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...
You can always learn a lot from reviewing the underlying conduct to an FCPA enforcement action. Chief compliance officers can identify specific risk factors, mitigation steps and root causes for bribery schemes. The Corficocolombiana (“Corfico”) FCPA settlement underscores the significant risks when companies participate in large projects in foreign countries. Between 2012 and 2015, Corfico paid more than $23 million in bribes to high-ranking Colombian...
Last year, the Department of Justice warned global companies of a new, aggressive strategy for enforcement of trade sanctions and export controls. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco stated that sanctions and export enforcement constituted “The New FCPA.” DOJ, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) and the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) have joined forces to aggressively enforce sanctions...
The Justice Department certainly has altered the landscape of enforcement, compliance priorities, and ultimately corporate decisions surrounding voluntary disclosure. It has become a little bit more complicated to sort out all the carrots and sticks. One thing is clear – DOJ wants more companies to voluntarily disclose misconduct. And that is understandable. DOJ does not want companies to wait until they receive a grand jury...
Franks International (“Frank’s”) settled FCPA charges with the SEC for $8 million stemming from operations in Angola during the period 2008 to 2014. The Justice Department declined to prosecute Frank’s for the same events. Frank’s was a global provider of engineered tubular services, tubular fabrication, and specialty well construction and well intervention solutions to the oil and gas industry, incorporated in the Netherlands. On October...
Companies have to demand a new focus from their CEOs, senior executives and legal compliance team in response to the new DOJ and regulatory initiatives. These steps are not just suggestions nor items that can be prioritized based on resources. Instead, these are essential and basic requirements that will inevitably result in significant benefits across the company. Step 1: Define, Embed and Monitor Corporate Culture...
The Justice Department is continuing its push to encourage to encourage companies to voluntarily disclose FCPA misconduct. In its latest declination, DOJ settled with Corsa Coal for its bribery scheme in Egypt. Under the declination, Corsa Coal paid $1.2 million in disgorgement and earned a significant reduction from DOJ because of its inability to pay. The SEC recently settled two separate enforcement actions, one against...
Rio Tinto, the global mining and metals company, agreed to pay the SEC $15 million to settle FCPA violations arising from an alleged bribery scheme involving a senior Guinean government official. Between 1997 and 2006, Rio Tinto was granted mining and exploration rights to four section blocks in the Simandou mountain region. In late 2008, after a change in administrations, the Guinea Government revoked Raio...
In its first enforcement action of 2023, the Justice Department charged a Connecticut man and a foreign national with FCPA bribery and money laundering charges stemming from a bribery scheme to secure contracts with Petrobras in Brazil. Glenn Oztemel was a senior oil and gas trader at two trading companies., and Eduardo Innecco, a dual Italian and Brazilian citizen, was an oil and gas broker...
Here are some basic propositions that surround FCPA compliance. It is often underplayed that the FCPA contains more than just a bribery prohibition – the FCPA contains broad provisions, requiring accurate books and records and internal controls. When it comes to bribery, wrongdoers have to find ways to “steal” or gain unauthorized access to money often by circumventing internal controls. Thus, bribery conduct often goes...
