst of FCPA investigations. Lesson one: how do we structure the review? And what about rules in the...

Facilitation payments are handled differently depending on where you're doing business. Under U.S. law, they're allowable in only very limited circumstances, but they're never warranted under UK regulations. So how should companies operating in India who are also accountable to FCPA authorities move forward?

U.S. franchisors doing business abroad come into contact with officials of foreign governments fairly frequently - if not once they're up and running, then certainly during the startup process. Each interaction presents an opportunity for an FCPA violation. And if and when a misdeed comes to pass, who's ultimately liable? The individual with boots on the ground or the corporation?