FCPA

A U.S. District Court appeared to undermine an important aspect of FCPA cases – the determination of whether a foreign national can be considered a U.S. agent – in a November decision to dismiss charges against a Swiss wealth manager. Explanation for this move is scant, and questions abound. On November 10, 2021, Senior U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt of...

FCPA enforcements fell in 2021 to their lowest in a decade, but many signs point to a rebound in FCPA and anti-corruption prosecutions in the coming year. Attorneys with the international law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison summarize findings regarding corporate enforcement in 2021, compare it to previous years and look ahead at what's to come in their...

DOJ's latest remarks (via Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco) on corporate criminal enforcement carry important implications for compliance teams. Going forward, the department will take a wider view of companies' past wrongdoing, require more detailed information on individuals related to actions in question and allow for the broader use of monitorships.  Over the last year, the Biden Administration announced policies...

While 2021 may have been rather light when it comes to the number of FCPA enforcement actions, that doesn't mean the year was unlikely to have major corruption and FCPA enforcement action implications for years to come. A pair of late-year announcements from the Biden Administration portend sweeping changes, and in his trademark style, Tom Fox reviews corruption cases and...

Though broad in scope, the Biden Administration's plan to counter domestic and international corruption follows four primary lines of effort. A series of related proposals for rule-making conclude their comment period in February. Business leaders have the opportunity to respond to both in advance of enforcement. 

The arduous process of FCPA compliance requires risk teams to digest and cross-reference a morass of information – from internal data analysis to human representatives collecting interviews on the ground. Diligence failures can bring about both enforcements and missed opportunities. As U.S. authorities, namely the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), state in their...

2022 will probably be a lot like 2021, only more so. With most key federal positions filled, the Biden Administration is in a position to ramp up enforcement over the next twelve months. A rundown of top white-collar crime enforcement issues from 2021 informs the enforcement trends we expect to see more of in 2022.

A new sheriff is in town, at least when it comes to combatting corruption, according to an analysis by international law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed. In the New York-based law firm’s annual alert devoted to the state of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations and anti-bribery investigations, its chief contributors expect enforcement to surge in 2022. The 153-page alert...

Credit Suisse agreed to pay $547 million to resolve a bribery and fraud scheme involving investments and financing arrangements for $850 million loan for the EMATUM tuna fishing operation. The fallout has dealt the Mozambique economy a crippling blow. Credit Suisse Group AG, a global financial institution, and its London-based European subsidiary, Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Limited (CSSEL) on October...

DOJ says scheme involved diverting millions from company into slush fund and paying bribes to Brazilian government officials, political parties and others. A Brazilian man who previously served as the chief executive officer of Braskem S.A., a publicly traded Brazilian petrochemical company, was sentenced Oct. 13 in the Eastern District of New York to 20 months in prison for a...

WPP plc grew in to the world's largest advertising agency, in part, by acquiring thousands of subsidiaries. While it found success leveraging the expertise of these acquisitions, it was unsuccessful in establishing a culture of compliance among them.

A former Ericsson employee allegedly employed "financial sleight-of-hand involving a sham consulting contract, a false due-diligence report, and fake invoices" to conceal a bribe to Djiboutian government officials. The DOJ broke with previous practices in indicting him personally. In a surprising (but fully warranted) twist, the Justice Department returned an indictment on September 8 against a former employee of Telefonaktiebolaget...