Webinar: 2020 FCPA Enforcement and Compliance Review October 13, 2020, 12 Noon EST Sign Up HERE Despite the pandemic and disruptions to the global economy, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission have resumed their aggressive enforcement of the FCPA. DOJ has continued its pace of corporate prosecutions while continuing to increase individual criminal prosecutions. DOJ and the SEC also issued a revised...
World Acceptance Corporation (“WAC”), a US-based consumer loan company, agreed to pay the SEC $21.7 million for FCPA violations in Mexico. WAC’s cited violations covered the full gamut of FCPA violations, including bribery payments to government officials in Mexico, failure to keep accurate books and records and inadequate internal accounting controls. WAC engaged in an illegal scheme over a seven year period, from December 2010...
Notwithstanding the pandemic and remote working arrangements, the Securities and Exchange Commission is continuing to bring FCPA enforcement actions. In its latest action, the SEC settled with Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $21 million for foreign bribery and books and records violations. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the Alexion FCPA enforcement action and the lessons learned for compliance professionals.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the SEC is continuing its FCPA enforcement activities. The SEC lawyers and staff have brought two cases recently – an enforcement action against a former Goldman Sachs executive and the settlement with ENI which was announced on Friday. HERE. During the relevant period, between 2007 and 2010, ENI held a 43 percent minority-control interest in Saipem S.p.A. ENI’s American Depositary...
Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed charges against Asante Berko, a former Goldman Sachs executive with bribery of foreign government officials in Ghana. Goldman Sachs discovered and stopped the scheme and then reported it to the government. Goldman Sachs was not charged with the conduct and cooperated with the investigation. The SEC’s complaint charged Berko with assisting a client, a Turkish energy...
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the SEC entered into a settlement with Eni for $24.5 million for FCPA violations. In another matter, the SEC filed an FCPA case against a former Goldman Sachs executive for bribery in connection with business on behalf of a client in Ghana. In this episode, Michael Volkov reviews these two enforcement actions.
In an interesting SEC FCPA settlement action, Sridhar Thiruvengadam, the former COO of Cognizant Technology, agreed to pay a $50K penalty for his role in the bribery scheme involving the payment of $2 million to a government official in India in exchange for the issuance of a planning permit needed for the construction of Cognizant’s new office location in Chennai, India. Early this year, Cognizant...
Juniper Networks agreed to pay the SEC $11.7 million to settle FCPA violations for conduct occurring in Russia and China. See Order Here. Under the settlement, Juniper Networks agreed to disgorgement of $4 million, a $6.5 million civil penalty, and pre-judgment interest of $1.3 million. The Juniper Networks investigation was initiated approximately six years ago in 2013. The Justice Department had declined to prosecute Juniper...
If there ever was a poster-child for reputational damage for a financial institution, Deutsche Bank would be the first and only candidate. Talk about a bank that is in trouble and continues to fall under government scrutiny. Last week, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay the SEC $16 million for its hiring of relatives of public officials in China and Russia. (Here). Deutsche Bank joins a...
Microsoft finally resolved its FCPA enforcement action with a whimper. Notwithstanding prior suggestions that Microsoft’s investigation uncovered global conduct, Microsoft’s liability focused primarily on Microsoft’s conduct in Hungary. Even with the tailored settlement agreement, DOJ and the SEC reiterated robust expectations surrounding third-party distributor networks, particularly in the software industry. To resolve a lengthy six and one-half year investigation, Microsoft entered into a non-prosecution agreement...
