In an unusual FCPA enforcement action, the Justice Department and the SEC resolved FCPA violations against Sociedad Quimica y Minera, a Chilean chemical and mining company, for a total of $30.5 million, for paying approximately $15 million in bribes to Chilean officials. SQM agreed to a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with DOJ and to assignment of a two-year independent compliance monitor. The odd aspect of...

The first FCPA enforcement action for 2017 landed with very little fanfare. The SEC reached a settlement with Mondelez International for $13 million. The facts surround the hiring of an agent in India and the failure of Mondelez to monitor and conduct basic due diligence on the third-party agent. Kraft Foods acquired Cadbury, a UK candy and beverage company. Kraft Foods renamed itself Mondelez after...

It is always a pleasure to participate in FCPA and compliance discussions with Tom Fox. Tom and I recorded a podcast on the Odebrecht and Teva Pharmaceuticals FCPA enforcement actions. A copy of the recording is available here. Happy New Year!!!!

Now that the dust has settled on this turbulent campaign season, everyone is in the prediction game, especially when it comes to FCPA enforcement. It is easy to make predictions of significant change. It is easy to take campaign rhetoric and assume that such rhetoric will result in quick and immediate change. As a veteran of transfers of power (being an old D.C. lawyer), I...

I hate to be the harbinger of bad news; that is against my nature; I am naturally an optimistic person. As I always say, there are solutions to every problem. Many companies have responded to third party risks and built effective risk management programs. It is perhaps one of the most significant changes in the compliance landscape – third parties create significant risks and companies...

If you review the last ten years of FCPA enforcement, the unmistakable pattern is rising expectations with regard to corporate compliance programs, particularly with regard to third party due diligence and risk management. Over the course of numerous enforcement actions, DOJ and the SEC have reached the point now where they are questioning not just the conduct of due diligence but the quality of due...

Last week, the SEC added another pharmaceutical company to its list of FCPA violators when AstraZeneca agreed to a $5.5 million settlement with the SEC. AZ is now the 25th drug or medical device company to pay an FCPA penalty for violating the FCPA. AZ’s violations were not limited to China as a number of recent FCPA enforcement actions against drug/medical device companies, but included...

If you ask members of a corporate board or senior executives about the cost of an FCPA enforcement action, they will candidly acknowledge all of the costs – fines, penalties, and professional costs (e.g. legal, accounting, forensic). These are significant costs and nothing to sneeze or laugh at (however the expression goes). In a moment of candor the board members and C-Suite executives will confess...

The term “due diligence” is an overused expression in the compliance world. It has become a term to mean heightened concern or investigation. No one can really define what it means except to say it has different meanings in different contexts. Some would say it is a term of art in the legal and compliance world. It is misleading to add the term “investigation” to...

The FCPA statute is not as vague as some contend. I remember the words of a former FTC Chairperson who told me once – “The Clayton Act is not vague. I just read the law and apply it to the facts.” Not to be too simplistic, I recognize there are legitimate disputes surrounding application of the FCPA to specific situations. As one example, I have...