The SEC is having a good year in prosecuting FCPA cases.  The SEC’s recent settlement with 3M Corp. for $6.5 million is its seventh corporate resolution for the year.  DOJ, which has been relatively quiet so far this year, recently resolved the Corficocolombiana case, its first for the year. 3M’s conduct centered on payments for Chinese healthcare officials employed by state-owned enterprises to attend overseas...

Jessica Sanderson, Partner at The Volkov Law Group, rejoins us for a posting on recent changes to export regulations involving Hong Kong. Jessica can be reached at [email protected]. Until recently, the U.S. government treated Hong Kong and China as two separate destinations for export control purposes and in many cases provided Hong Kong with preferential treatment.  At the end of 2020, however, on December 23,...

Janet Longo, Regulatory Compliance Manager, at the Volkov Law Group, joins us for a blog posting on the Commerce Department’s changes to export licensing policies and procedures for national security items destined to China, Russia and Venezuela.  The Volkov Law Group has extensive expertise with complicated export license applications and is happy to provide you with additional resources to assist you with your license applications...

Novartis and Alcon engaged in separate but significant bribery schemes.  Considering the fact that Novartis had a similar violation in 2016 in China involving much of the same conduct, Novartis’ conduct reflects a weak corporate culture of compliance. Novartis’ conduct is all the more troubling given its enforcement record on domestic False Claims Act and anti-kickback prosecutions.  Novartis has real compliance and culture problems, apparently...

The SEC’s FCPA Unit had a good week last week – they announced a second FCPA settlement along with the Sanofi case.  The latest to fall was United Technologies that agreed to pay $13.9 million for bribes paid by its elevator and aircraft engine businesses. The SEC FCPA settlement focused on Azerbaijan and China relating to third-party bribery payments.  In addition to these two bribery...

The SEC finished with the last nail in GSK China’s coffin by announcing a $20 FCPA million settlement for GSK’s violations in China. The Justice Department declined to prosecute this case. In 2014, a Chinese court fined GSK $490 million for domestic bribery. GSK’s former China executive was given a three year suspended sentence and deported. A number of Chinese nationals were given prison sentences...

Lauren Connell, Managing Associate at The Volkov Law Group, joins us again for another posting on corruption risks in China.  Her profile is here and she can be reached at [email protected]. A little fear is healthy. It will keep you vigilant and aware. At this point if corporate compliance departments are not a little fearful of doing business in China then their managers and employees...

Medical device and pharmaceutical companies know the risks of conducting business in China. Company after company has had to settle FCPA enforcement actions in China. Many of these enforcement actions include fact patterns that are pretty consistent. At the heart of these bribery cases are distributors who are used to funnel bribery payments to healthcare professionals. The expectations and modes of operation are fairly consistent...