All FCPA articles – Page 27
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Blog
Another bank under FCPA scrutiny for its hiring practices
Financial services providers face unique corruption risks when seeking to win business in international markets. This includes a traditional form of back-scratching: the hiring of children or other close family members of prominent foreign officials. Only now the SEC has made it clear that such practices can and will invite ...
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Article
Compliance lessons from VimpelCom
Image: Ethics, compliance, and audit executives have yet another real-life bribery case to add to their growing library of epic anti-corruption compliance failures—this one resulting in the sixth largest Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action of all time. “This case demonstrates a failure of internal controls at every turn,” says ...
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Blog
Olympus to pay $623.2 million for kickback scheme
Olympus Corporation of the Americas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan-based Olympus, will pay $623.2 million to resolve criminal charges and civil claims relating to a scheme to pay kickbacks to doctors and hospitals—the largest total amount paid in U.S. history for violations involving the Anti-Kickback Statute by a medical device ...
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Blog
FIFA dribbles up the pitch toward reform
As FIFA continues to battle its landmark corruption scandal, it has elected a new President and passed a series of structural and process reforms to bring the organization into the 21st century and demonstrate to U.S. authorities that it really is going to change from its prior culture. But is ...
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Blog
SEC probing hiring practices of HSBC and many other banks
London-based HSBC said in an earnings release last week that it is one of several banks being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its hiring practices in Asia. Hiring a family member or friend of a government official violates the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act if the intent ...
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Blog
When are campaign contributions FCPA violations?
A recent article in the Financial Times by Simon Kuper, titled “How to buy a foreign election” reminded me that the FCPA specifically makes illegal more than simply bribing a foreign government official or some employed by a state owned enterprise to secure an improper advantage. The FCPA also makes ...
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Blog
Corruption can give you a very bad few days
Title: Corruption can give you a very You know it is going to be a bad day when you see your company’s name splashed across a BBC investigative report into alleged payment of bribes to secure business contracts. However, your day can get considerably worse when US congressmen, call ...
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BlogVimpelCom to pay $795 million for FCPA violations
Amsterdam-based VimpelCom, a global telecommunication services provider, and its wholly owned Uzbek subsidiary, Unitel, yesterday reached a combined $795 million settlement with the U.S. and Dutch prosecutors for paying bribes to a government official in Uzbekistan, making it one of the largest global foreign bribery resolutions ever. VimpelCom will pay ...
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Blog
General Cable sets aside $28 million for bribery case
General Cable said last week in an earnings release that it has set aside an estimated charge of $28 million that it believes the Securities and Exchange Commission likely will disgorge from profits derived from sales tainted by improper payments made in several countries. As previously disclosed, General Cable said ...
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Blog
PTC to pay $28 million in FCPA case
Two China subsidiaries of computer software company PTC this week reached a combined $28 million settlement—a $14.5 million criminal penalty to the Department of Justice, and $13.6 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest to the Securities and Exchange Commission—to resolve an investigation of potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices ...
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Blog
€30 million for cup of tea? Good work if you can get it
FCPA blogger Tom Fox looks at an unfolding scandal that involves a murdered Mongolian paramour, a contract for submarines, embattled Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razik, middleman Abdul Razak Baginda, and the most lucrative cup of tea in recent memory.
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Blog
SciClone Settles with the SEC on FCPA Enforcement Action
Title: SciClone Settles with the SEC As SciClone Pharmaceuticals settles with the SEC for FCPA violations committed by a Chinese subsidiary, Tom Fox considers how the finer points of granting favors to government officials merits greater compliance scrutiny.
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Blog
SBM Offshore: Justice Department reopens bribery probe
Dutch oil and gas company SBM Offshore announced this week that the U.S. Department of Justice has re-opened its past bribery investigation of the company concerning allegations of improper payments made to sales agents and foreign government officials in Equatorial Guinea, Angola, and Brazil.
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BlogSciClone to Pay SEC $12.8 Million in FCPA Case
SciClone Pharmaceuticals announced that it has entered into a $12.8 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve an investigation of potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act with respect to its China operations. SciClone further said that the Department of Justice has also completed its related ...
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Blog
SEC Charges SAP With FCPA Violations
Germany-based software manufacturer SAP has agreed to give up $3.7 million in sales profits in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when procuring business in Panama.
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Blog
What Will Wal-Mart Wrought?
Please forgive the mixed tenses in the title but I have been thinking about what the Wal-Mart anti-corruption matter might mean at the end of the day.
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Blog
February 1 Deadline for Data Transfer Clarity
February 1 is a date that all U.S. and EU compliance practitioners need to circle. It’s the deadline for the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Commission to reach a deal regarding the transfer of data from EU countries to the United States. As of now, the two still ...
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Blog
Mike Oxley, the FCPA, and the Fight Against Terrorism
When the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act became law years ago, it was never intended to be used as a tool to fight terrorism. But as recent terror activity has illustrated, corruption and terrorism go more than hand in hand; the first helps to create the second. And as we look ...
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Article
FCPA Enforcement Trends to Watch in 2016
Image: A recalibrated focus by the government on individual culpability, expanding cross-border cooperation and prosecutions, and hordes of new whistleblower complaints are just a few upcoming enforcement trends that are expected to elicit some big compliance headaches in 2016. “The FCPA Unit, it seems to us, is working as hard ...
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Blog
Using Social Media to Defend an FCPA Criminal Charge
Image: Social media has certainly changed the way we communicate. Just look at federal securities fraudster Martin Shkreli, known for his extreme social media use, who has continued the practice (not surprisingly) post-arrest. According to the New York Times, Shkreli posts selfie videos “as if the possibility of going to ...