As highlighted in this prior post, 2016 had already become a record-breaking year on September 30th in terms of the number of corporate Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions.
With yesterday’s net $420 million FCPA enforcement action against Oderbrecht / Braskem, 2016 has also become a record-breaking year in terms of overall corporate FCPA settlement amounts. [Note,in April 2017 the DOJ trimmed the Odebrecht criminal penalty by $167 million to $93 million (it originally was $260 million). Thus, the overall net FCPA settlement amount is $252 million].
Corporate FCPA settlement amounts in 2016 stand at approximately $1.8 billion. (Note: this represents the net number after accounting for various credits and deductions in enforcement actions against foreign companies such as Oderbrecht/Braskem, Embraer, and VimpelCom).
Similar to prior large settlement years, just a few corporate enforcement actions in 2016 comprise the bulk of the overall settlement amount. Specifically, VimpelCom, Och-Ziff, Embraer, JPMorgan and Oderbrecht/Braskem make up 88% of the $1.8 billion figure.
Set forth below are prior year corporate settlement amounts.
2015 – $139 million
2014 – $1.6 billion
2013 – $720 million
2012 – $260 million
2011 – $503 million
2010 – $1.4 billion
2009 – $645 million
2008 – $885 million
2007 – $149 million
With prior years as a guide, 2016 FCPA enforcement is far from over, with several high-profile FCPA inquiries still in the pipeline (see here).
