We always focus on foreign bribery — the FCPA and corporate bribery of foreign officials.  It is certainly a problem that undermines economic development and human rights. However, bribery and corruption is real and significant in the United States, from local to state to federal government officials, the news is filled with instances of bribery and corruption.  Wherever there is money flowing, there is sure...

The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission reached a $41 million settlement with GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A. (“GOL”) to resolve criminal and civil foreign bribery charges. GOL entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement (“DPA”) with DOJ in exchange for payment of a $17 million criminal penalty. DOJ credited $1.7 million of that penalty against a $3.4 million fine that GOL agreed...

The Justice Department announced the indictment in New York of Cary Yan, a Chinese entrepreneur, and Gina Zhou, his assistant, on FCPA and money laundering charges relating to a scheme to secure control of an atoll owned by the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI).  Yan and Zhou paid bribes to elected officials in the RMI in exchange for passing specific legislation.  Yan and Zhou...

In following the Justice Department and the Securities Exchange Commission FCPA enforcement actions, I am always reminded of the popular phrase — “reading the tea leaves.” (or “tasseography,” a fortune-telling method based on tea leave patterns in tea sediments). Despite a slow initial year in 2021, the Biden Administration’s stamp and push on FCPA enforcement is becoming clear.  Keep in mind, DOJ and SEC officials have...

The broad and pervasive scope of Glencore’s bribery conduct is obvious.  The scope of its misconduct reflects Glencore’s fatal culture and commitment to profits at any and all cost.  Glencore’s board and senior executive team forgot the basic equation — ethical companies are more profitable in the long run.  Instead, Glencore embraced immediate gratification, circumventing controls and adhering to a culture of lawlessness. Glencore’s bribery...

In a surprising (but fully warranted) twist, the Justice Department returned an indictment against a former employee of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (“Ericsson”), a global telecommunications company, for his role in paying approximately $2.1 million in bribes to high-level government officials in the Republic of Djibouti. Afework “Affe” Bereket, 53, a dual citizen of Ethiopia and Sweden, was charged in a two-count indictment – Count 1...

Chief compliance officers are always hungry for benchmarking data, for comparisons and insights around how their respective compliance programs stack up against other companies, especially in the same industry.  Compliance professionals, as a general rule, are collaborative and willing to share information with each other.  CCOs are an optimistic lot and enjoy sharing best practices, ideas and insights in order to further the ethics and...

Webinar: Monitoring Your Third Parties — Digging into Distributor and Agent Risks December 15, 2020, 12 Noon EST Sign Up HERE Government enforcement actions against companies for anti-corruption, sanctions, money laundering and accounting misconduct often focus on third-party risks. And for good reason — government enforcement actions almost always cite third-party misconduct and complicity in illegal schemes to pay bribes, circumvent sanctions and launder money....

The Justice Department finally closed out its investigation of Goldman Sachs’ massive bribery scheme involving Malaysia’s 1MDB fund.  The case is now the largest in US FCPA history (based on its payment to DOJ and related US agencies).  Goldman Sachs entered into  three-year deferred prosecution agreement (“DPA”) with the filing of a criminal information charging conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA.  At...