The FCPA paparazzi has a standard list of anti-corruption risks: government interactions, third-party due diligence, gifts and entertainment, and mergers and acquisitions/joint ventures. Notice that charitable giving is not included on that list of greatest hits. Gifts to charities can be a clever disguise of an improper payment to a government official or a relative of a government official. Like gifts and entertainment, a...
The FCPA paparazzi is at it again. FCPA bloggers and white collar defense counsel are hyper-ventilating on the future of DOJ’s criminal FCPA prosecutions. Exagerration is now the commodity of marketing on the blogosphere. The government’s dismissal of the Africa Sting cases is a setback to the government’s FCPA enforcement program but it is not an event which will in any way slow the government’s criminal enforcement...
If you look closely at the list of FCPA enforcement actions, a large percentage of FCPA violations have focused on illegal payments made to secure customs clearance. This is not surprising. The equities facing a company can be very risky – customs clearance is a bottleneck critical to the company; and foreign customs officials know that they have leverage to extract illegal payments from a...
I have been reluctant to join the debate over a corporate compliance defense to FCPA violations. I would like to count Tom Fox, Mike Koehler and Howard Sklar among my friends. I also have a lot of respect for them. They each have weighed in on the issue of a corporate compliance defense to an FCPA violation. At the risk of stirring the pot, I thought...
World Compliance is sponsoring the FCPA Spring Tour — Join me and Tom Fox in San Francisco on April 26, and in Dallas on April 27. Tom and I will review recent FCPA enforcement actions and provide practical solutions to compliance issues. We hope you can make it. The details for the San Francisco event are here: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=myqi4pcab&oeidk=a07e5rfgcqz4d92ab22 The details for the Dallas event are here:...
Just a reminder that my book is still available on Amazon!!! My mentor and friend, Judge Stanley Sporkin, the ‘father of the FCPA,’ wrote the foreword. “Michael Volkov’s book is a compilation of articles on a number of subjects important to advising clients how to stay out of trouble. He is a prolific writer and I can say without question, we have not heard the last...
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The UK’s Financial Services Authority has sent a warning shot to investment banks – big and small. In a blistering report, the FSA outlined a number of deficiencies in ABC compliance by investment banks. Given the close working relationship between the US and UK, the Justice Department and the SEC are sure to take note of this report and incorporate it into their ongoing ABC...
The SEC’s long and tortured Theodore Urban case finally came to an end when the Commission reversed the ALJ’s decision and dismissed the case. Since the case was brought, the SEC has made public statements to try and clarify how it intends to enforce supervisor liability. Recently, SEC Commissioner David Gallagher explained “ if a firm employee in a traditionally non-supervisory role has expertise relevant...
Everyone likes to focus on how to conduct an internal investigation. In the face of the new SEC whistleblower law and regulations, companies need to design a system to assess and respond to an initial allegation of a corruption violation. Not all complaints are equal – indeed, most allegations have little merit. But occasionally a complaint can be significant and uncover a significant potential violation....
