While on Vacation, I am re-posting some earlier postings which you may find interesting.   Almost all FCPA enforcement actions involve the failure of a company to adequately screen or prevent a third-party agent from bribing a foreign official. The company’s relationship with the third-party agent is where the rubber hits the road: economic pressure to use the agent is strong when the agent can...

There is an art to conducting internal investigations.  Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably wedded to a  formulaic approach to internal investigations.  Cookie cutters will not always get the job done. When a company turns to an internal investigation, the board and senior management have to be careful – there are so many risks.  The internal investigation has to focus on an end result...

I recently participated in an interesting panel discussion on the role of the US Sentencing Commission.  The event was sponspored by the American Constitution Society and the ACLU here in Washington, D.C. Moderator, Jesselyn McCurdy, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Honorable Patti B. Saris, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts; Chair, U.S. Sentencing Commission  Amy Baron-Evans, Sentencing Resource Counsel, Federal Public and Community Defenders Douglas...

I am sorry but I am on vacation for a short period of time.  I will resume posting soon. I apologize for any inconvenience.  

For those companies dedicated to compliance, the first and most critical step is a commitment to empower its compliance office.  A company must assign adequate personnel and allocate adequate resources to fulfill its mission.  An effective compliance officer must be regarded as equal to, or even senior to, the company’s Chief Financial Officer or General Counsel.  Gone are the days when compliance offices are a...

Forgive me for asking this question but why do consultants and accountants separate the concepts of fraud and bribery.  To me, bribery is a form of fraud.  Where there is fraud there is likely to be bribery – company actors are bribing others or company actors are taking kickbacks for contracts with the company.  Both of these schemes involve fraud.  One of them is prohibited...

One of the more interesting trends in FCPA enforcement is the DOJ’s willingness to prosecute foreign companies and individuals.  Some may argue that DOJ needs to focus on US companies which engage in foreign bribery and leave the prosecution of foreign companies to foreign prosecutors in their respective countries.  Foreign companies become even more concerned when it comes to the prosecution of foreign officers and...

Talk about seeing the forest from the trees – during the same week that Judge Hughes granted the defense motion for judgment of acquittal in the O’Shea case, the Justice Department announced a $56 million settlement in the Marubeni case, and Biomet disclosed it was planning on an FCPA settlement in the $30 million range.  Late last year, two major companies announced they were close...

If your company operates in China, I have one piece of “free” advice – conduct an anti-corruption audit and do it now. Almost one-third of the FCPA criminal cases involve bribery in China.  The scenarios are very familiar: a US company enters into a joint venture with a Chinese partner, or a US company establishes (or acquires) a Chinese subsidiary.  Bribery is built into the...

Sometimes too much of a good thing is a bad thing.  We spend so much time advocating for compliance programs that we forget to remind companies that sometimes too much compliance is not a good thing.  What do I mean by this? Simplicity is a good thing.  The true measure of intelligence is the ability of someone to take a complex subject and explain it...