With the end of the Biden Administration, it is hard to identify a consistent theme relating to FCPA enforcement.  On the one hand, the Biden Administration talked a big game, elevating the anti-corruption fight as a national security priority and promising even more aggressive FCPA enforcement than the prior Trump Administration. 

At the same time, the Justice Department modified its Corporate Enforcement Policies, tightening the Corporate Enforcement Policy, adopting individual-tailored financial penalties, and promising strict punishments for recidivist corporations.  Shortly after that, however, DOJ adopted department-wide standards governing voluntary disclosure, relaxed voluntary disclosure requirements, and offered increased incentives for cooperating companies.  DOJ brought about a healthy balance between incentives to cooperate and avoiding self-reporting.

Perhaps the most significant action taken by DOJ was the implementation of its own whistleblower program.  Despite some significant concerns about the actual workings of the program, DOJ recently disclosed that it has received over 200 reported concerns.  When carefully weighed, DOJ’s whistleblower program creates a powerful incentive for companies to voluntarily disclose misconduct — the possibility that a whistleblower who beats the company to DOJ may preclude the corporation from earning a valuable non-prosecution opportunity.  By adding this factor, DOJ put a significant weight in favor of the voluntary disclosure path for many companies.

FCPA Enforcement Numbers

On the FCPA enforcement picture, DOJ exceeded 2023’s overall performance in corporate prosecutions, and significantly increased its prosecution of individuals, largely as a result of the Adani, multi-defendant case against eight defendants.

For 2024, DOJ prosecuted eight companies, granted two declinations, and prosecuted 21 individuals for FCPA offenses.  One case landed on the top-10 — Gunvor’s settlement with DOJ for $661 million.  The total penalties equaled approximately $1.56 million from the eight companies, and $29 million from the two declined cases.  This was a significant increase from 2023 in which the collected penalties totaled roughly $888 million.

 The SEC itself brought five cases against corporations, and its first case in years against an individual Cyril Cabenes. For itself, the SEC collected over $237 million in disgorgement and penalties, which was offset against DOJ penalties. The CFTC resolved one case for $55 million against Trafigura, as part of Trafigura’s comprehensive settlement and offset against DOJ’s penalty of $126 million.

Trials and Individual Prosecutions

DOJ had a strong year in the trial courtroom, successfully convicting four defendants after lengthy trials:

Carlos Ramon Polit Faggioni, the  former Comptroller General of Ecuador for his role in a multimillion-dollar international bribery and money laundering scheme in Miami;

Javier Aguilar, an oil and gas trader today for his role in a scheme to bribe Ecuadorean and Mexican government officials and to launder money to secure contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars for his then-employer, Vitol Inc., the U.S. affiliate of the largest independent energy trading firm in the world.

Glenn Oztemel, a former oil and gas trader today for his role in a nearly eight-year long scheme paid bribes to officials of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras), the Brazilian state-owned oil and gas company, to obtain lucrative contracts for Arcadia Fuels Ltd. (Arcadia) and Freepoint Commodities LLC (Freepoint). a former oil and gas trader today for his role in a nearly eight-year long scheme to bribe Brazilian government officials and to launder money to secure business for two Connecticut-based commodities trading companies.

Manuel Chang, the former Finance Minister of Mozambique, was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with his role in a $2 billion fraud, bribery, and money laundering scheme that victimized investors in the United States and elsewhere.