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FCPA “Tips” Continue To Be A Minor Component Of The SEC’s Whistleblower Program

By on November 20, 2020 in Whistleblowers
whistle

The Dodd-Frank Act enacted in July 2010 contained whistleblower provisions applicable to all securities law violations including those under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

In this prior post from July 2010, I predicted that the whistleblower provisions would have a negligible impact on FCPA enforcement. As noted in this prior post, my prediction was an outlier (so it seemed) compared to the flurry of law firm client alerts predicting that the whistleblower provisions would have a significant impact on FCPA enforcement. Many FCPA Inc. participants seemed so eager for a marketing opportunity to sell compliance services, that some even called the generic whistleblower provision the FCPA’s “new” whistleblower provisions.

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Observations From The OECD’s Phase 4 U.S. Review Report

By on November 19, 2020 in Affirmative Defense – Promotional Expenses, Deferred Prosecution Agreements, Disgorgement, Enforcement Agency Policy, Facilitating Payments, FCPA Statistics, Individual Enforcement Action, Industry Sweeps, Kokesh, Non-Prosecution Agreement, Obtain or Retain Business, OECD, Origins of FCPA Actions, Statute of Limitations, Voluntary Disclosure, Whistleblowers, Yates Memo
oecd

Recently, the OECD released its Phase 4 review of the United State’s implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention … in effect a review of the FCPA, its enforcement, and related issues.

The first question one needs to ask themselves is whether they care what “experts from Argentina and the United Kingdom” (as stated by the OECD “the report and its recommendations reflect the findings of experts from Argentina and the United Kingdom”) think about the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, U.S. law enforcement (DOJ and SEC) policies and practices, and U.S. jurisprudence.

In any event, the Phase 4 Report “explores issues such as detection, enforcement, corporate liability, and international cooperation, as well as covering unresolved issues from prior reports.” (See here for a 2010 post summarizing the OECD’s Phase 3 review).

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Speaker Fees

By on November 18, 2020 in Compliance, Healthcare Providers As Foreign Officials, Medical Device Industry, Pharmaceutical Industry, Speaker Fees
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Numerous Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions have involved the enforcement theory that various foreign health care professionals (HCP’s) are “foreign officials” and thus occupy a status similar to a President, Prime Minister, or other traditional bona fide government official.

Several of these enforcement actions have included allegations that HCP’s received speaker fees or honoraria from pharmaceutical or medical device companies.

For instance, the Sanofi enforcement action included allegations that an HCP was provided “with consulting, speaking, and clinical trial fees over a period of years despite the lack of documentation or other support to demonstrate the services had been provided.”

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Potpourri

By on November 17, 2020 in Canada, Compliance, Damodar Arapakota, Greens, IMEX Systems, Och-Ziff Capital, Och-Ziff Capital Management, Siriwan, Victims
Potpourri

[To the best of my recollection, my first introduction to the word “potpourri” was in watching Jeopardy which I was very fond of as a teenager and young adult. Rest in peace Alex Trebek]

Lingo

Daniel Kahn (Acting Chief of the DOJ Fraud Section) was the guest on this recent episode of the Compliance Perspectives Podcast. During the podcast, Kahn talks about COVID’s impact on DOJ enforcement and certain recent enforcement actions such as Goldman Sachs and Beam.

In terms of the DOJ’s mid-2000 revision to its “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs” policy document, Kahn stated that it certainly is by no means a “game changer.” Call me old-fashioned, but I want to hear the DOJ Fraud Section Chief talk about the law and legal requirements not lingo. Yet, the podcast dishes up plenty of lingo (tone at the top, conduct at the top, tone of upper and middle management, empowering compliance, walking the walk, direct line to the board, dotted line to the board, etc.).

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SEC Commissioners Peirce And Roisman Hit Internal Controls Home Run

By on November 16, 2020 in Books and Records, Internal Controls, SEC
homerun

For years, these pages have highlighted off-the-rails enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act’s books and records and internal controls provisions (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here among other posts).

Among other things, the prior posts have discussed FCPA legislative history, the FCPA’s statutory text, SEC v. World-Wide Coin Investments (believed to be the only judicial decision to directly address the substance of the books and records and internal controls provisions) and prior FCPA enforcement agency guidance – all in an effort to highlight the difficulty of reconciling existing legal authority and even enforcement agency guidance with certain FCPA books and records and internal controls enforcement theories in recent years.

Last week, SEC Commissioners Hester Peirce and Elad Roisman issued this statement to explain why they voted against the SEC’s recent settled action against Andeavor LLC (see here in which the company agreed to pay $20 million). As highlighted below, Commissioners Peirce and Roisman discussed the same concepts and cited the same authority which have been highlighted on these pages for years and in the process hit an internal controls home run.

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