The Department of Justice and the SEC have had a profound effect on corporate compliance programs.  That is an understatement. Prior to the reinvigorated FCPA enforcement program, corporate compliance programs were relatively modest in scope.  Sarbanes-Oxley resulted in reforms and controls designed to improve financial reporting. DOJ’s aggressive FCPA enforcement program has catapulted compliance to a significant priority. In many respects, companies are still scrambling...

The Justice Department and the SEC have consistently preached the importance of remediation – that is, efforts by companies to address compliance deficiencies during the pendency of an investigation. In 2013, DOJ and SEC delivered significant benefits to companies for companies that made significant changes during an investigation.  The two most significant examples of such remediation were the Parker Drilling and Weatherford cases. Both companies...

Looking back on 2013, the Department of Justice and SEC had a strong enforcement year.  It is interesting to analyze how prosecutors exercised their discretion – what industries were subjects of FCPA investigations?  How did the company come to the attention of the DOJ and SEC? There is no question that most subjects of FCPA investigations are “discovered” through the voluntary disclosure process.  Companies continue...

Network Webinar, February 4, 2014, 1 PM EST Navigating the Waters of Anti-Corruption Compliance in China Register HERE China is a country with great economic opportunities but significant compliance risks. Did you know that Chinese anti-corruption enforcement against multi-national companies often focuses on improper payments and gifts to Chinese government officials? In the past year, Chinese authorities initiated aggressive corruption enforcement actions against multinational companies,...

Ten years ago, Sarbanes-Oxley was the focus of compliance and corporate governance reform.  Sarbanes-Oxley was enacted in response to major corporate scandals involving financial reporting fraud and accounting misrepresentations. Sarbanes-Oxley resulted in major corporate reforms of the auditing process, and corporate oversight of the financial and auditing process. For FCPA purposes, Sarbanes-Oxley is an important component in corporate decisions to disclose potential FCPA violations to...

FCPA practitioners pick through the pages and words underlying FCPA enforcement actions to look for clues, for new policies and government strategies.  It is a worthwhile process – the government sends important messages in its enforcement actions, ranging from cooperation credit, all the way to state-of-art compliance policies and procedures.  In many cases, a new trend can turn into an established practice in the matter...

I always say that the government does not enforce the laws in secret – they tell business what they plan to do and then they carry it out.  The announcement of an enforcement initiative is always followed by a series of press conferences announcing prosecutions under the initiative.  The examples of this include FCPA, healthcare fraud, export violations, gun violence, and on and on throughout...

Gone are the days when everyone wondered whether FCPA enforcement was slowing down.  The Justice Department and the SEC have answered that question with a resounding statement – “We are here to stay.” DOJ is leveraging its resources in a remarkable way – US Attorney’s Offices around the country are assisting DOJ’s FCPA Unit in the Fraud Section, and the results are becoming very clear. ...

“Success is a journey, not a destination. It requires constant effort, vigilance and re-evaluation” – Mark Twain “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others” – Bill Gates We all have known great “leaders” in our lifetime – a politician who inspired us, a public figure who we admire, and/or a boss or colleague who has impressed us professionally. ...

The New Year will bring a new focus on corporate board performance.  The aggressive enforcement environment has had a dramatic impact on corporate ethics and compliance.  CCOs have been empowered and gained independence. Reform at the corporate board level remains lackluster.  Shareholder activism has risen but there has been little change at the corporate board level. The next five years will see a surge in...