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 Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission had another record year of enforcement. In fact, the last four years of FCPA enforcement included two years of record enforcement – 2019 and 2020. After those two years, 2016, 2014, 2010 were larger enforcement years (as measured by total fines) than 2017 and 2018, the first two years of FCPA enforcement under the Trump Administration. In this...
The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission had another record year of enforcement. In fact, the last four years of FCPA enforcement included two years of record enforcement – 2019 and 2020. After those two years, 2016, 2014, 2010 were larger enforcement years (as measured by total fines) than 2017 and 2018, the first two years of FCPA enforcement under the Trump Administration....
There are two distinct themes in FCPA enforcement – the first is consistency, i.e., that some enforcement actions are relatively consistent across the board and, in the last five to ten years, the FCPA caseload has been fairly steady; the second is variability, meaning that new policies have an impact on FCPA enforcement. Some minor and some major. All of this may be another in...
No matter how you cut it – this was a big year in FCPA enforcement. Not just because of the large enforcement actions but the scope and depth of enforcement, remediation and compliance program demands. We are witnessing a significant turning point in FCPA enforcement in which the Justice Department and the SEC are slowly but surely pushing companies to embrace a more robust ethics...
