The Securities and Exchange Commission has gained well-publicized traction through its formal whistleblower bounty program.  Only a small portion of these whistleblower reports involve FCPA, anti-bribery allegations.  Notwithstanding this fact, the SEC whistleblower program has been an unquestioned success.  Given this example, it is not surprising that the Department of Justice recently announced its plan to create its own whistleblower bounty program. In a recent...

The Department of Justice’s blockbuster FCPA settlement with Gunvor restores the credibility of DOJ’s pronouncements of DOJ’s commitment to aggressive FCPA enforcement.  While I have questioned DOJ’s commitment to its corporate enforcement policy in recent high-profile settlements (ABB and SAP, in particular), DOJ’s Gunvor settlement of $661 million stands as the ninth largest FCPA settlement in history.  DOJ’s settlement is proportionate to the misconduct and...

Gunvor’s bribery scheme is not very surprising nor ingenious.  After all, a number of energy trading companies have been prosecuted for bribery over the years, including Glencore, Vitol, Freepoint.  Numerous individuals have been prosecuted, convicted and some have cooperated.  The global energy trading market presents numerous risk factors — large and valuable energy products (oil, gas etc.) are controlled by foreign-owned companies.  All of these...

You have to give the Justice Department credit — after two slow enforcement years, DOJ is starting off 2024 with a relative “bang;” first, DOJ reached a large settlement with SAP in January, and now, DOJ has reached a blockbuster settlement with Gunvor S.A. for $661 million. Gunvor is one of the world’s largest commodities trading companies.  DOJ’s settlement represents a “return” to its long-standing...

According to the terms of a superseding information made public by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on or about February 13, 2024, Mauricio Gomez Baez (“Baez”)—a former Stericycle executive for Latin America—was officially charged with a single count of  conspiracy for his role in a multi-year scheme to expand Stericycle’s business opportunities in the Latin American region (particularly, Mexico,...

Following an 8 week trial, a federal jury in Brooklyn has convicted Javier Aguilar on charges relating to the former Vitol trader’s violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He faces up to 30 years in prison. Aguilar bribed officials in Mexico and Ecuador to obtain contracts from their state-owned oil companies. He was also convicted of using a complex money laundering scheme to avoid...

When it comes to FCPA enforcement, the Justice Department’s global focus for many years was on Asian countries, and in particular, China.  This trend, however, has continued, but in the past few years, DOJ has brought a larger percentage of criminal cases against Central and Latin American entities and individuals.  The reason for this focus reflects DOJ’s long-standing and closer working relationships with prosecutors and...

When it comes to FCPA enforcement and expectations, DOJ has moved the goalposts.  Some would argue that DOJ has been consistent all along.  The truth, like most issues, lies somewhere between the extremes.  With lots of fanfare, DOJ implemented a new Corporate Enforcement Program to udnerscore its intent to examine the criminal and civil enforcement history of corporate defendants when considering an appropriate penalty.  This...