AAR, a provider of aviation products and services, engaged in two separate bribery schemes.  State-owned entities and government agencies permeate the aviation industry.  As a result, FCPA risks are embedded in direct industry activity and related services and suppliers.  The AAR case is a perfect example of just how easy it is to engage in bribery in the aviation industry. AAR engaged in two separate...

What went wrong when McKinsey paid bribes to secure consulting contracts with South Africa’s state-owned enterprises? In this episode, Michael Volkov dives into the December 2024 DOJ settlement with McKinsey & Company, which paid $122 million after being found guilty of paying bribes to officials at Transnet and Eskom to secure valuable consulting contracts. The case involved significant violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act...

In a far-reaching criminal case, in November 2024, the Justice Department unsealed a complex, five-count indictment in the Eastern District of New York charging eight defendants, including Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain, executives of the Adani Group, a large Indian renewable-energy company, with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar...

Deja Vu all over again — Yogi Berra Yogi Berra said it best — we have seen this scenario before, with similar parties — corrupt foreign officials from Eskom (and Transnet), local partner requirements resulting in engagement of unqualified businesses, and corrupt third parties who assist the bribery scheme in exchange for a cut of the action.  This is a familiar set of facts, and...

The McKinsey FCPA case follows several other significant cases involving South Africa.  ABB and SAP resolved FCPA cases involving bribes in South Africa; on the SEC front, Gartner resolved a bribery case involving South Africa. Like these other cases, McKinsey’s bribery scheme focused on two important state-owned enterprises: Transnet Ltd, the South African company responsible for operation of ports, rails and pipelines; and Eskom Ltd.,...

Bit Mining, formerly 500.com, was a doomed company from the beginning,  When a CEO orchestrates a bribery scheme with the assistance of other senior executives, shareholders and the public have little chance of ensuring a business operating with ethics and integrity. 500.com’s future was sealed when it embraced bribery as a means to avoid head-to-head competition against established US and European companies seeking to enter...

In reviewing FCPA bribery fact patterns, it is a rare occasion when a company’s CEO is at the epicenter of the criminal conspiracy.  In the BIT Mining case, standing atop all of the actors is the CEO  Zhengming Pan, Bit Mining’s former CEO and a Chinese national. DOJ had no choice but to charge Pan with a criminal FCPA conspiracy. Others could have been charged...

Telefónica Venezolana C.A. (“Telefónica Venezolana”), the Venezuela-based subsidiary of Telefónica S.A. (Telefónica), the Spanish telecommunications company entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (“DPA”) and agreed to pay over $85.2 million to resolve DOJ FCPA charges stemming from bribery payments to Venezuelan government officials to secure preferential access to U.S. dollars in a currency auction. Telefónica Venezolana entered into a three-year DPA and the filing of a...

The Justice Department’s record of FCPA enforcement in 2024 has been disappointing.  With all of the hoopla and pronouncements surrounding the global war against corruption, DOJ suggested that enforcement in 2023 and 2024 would be robust.  Instead, 2024 was a year of fizzles, fits and starts, and ultimately a slow year of FCPA enforcement. The future under the Trump Administration will be interesting.  Based on...